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That Random CRISIS hole.... do you have them?

malemotives

malemotives

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Puyallup, WA., Spring Hill, FL
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GHIN 17.4
I seem to have at least one every time I play. The hole that ruins my round. The double or triple bogey. The getting trapped in a tree line that cost 2/3 strokes. Sometimes I have two of them per round. They seem to stalk me. Things can be going well.... par, birdie, bogie, par, bogie, par, bogie, birdie, TRIPLE BOGIE. I never know when it will strike, but just like Murphy's Law, it comes pouncing down on me. I've seen it happen to others I play with and I can't help but be sympathetic, because it just happened or will happen to me before the round is over.

So, I finish up and always ponder what might have been... a 76? Maybe 78. Certainly less than 80. Alas... it's not to be. ~Sigh.
 
I did for years. Not so much anymore. Its not because my skill set improved or I became a better ball striker. It's because my course management improved. Learning when to take my medicine, when to go for it, when to play to a number and so on took big numbers off the card.
 
Sure, like JB, I used to suffer from these more frequently as well, but for me slightly improved ball striking and improved putting has changed this. Yes sure, it happens but there's usually something behind it that I caused when trying to do something stupid. Like totally changing my grip on the tee and trying to do something different and the ends up OB. I usually can save bogies and double bogeys when there's penalties involved. A double or a triple is most likely still caused by 3 putting.
 
I think a majority of us still struggle with course management which ultimately leads to those scores. I have been playing the game for 20+ years and still have at least one or two a round. For me these blow up holes occur when I get out of rhythm with my driver and hit an errand tee shot or go for risk when the reward really isnt there.

Goal of 2014 for me is better course management.
 
I do have them. Mostly caused by my ego telling me that I can carry the corner of the dogleg, or the water, or ....... I am really focused on better decisions from a course management standpoint now, though.
Hopefully that will take the occasional snowman off my scorecard.
 
Like everyone has already said, course management will help reduce the number of "blow up" holes. It used to be common for me to shoot a 10 on every par 5 because I was mentally trying to make it to the green in 2. Now I just play my game, with safer shots, and I almost always hit the green in 3.
 
JB said:
I did for years. Not so much anymore. Its not because my skill set improved or I became a better ball striker. It's because my course management improved. Learning when to take my medicine, when to go for it, when to play to a number and so on took big numbers off the card.
Click to expand...

Yep. Usually starts with a bad drive, followed by an over-optimistic attempt to recover that fails. Rarely because of Tin Cup like stupidity, but my 3-wood swears it can hit out of the trees and hook up the fairway 220 yards. It lies.
 
As several others have mentioned, course management is the key to avoiding these blow up holes. I still lapse back into my over aggressive self on occasions and find myself carding a double, but they are few and far between. One of the keys for me was finally realizing a few years ago that I did not have to attack every single pin. For instance, I finally got into my thick skull that it was not worth the risk of trying to attack a back pin location where a miss long left no chance to get it up and down unless I drained a 25 footer. I now shoot for 20 - 25 feet short of that pin to leave myself an easy par at worst.
 
I unfortunately have 2-3 of these every round. I probably play the other 15 holes to a 10 handicap... and these make up the rest.
 
Echoing JB and others, calculating risks was second only to my under 50 game in going from shooting in the mid 90s to low 80s. Having a gameplan to play a long tight par 4 as a three shot hole seems counterproductive to scoring lower but for me it just has to be done sometimes in order to mitigate risks that could lead to penalty assessment, which is really the only way to shoot a triple at your level of skill.
 
I've had that before. A good round going where i end up with a 84 but card an 8 on a par 3 over water because I put 2 in the drink. I always think "if I would have only done this, then..." but I suppose that's the game of golf.
 
I can definitely have these holes, but I do manage some rounds without them. It's tough to say where they come from but it happens so fast and before you know it you've carded an 8.
 
Yeah they definitely happen to me, but more often than not it's because of terrible putting or just plain not hitting it close enough with a chip/pitch and having a tough 2 putt that becomes a 3 putt. Every so often I have a true crisis hole where I knock one in the drink, then miss the green, then hit a poo chip, then 3 putt for a crowd pleasing 7 or something similar, but more often it's my putting and short game. Planning on working on that intensely this fall/winter.
 
Some days it feels like every hole is a crisis hole, haha.

It really depends on the round for me. I certainly don't go through a round wondering when the bad hole is going to hit me. But as JB said, as you learn to manage the course to your strengths, the crisis holes become less of an regular thing and more of an abnormality.
 
I wonder... how many of these "Crisis" holes are later in the round when we know we are working on a really good round?? Like our head says " You aren't capable of this" or something.
 
The key to avoiding these situations is to make sure that whatever bad situation you find yourself costs you at most 1-stroke. When you're evaluating your options remember that. It may lead you to chip your ball 25 yards ahead out of the divot with a wedge rather than "trying to get a 4-iron on it."
 
I am pretty conservative in my course management. My guys often joke with me about how many times I layup on par 5's. My blowup hole is almost always a par 3. It's either a longer hole where I miss hit a longer iron or a hole where I am between clubs and end up in trouble.

I can think of two holes at my main course where this can get me. One is typically 180 yards with bunkers and mounds surrounding it along with OB long and if you're short you're 20' below the green. The green is also brutal but if I don't get my tee shot on the green I have a great chance at double. The other is a downhill short par 3 that is between clubs and often into or with a strong wind. The green is very narrow with bunkers behind it, a deep bunker below the green in front and basically OB left and right (knee high grass). Usually I pick the wrong club/swing and end up in a mess. I bet I have made double bogey or worse more times than par or better.

It's very frustrating.

Other blow up holes are usually the result of a very poor drive.
 
It's not always course management, there are definitely some bad breaks out there that cause blow-up holes for me. I hit a sprinkler head on a chip shot the other day and the ball landed on the underside of a bunker lip. I had to take a penalty stroke and move the ball further back in the bunker since it was impossible to hit from where it landed. I should have been putting the whole time. It was ridiculous. There was another time two weeks ago my ball landed on the back edge of the bunker and I had to do the same thing, ha! Those bunkers must hate me. Poor course management can definitely be a reason too though.

Though I have to point out that for the OP being an 18.3 handicap, I would think 1 double or triple bogey certainly wouldn't be enough to ruin his round. Maybe 3-4, but certainly not 1. 1 double or triple assumes at worst every other hole is a bogey, which would mean at worst you shoot 19 or 20 over. That would only be over your 18 handicap if you were playing the baseline slope/rating on a course, which isn't that easy (I've never seen a 113 sloped course). Not to mention, handicap isn't really what you should be shooting every round or in fact EVER in a round, it's the measurement of your potential best score at your skill level. So a 19 or 20 over is a very adequate score for an 18.3 handicap. Don't let 1 double or triple bogey screw your day up.
 
malemotives said:
I seem to have at least one every time I play. The hole that ruins my round. The double or triple bogey. The getting trapped in a tree line that cost 2/3 strokes. Sometimes I have two of them per round. They seem to stalk me. Things can be going well.... par, birdie, bogie, par, bogie, par, bogie, birdie, TRIPLE BOGIE. I never know when it will strike, but just like Murphy's Law, it comes pouncing down on me. I've seen it happen to others I play with and I can't help but be sympathetic, because it just happened or will happen to me before the round is over.

So, I finish up and always ponder what might have been... a 76? Maybe 78. Certainly less than 80. Alas... it's not to be. ~Sigh.
Click to expand...

As a 34 handicapper, I feel like every hole I play is a "crisis hole". Fortunately, I work hard to keep a positive mental attitude about it all. High scores for me come from a variety of reasons:

1. Wild off the tee, costing me a stroke back on the fair way (or a dreaded OB penalty), I then lay up (playing for bogey), and then not chipping it close enough to 1 putt. Two putt or worse puts me in double bogey or worse....
2. Blading wedges around the green.
3. Three and four putt scenarios.
4. Severe mishits with irons that cause the ball to dribble just a few yards.

I have been only able to play nine holes at a time when I get on the course during the last few weeks, and usually it is a quick round or I am with my wife (and thus don't concentrate on my game so much as making sure she has a good time). I have been working HARD on my game and am anxious to get an 18 hole hall pass to see if my work on the practice green and driving range has paid off.
 
I do think there is a lot to be said for management and how best to play to ones stregnths and not the weaknesses. That can and is often reasons for bad holes. So many ruin good rounds form nothing other than bad decisions. But with that said, bad decisions (or poor management) is not at all always why one blows up and the better decisions is not always the simple answer. It all depends just why one fell apart and what one is discussing when they say they blew up on three holes today.

I've learned a while back to play smarter. Learned not to try to make up for the bad shot, Learned to take my medicine, learned play it safe and how to make better decisions that play to what I can control better and use what the hole gives me etc.. and It has all helped my overall golfing experiences a lot but has not done away with all blowups. Many blowups can just come from an inability to make good swings. There is no answer for those kinds of blowups other than practicing and playing and keep trying to grow more consistent. Golf is not easy though some of us can find consistency a bit easier than others. This is partially why there are better and poorer golfers and anyplace in between. Four people can work the same amount at it and can also play with the same logic for making good decisions but yet may all be at totally different levels of consistent swings and ball striking. This can be just as much a reason for blowups as poor game management.
 
The blowup holes certainly plague me. They are one of the things keeping me from consistently breaking 80. I believe that mine are not tied as much to course management. Mine are usually the result of poor execution creating a horrible shot that causes a penalty stroke or bad situation.

- poor bunker play (though improved I still leave some shots in bunkers or sail greens)
- have battled an occasional shank the last two months. Maybe just 1 every 3rd or 4th round but no clue when it is going to show up.
- bad tee shot going in hazard or jail.

Those sorts of things.
 
These are hard to eliminate. Course management is certainly part of it, but ball striking is huge too. Obviously, the better your ball striking the more opportunities you have to make par or roll in a few birdies. A birdie takes more than 1 shot in a row to be struck well (unless you dart a par 3), so I try to play a game of seeing how many good shots in a row I hit during a round, a build from there. Conversely, count how many bad shots you have in a row, or in a round and work work on reducing those. After a bad shot I really bare down and focus, when I play with my friends who are high handicappers I notice how just one bad shot can ruin a hole for them. Accept it and move on.

I've been trying to use this approach as much as possible, I played 27 holes yesterday and didn't have one double bogey or worse. I had a few drives end up behind trees, punch the ball out and then really concentrate on the iron into the green, 2 putt for bogey or maybe the 1 putt to save par.
 
Usually the one smart guy in my head that says play smart is out voted by the other guys in my head that remember the one time I hit that one shot just right and great things happened. Those guys forget about the other 99 bad shots lol. Try to listen to the one lone guy and you might do good things ;-) trust me golfing by committee doesn't work.

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These crisis holes still ruin my rounds often. Course management comes into play, but I even struggle with that some times. For me anyway, the mental side of my game lets me down more than course management.
 
Blow up holes can happen but when you find yourself in the trees sometimes hitting through the gap and hoping you can make it through will just cause you to hit another tree and make the situation worse. Playing sideways and laying up can often give you a bogey and that could be a couple shots less than trying to make the hero shot.
 
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