We've launched the new forums! Read more here

It Clicks But Not The Score

JB

JB

Follow @THPGolf on Social Media
Albatross 2024 Club
Staff member
Joined
Oct 8, 2008
Messages
284,657
Reaction score
446,048
Location
THP Experiences
Ever had one of those rounds where you hit the ball as good as you possibly can, and yet still don't score well? What do you attribute it to on a personal level?
 
Balky putter...I've been there and just can't make birds, par feast but no chirps
 
For me it comes down to concentration. I will sometimes just not be there mentally. It may lead to me hitting a solid shot, however my aim was terrible. Or I hit a good putt but I misread the green. Concentration is a big time key for me
 
  • Thread starter
  • Admin
  • #4
Chunkylover77 said:
For me it comes down to concentration. I will sometimes just not be there mentally. It may lead to me hitting a solid shot, however my aim was terrible. Or I hit a good putt but I misread the green. Concentration is a big time key for me
Click to expand...

That is a really good point. When I am cruising, aim is always spot on. Last time this happened to me, I would hit a good shot, but realize despite pin hunting, I was aimed 10 yards to the left of the pin which was off the green.
 
Those kind of rounds generally happen to me when the putts don't drop - today was kind of that way. Shot 90, but my ballstriking suggested 85 or better. I had about 3 putts lip out, one that went in and climbed back out, not to mention the greens had serious grain so the speed just wasn't happening. In short, for me I need putts to drop from >6 or 7 ft for the scores to go low.
 
JB said:
That is a really good point. When I am cruising, aim is always spot on. Last time this happened to me, I would hit a good shot, but realize despite pin hunting, I was aimed 10 yards to the left of the pin which was off the green.
Click to expand...

A lot of times it is off the tee for me. I will smoke a drive and it will be so far right it is not even funny. Well if I had paid attention to the tee box, I would have seen that it is aimed straight right which is exactly where I hit the dang ball. Drop 2 hitting 3 and sometimes I will still not adjust lol.
 
I get excited about striking the ball well for the day right up until I get on the green. Then I blow up by rushing the putt. Focus right?!
 
I've been dealing with this in the past two weeks. My game is finally clicking and I should be scoring really well but keep shooting in the low 80's. For example, the other day I shot a 40 with a 4 putt and two 3 putts on the front nine. I contribute it to lack of confidence and/or focus when putting. Sometimes I just do some really stupid things on the greens and I've convinced myself that I'm a terrible putter. Of course, I continue to have some holes where I seem to be a great putter so there is a glimmer of hope.
 
Would have to agree with concentration or focus.

Bad shots are typically because of mentally checking out and not remembering my few key swing thoughts.
 
This is the issue I had today. I hit the ball really well but couldn't make a putt if my life depended on it. I just couldn't focus on the greens. Ended up with 37 putts on the round. Felt like I should have been somewhere around even par on the round, but with all the putts, I shot 80
 
When this happens to me it seems I loose focus on the greens and also the biggest thing is when I do hit a bad shot it really cost me, no possible recovery. I think most golfers almost give themselves a pass that a 2 putt par is good and it does really seem to me that at least I have more difficulty with birdie putts than par putts. It has to be concentration or maybe trying to hard to make the birdie.
 
This explains my game right now, I am hitting the ball better than I ever have but the "big drop" in scores I expected is not happening. Yes they are going down from where they were but not to levels I want them to be. Just working harder on concentration like Chunky mentioned and making every shot count. Trying to do all this with out obsessing over the final score of the round, that never does me any good!!
 
Getting too cocky and thinking I'm Tiger. Then I start going after the risky shots, and even if I hit it well for me, it's still not the best option for scoring.
 
I'm hitting the tee ball pretty well. Mid irons and short game it suffering right now. Putting good. Mine is playing golf swing instead of golf. Really started to make some progress with my swing, but am now thinking about it too much instead of letting it happen. This puts too much pressure on my short game and I get distracted.

Oh well, keep working.

J.
 
My short game always cost me strokes!!!
 
Most of my extreme results (exceptionally good or bad scores) I attribute to dumb luck, but If I feel like I'm consistently striking the ball well (in a relative sense - good ball striking for me is fairly poor by the standards of real golfers) and not getting better scores, I find the culprit tends to be putting, and more specifically, green reading. They are either faster than I think, or slower than I think, or they have breaks that I don't see, or I see breaks that aren't there. It drives me nuts.
 
When this happens to me it's almost always a putting issue. I am capable of putting very well but I am also capable of absolutely dropping a stink bomb on the greens if I don't take the appropriate time and focus over the ball. Otherwise I've noticed that when I rush my approach shots I don't line myself up very well and tend to miss greens by a couple feet one way or the other (good strike...bad direction) leading to chips/pitches/flops from some thick grass with sticky lies...talk about a score killer.
 
I reakon concentration is big for me to. I hit a sweet drive with a nice draw into the middle of the fairway, I walk up to it and think ill do a nice easy swing and put it on the green, next thing im trying to bash it, lift my head and hit a few inch's behind the ball only for it to go half the desired distance. Ive just got to concentrate more on my headlifting.
 
For me it's not allowing for shot shape when aligning, when I hit well, I drive with a fade and irons are a draw but not consistent enough so I miss fairways on the right, pins on the left...
 
I agree with Chunky, it comes down to concentration. For me that concentration is in the short game, it seems that I will just not think about pitches and chips and end up in the wrong location (usually above the hole on and fast green or giving myself a huge breaking putt ) it also seems that these are the days that I burn the edges on my putts and not too many at all fall.
 
For me in general it's usually extreme conditions of the greens when it's all there but the score. Also it may be a handful of strokes from my short game that I let get away too.
 
Chunkylover77 said:
A lot of times it is off the tee for me. I will smoke a drive and it will be so far right it is not even funny. Well if I had paid attention to the tee box, I would have seen that it is aimed straight right which is exactly where I hit the dang ball. Drop 2 hitting 3 and sometimes I will still not adjust lol.
Click to expand...

I'm confused, you line up
Based on the direction of the tees on the tee box and not a target off in the distance?
 
I would agree that it's a lack of concentration, or not concentrating on the right things.

Two examples:

The other day I was striking the ball well. I had hit a good 3rd shot to a par 5, but pushed it just right of the green. I walked about halfway up the hill to the elevated green, took a general survey of the green, returned and hit a gorgeous pitch. I walked up the hill expecting to find my ball nestled near the cup. It was nowhere to be seen. As I walked towards the back of the green and turned to look at from where'd I'd come, I saw the problem. My ball had hit on a downslope I didn't see because my survey of the green was too lazy. I hit my next extreme sidehill chip 6 feet past the hole, missed the putt and then tapped in for a double.

Then the other day I was playing a course which is very middle-of-the-road. Knowing that it was not world-class, I expected the greens to be slow, which is frequently the case. My first downhill putt I blew 6 feet by. Pretty much the rest of the round I blew putts by, unable to convince myself that this facility would have greens that fast, when clearly on this day, they did.

These types of mental lapses of often what turns an easy bogey hole into a triple for me.
 
The last two weeks its been one or the other. Last week I couldn't get clean contact and putting saved it. This week contact was great - putting was a disaster. Putting is what usually makes a mess of the scorecard.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top