Any golfer will tell you that he added strokes to his final score in virtually every round. They will tell you in frustration because they can examine their decision and taking the photo afterwards. When they do, they come to realize that several mistakes have been made. I’ve been down this path many times in my golfing journey and sometimes the stakes were high. After much introspection, I’ve listed two reasons why we add strokes to score in one simple way. These mistakes are preventable and today I will try to explore how these score killers can be avoided.
To give a little perspective, I’m not talking about a misstep. This happens to every player and cannot be avoided. You can limit these bad swings with practice and consistent effort. Most single-digit handicappers understand that and work on all aspects of their game to develop a total game approach to golf. With this in mind, let’s look further at why strokes are added to our score before we realize we’ve made the mistake.
The first mistake most amateurs make is quite simple. Our decision making takes place in the emotional quadrant, the logical quadrant. We get frustrated or angry when we make a bad shot or bad decision. Then we compound our first mistake by making another mistake by deciding on the hero shot instead of the smart one. Many times I have tried to make up for my first mistake by adding just one or two more tricks to my scorecard because the success rate was very low. I made emotional decisions and logical decisions. Another situation is trying to make a recording that is not routinely in our repertoire. We see a high-risk shot, thinking it’s a high-reward shot, but in reality it’s just a high-risk shot. A good example is trying to carry the ball 205 yards over water when your maximum distance in flight is 215 yards. It seems feasible, but 90% of your ball will swim. Making emotional decisions instead of logical ones is an easy way to add tricks to our game.
The second consistent mistake amateurs make is always trying to hit their ball as far as possible. There is no decision making in this approach to golf, just hit your ball as far as you can without thinking. This approach causes more problems for players than they think. Walking to your ball and hitting it, no matter what’s in the fairway, is a challenge. Instead of thinking about how to manage the hole, let your ball fly and let the chips fall where they may. I experience this situation every round and have learned to select the club that leaves an easier next shot rather than hoping for a good exit. Like the picture on the left, where I ended up close to the reed instead of being fifteen yards behind with an open shot to the pin.
Many players believe that it is crucial to hit the ball as far as possible as often as possible. This approach is folly for amateurs, as they never develop a strong hole management strategy or learn how to hit the right club to limit the number of extra strokes to their score. This second song is more of a knowledge-based approach, but the mishaps will add a lot of strokes to your score in an instant.
Golf is a simple game and a difficult game at the same time. Experience shows that by controlling our emotions and shot selection we can significantly reduce our golf score. If we can’t meet these two challenges, we will very quickly add passes to the grand total. It’s easy to fall into the trap when trying to chase a score, but just as easy to avoid it. The choice is yours.
I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!
#Easily #add #strokes #score