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Dealing with bad breaks

arwin

arwin

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Yesterday I was playing a round and I was having pretty good contact with the ball all afternoon, but half way through the round I just kept getting a string of bad bounces.

For example. On a par 5, I hit a solid second shot that ended up catching a down slope and ended up on some 50 degree angle dirt patch right beside the cart path. I dont even know how it stayed on the side of the slope. If it had just rolled another foot down the slope, I'd at least be on the cart path with 100 yards left to the hole. I ended up taking 3 shots from there to get on the green.

Another example was the next hole which was another par 5 when I hit my drive that ended up about a foot from the lip. I was disappointed that my shot went into the bunker because I thought I hit a good shot, but apparently not. I actually got very good contact on my second shot but that shot ended up in a bunker too! This time the ball was plugged and it was only a few inches from the lip.

I had a few other bad bounces like missing the green and hitting the cart path which ended up putting the ball much further from the green than it would have been if it just landed in the rough.

I just felt so demoralized after the string bad bounces. I didn't feel like my ball striking was that bad but I was being punished really badly for it.

Yet, my playing partners were topping and skulling the ball but would still end up in the of the fairway. Combine that with the fact that the course played fairly short and they would still have a decent approach to the green after their poor shot.

How do you mentally get around the string of bad bounces? I can handle a bad bounce here and there, but to get them back to back like that was too much!
 
Bad bounces suck, but if you're going to take the lucky bounces, you just gotta deal with the bad ones.
 
You just have to know that the good bounces will come. I usually always remember the bad ones, but forget when I hooked a tee shot going OB only to hit a tree and bounce into the fairway. You cannot control what the ball does after it leaves the club, don't let it bother you.
 
Smallville said:
Bad bounces suck, but if you're going to take the lucky bounces, you just gotta deal with the bad ones.
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Thats what I think. Sometimes the ball doesn't go exactly where we want to.
 
This is something I really struggled with in the past. I would have a good round going, and then catch a few bad breaks. I would then let it get to me and I would start hitting the ball all over the place.
 
I actually have a good laugh out of most of them. Bad breaks happen and you have to take it, there's no sense getting upset about it.

Example:

Last week I'm teeing off on a Par 4 that has water down the left hand side which leads into a pond that guards the green about 260 from the tee, but everything feeds towards the water, so a 240 yard carry on a drive down the left is going to be wet. I tee off with my 5 Wood and hit a beautiful shot right down the center of the fairway where the ball promptly hits the 150 yard concrete marker and ricochets about 100 yards further forward and into the center of the pond.

I just kind of laughed it off for a few holes, and we all laughed about my 300 yard 5 Wood.......
 
I just complain about it and blame the course and let it affect my round.

No, but really, if I haven't got my sleep I do. Other than that I just shrug them off.
 
For me they tend to be disappointing but after a few seconds I just have to laugh about it and get over it. Cant let it affect your next shot.
 
As frustrating as the bad breaks are, thank God we don't play this game for a living! How about Tiger hitting the pin at the Masters only to see his ball roll into the creek? Talk about a bad break - that potentially lost him the Masters.

The bad breaks sometime even out with some good breaks, we need to be patient. A sense of humor and short memory are good assets for golf.
 
GenErr said:
As frustrating as the bad breaks are, thank God we don't play this game for a living! How about Tiger hitting the pin at the Masters only to see his ball roll into the creek? Talk about a bad break - that potentially lost him the Masters.

The bad breaks sometime even out with some good breaks, we need to be patient. A sense of humor and short memory are good assets for golf.
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Great response GE, I know it doesn't feel sometimes that the breaks even out but I do believe that they really do.
 
Bad breaks hurt me I'll be honest. Probably one of the reasons I'm not improving as quickly as I'd like too. I'd be willing to bet if I could get stronger mentally I would drop a stroke or 2 off my handicap in a hurry. It's really hard for me to accept a bad bounce, especially after hitting the ball well. Unfortunately it is something I'm struggling with but I am getting better at brushing things off. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for advice for sure.
 
I never get too high when it is all good, and never get down when things don't go right. I learned a long time a go that golf is day to day and often hole to hole. Take it as it comes and don't allow it to get you down. There are bigger issues in life for all of that.
 
Bad breaks are tough to take especially because they tend to come in bunches but like stated above, you gotta take the bad with the good.
 
Bad breaks used to ruin me.. Sitting in a divot, on the edge of the fairway/rough either off the drive or around the green, footmark in a bunker..

But a couple of things really helped me sort it out. To begin, golf has 18 holes, each of which give you a chance to shoot par. Don't hit a shot and think "that's going to ruin my round" but rather, think "It's one hole, and it will not define my round today.." Using that mentality has given me the ability to brush the bad moments aside and look forward to a new shot at birdie.

Second, golf is fun. It's all about what you make of it. Think about the awful things you could be doing instead. Think of the yardwork, the taxes, the laundry, the work, and the places you could be that would not allow you to enjoy the sport of golf. Suddenly, one crappy shot doesn't mean much of anything!

If you take it hole by hole, you won't glaze over for more than 10 minutes. It's a game changer.

Good luck Arwin! This is something you can overcome!
 
I should add that I really struggle with this too. A few bad bounces that pile on the strokes can really get to me and de-rail what's left of my round. It's something that I'm really working on and am making progress.
 
I am with Canadan here. Bad breaks used to ruin me ( and sometimes still get to me) but you always have to take the good with the bad. One shot doesn't have to ruin your round if you don't let it. Just accept that you are human and you will make mistakes once and awhile. Enjoy the game and just have some fun. That's what it's all about anyways.
 
Maybe not so much bad breaks as I had some unfortunate poor execution I suppose but a round a couple weeks ago on hole 9 I had a 15 foot uphill Par putt. It was on a perfect line, but a bit too hard. One would think it'd hit the back lip, pop up, and drop back down. Nope, it hit the back lip and then kicked to the right about 6 inches from the hole for a tap in bogey.

Same thing happened to me on I think 17 in the same round on a birdie putt. Wasn't an uphill putt and not quite as long but I did have some heat behind the shot. Back of the cup and off to the side a couple of inches rather than back in the cup.
 
Bad breaks happen, putts that hit the back of the lip and don't fall, landing in a divot on a perfect drive down the middle etc.

All you can do is shrug it off and focus on the next shot.
 
There was a lot of water in Elkhart when we moved back. And my first round here after moving was at a course I've played hundreds of times. 4th hole doglegs right then left around a good size pond, but since the amount of rain the week before it was flooded over and into part of the hole. I hit my second shot to a spot I KNOW is dry, but forgot to account for the flooding that happened. My guaranteed dry spot was 3 feet under water. Sometimes you just have to laugh and shake it off

Yea, I tapped that.
 
golfinFF said:
Bad breaks happen, putts that hit the back of the lip and don't fall, landing in a divot on a perfect drive down the middle etc.

All you can do is shrug it off and focus on the next shot.
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Agreed that these things happen and all you can do it shrug it off but It's still no fun to have your playing partner finish 1 stroke ahead after you hit the back of the cup twice.
 
Canadan said:
Bad breaks used to ruin me.. Sitting in a divot, on the edge of the fairway/rough either off the drive or around the green, footmark in a bunker..

But a couple of things really helped me sort it out. To begin, golf has 18 holes, each of which give you a chance to shoot par. Don't hit a shot and think "that's going to ruin my round" but rather, think "It's one hole, and it will not define my round today.." Using that mentality has given me the ability to brush the bad moments aside and look forward to a new shot at birdie.
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Agree with Dan here.

And keep in mind how you play the bad break has a big effect on how bad the break is.

Let's say your perfect drive ends up in a divot. Fuming mad at your bad luck, you pull out a 5-iron and try to salvage the next shot, but yank it into the water. Now you're absolutely livid, cursing your bad luck as you finish up your triple-bogie. Had you just taken a wedge and advanced the ball 50 yards you likely would have rolled in a bogey and the bad luck truly would have only cost you a single shot.
 
I don't know if this would be considered a good break or a good shot. But during my round today, I found myself under a bushy tree and I managed to hit a nice uphill chip onto the green a foot from the pin for a tap in par!

Maybe it was just the golf world balancing itself out!

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
 
arwin said:
I don't know if this would be considered a good break or a good shot. But during my round today, I found myself under a bushy tree and I managed to hit a nice uphill chip onto the green a foot from the pin for a tap in par!

Maybe it was just the golf world balancing itself out!

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

I was just going to say something like that. Next time you get a bad break, just remember the times you skulled one that would be way over the green but it hit the flagstick and dropped in.
 
Goofy bounces, unfair lies, and "bad breaks" are a part of the game. Golf is such a mental test that if a player cannot deal with adversity they just won't last in the game for very long. End of story.

A couple of years ago I played with a buddy and his friend named Rodney. Rodney has a bit of an obsessive compulsive demeanor outside of golf, but once he's playing golf that demeanor rapidly becomes ridiculous.

Long story short, Rodney's hitting his third shot into a par 5 and although he hit a good shot, he didn't factor in wind, elevation, and all of the other little things that go into shot selection. So Rodney airmails the green and finds himself behind it about 20 yards. Rodney couldn't find his ball after looking for 5 minutes... and then for 10 minutes... and then for 15 minutes. Finally my buddy (Rodney's buddy) and I head off for the next tee and Rodney refuses to stop looking for his ball even though another group's waiting on him to hit their approaches into the green.

We try to encourage Rodney by telling him that it was a good shot, just a bad break, but he refused to listen. Rodney obsessed over that bad break for the rest of the round and generally made golf less that desirable for myself and my friend.

Moral to the story: Don't be Rodney.
 
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