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quitting on chips/short pitches after skulling one.

rollin

rollin

"Just playin golf pally"
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My chipping/short pitching has came a long way this year and been happy with it but yeaterday I had a bad mental thing happen.

Yesterday I am happily chipping/pitching when required pretty well through the front nine. But I get on 9 and skull one shot across and 15 yrds over the green. Then it gets in my head and comming back to the green from the other side I now flop the next two shots due to qitting because of the fear of skulling again. It just killed the hole for me.

Two holes later on 11th I need to do it again and again I quit and flop on two more shots in a row in fear of skulling and kill that hole too. I havnt really had many skulls at all this year but it got in my head and the confidence left.

Then as I need to chip on 14 I say to myself "Ok, lets stop this garbage and relax and trust yourself again, you've done well enough times all year" so thats what i do and what happens is that I end up skulling one again like I did on hole 10. I couldnt believe it. So naturally I now quit again and flop my way back to the green in fear of the skull again. Now I couldnt chip at all on 16 and my head was all messed up chipping wise but then I finally got it together again and broke out of it on 17, trusted myself again and made a good confident one. Didnt have to chip on 18 but I felt good I was able to trust it again on 17 and ended the last chip of the day with a good one.

Its amazing how that can get in your head. Just one skull shot and all a sudden the fear of skulling one causes you to quit on the next shots. Causes a mental fight to trust yourself again and the club and stay confident. Unfortunately i had to do it twice in this round and it ruined a sub 90 round. Its not easy to do imo but staying confident and trusting yourself regardless of what just happened is the only way to get it back. But that can be a mental battle sometimes. I see very many people during my wekend hacker golfing quitting on chips/short pitches all the time and its often for similar reasons.
 
I trust my fundamentals. If I mess up a chip, I know it's because something broke down. I also have levels of acceptance. Leaving the chip in the rough or going over the green is unacceptable. Getting the chip on to the green, regardless of distance to hole, is mildly acceptable. Getting chip within 7' is acceptable. Making the chip is rare, but always welcome.
 
You truly have to have amnesia with this game. One of things I have worked on myself is leaving what happened on the last hole, exactly where it is - on the last hole. Like Blu, I try to try my fundamentals and focus a little harder. In the past, I have a had a few chips get into my head and have had it completely snowball on me.

But I was working on my chipping yesterday during the my round with Maddog701 and focusing on really finishing and making the ball land softly. I want to completely trust my fundamentals when it comes to chipping and I am just about getting there.
 
the reason in the end I believe I had skulled the two shots that i did was due to having the ball to far forwad and thats how i believe i fixed it and chipped well again on 17. But man for some reason it just screwed with my mind. Instaed of thinking about what I needed to do, i just thought about what i didnt want to happen and that was the wrong appraoch.
 
That's a great time to take less loft and use a putting stroke imo. Assuming you can do that from the lie you're sitting in.
 
Hawk said:
That's a great time to take less loft and use a putting stroke imo. Assuming you can do that from the lie you're sitting in.
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yea i here ya. actually went into that mode on 16 where i was able to do so but because of the cold hard fast greens that fear of running through was there also .lol so I was still quitting. You know, when you dont trust yourself even if just for one stroke there is not too much you can do correctly. Just the nature of that beast. Just so glad I got it bacl on 17. Hope the next time it happens I'll bounce back quickly.
 
Chipping plays game with my mental state especially when skulling one during a round or hitting it fat. I usually struggle with quiting on it mid swing and decelerating. In my head I just try and tell myself; swing my arms and dont quit on the shot.
 
I have a tendency to skull a chip now and again. I it tends to get in my head a bit, although, not as much as it used to. Blu brings up a good point, trusting your technique and just having a short memory.

Hawk, that is a great idea, I am going to try that next time (year?) Lol.
 
If you're worried about too much speed, choke down to the steel, stand closer, and take the same stroke. You'll impact the toe of the club, which will dampen the speed.
 
Moved to Swing Tips.
 
Ever try pulling out a hybrid or fairway wood when you're worried about contact? There's some confidence to be gained because the face is big and you know you aren't going to blade it over the green because there's no way you'll have the desire to swing that hard. I wouldn't break it out mid-round if you've never tried it but play with it on the practice green to get the pace/speed/feel. Could save your next round under the same circumstances.
 
mspmike113 said:
Chipping plays game with my mental state especially when skulling one during a round or hitting it fat. I usually struggle with quiting on it mid swing and decelerating. In my head I just try and tell myself; swing my arms and dont quit on the shot.
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I do the same thing, even after taking a practice swing or two with the right club head speed. For some reason there is a lingering fear that I will hit it too hard and I end up decelerating just before contact and things go bad from there. Need to work on committing to the chip.
 
In these situations I have a two part approach. First, reset on fundamentals. Double check just to be sure. Second, take practice swings before hitting the real shot until you feel how the swing should be executed. Get some muscle memory back...that helps with confidence.


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Short chips are one of the weakest areas of my game....it's terrible how many times I am just feet off the green in regulation and walk away with bogey or worse because of poor chipping.....it' s something I really want to focus on during the winter.
 
Stop thinking about everything else but fundamentals. Get setup right every time and consistency will come. Most times this happens to me I made a mistake before I ever swung the club.

Get set up and focus on what you do setting up, refocus on your target, swing.
 
Gotta love golf and the game that can't be mastered. When the first missed shot happens, of course it's just something you did wrong in the process of your swing. After that it becomes mental. If something like that happens I tend to think of 'why did that happen' and either try not to do what I thought caused it, or I choose a different way to go about it. In your case, I would have grabbed a different club....say a 7 or 8 iron and did a bump and run or something just to get some solid contact and get it out of my head. Everyone is different of course, but i think letting a bad shot go is key.
 
dhartmann34 said:
Gotta love golf and the game that can't be mastered. .
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Its truly amazing how correct that is.
Today I played and chipped wonderfully, even chipped one in for a bird and it was great that I got it back and happening but man I couldn't hit off the tee box or from the approach shots today if my life depended on it. One thing works and something else just has to fall apart almost for spite. lol one the worst rounds I played in a long time and this just after a PB round and another decent one but today I even stopped keeping score before the front 9 ended cause it was so bad. The only thing I could do today was actually chip but hacked up the course everywhere else so bad it didn't mean anything. Aaaaahhhh, what can ya do? try to some how enjoy it and the few good shots ya made.
 
I had this happen to me this year at sectionals. It cost me a birth to state individually. Hole 16 was playing 434 and I had a hybrid in because of a poor drive. I striped that sucker right to the front edge... in front of a sprinkler. So I had to chip about 20 yards. Nothing new, except when I shanked it. It had the right distance (somehow?) but ended up 40 feet from the hole. I had to make a 10 footer for bogie after a poor first putt too. I put that behind me and I had 195 into the par 5 17th. I took out a hybrid and swung easy (I mean poorly easy. No purpose). I sliced it into the trees and had to punch out. Except my punch, I shanked. I was in awe just like you. My chipping is the best part of my game and some how, it collapsed when I needed it most. What's worse is that I actually wasn't thinking at all about the previous hole at all. So I shot 76 by finishing bogey, double, par. When I should of finished bogey, birdie, par at the worst. Missed a birth by two shots. Just goes to show you, every shot counts... I feel your pain.

In regards to quitting, that's the worst thing you can do. Ok so you shanked one, no big deal. The point is can you continue to work through it. I think when you tried another shot that you were more comfortable with is part of the process of working through it too. Recognizing you're doing something wrong, and finding a solution till it's fixed.

To get philosophical on you, imagine if your score depended on what shot you hit the last hole. No one would be shooting under par ever! What matters is the shot in front of you, and mistakes can be erased.

Great post.
 
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