I played a solid round yesterday (86), but as I thought back over my round I decided the majority of my problems (a double and a triple) came from bad decisions. In short, my bad swings were often the result of my poor decision.
The narrative here is a bit long, but the question is this: How often do you think your poor swings are the result of a bad decision vs making the right decision and just executing a poor swing? Note that I'm not just talking about when you come up a bit short. I'm talking about when a sure par turns into a double, triple or worse.
First situation:
I had hit a decent drive into the left rough. I had a good lie, but there was a bunker stretching across the front of the green. The pin was on the left, and I could see that the green fell away from the pin to the right. Normally I'd play out to the right and take the bunker out of play. However, I decided that there was no advantage to doing so, because the bunker stretched nearly all the way across the green.
So, I lined up pretty much at the flag at let it fly. Big mistake. I pulled the ball left, hit the short-side of the green and it ended up on the edge of the woods. That wasn't my poor swing, but on the next shot, I was faced with an extremely difficult chip out of the junk to a short-sided pin. There I made a poor swing at it and bladed it 20-feet past. I then 2-putted for double (and it took two really quality putts - I could have easily made triple). So the bad decision on the shot before put me into a position where I did not have the skill to execute the shot, and a poor swing was the result.
As I stood on the green reflecting on what I did, the correct decision was completely apparent. Had I aimed right, a pull would have put the ball close to the pin. Had I pushed the ball, I would have had a simple pitch, uphill, with tons of green with which to work - something certainly within my skill level.
Second situation:
I had hit a perfect drive into the fairway, 140 out, after coming off back-to-back pars. I was feeling good. The green was fronted by a lake. I decided on 8-iron since that's my 140 club. However, I think the realization that coming up short was dead forced me to tense up and execute a poor swing. I chunked it pretty badly and heard the splash as it landed solidly in the water, about 80 yards away.
After rolling in my triple, I reflected upon what I could have done differently. I think had I taken an extra club and concentrated on a smooth, easy, sweeping swing, rather than having to execute an excellent 8-iron, my chances of clearing the water and leaving myself in position for a bogey at worst would have been dramatically improved.
Do you see this in your game? Can you look back and attribute poor swings to poor decisions?
The narrative here is a bit long, but the question is this: How often do you think your poor swings are the result of a bad decision vs making the right decision and just executing a poor swing? Note that I'm not just talking about when you come up a bit short. I'm talking about when a sure par turns into a double, triple or worse.
First situation:
I had hit a decent drive into the left rough. I had a good lie, but there was a bunker stretching across the front of the green. The pin was on the left, and I could see that the green fell away from the pin to the right. Normally I'd play out to the right and take the bunker out of play. However, I decided that there was no advantage to doing so, because the bunker stretched nearly all the way across the green.
So, I lined up pretty much at the flag at let it fly. Big mistake. I pulled the ball left, hit the short-side of the green and it ended up on the edge of the woods. That wasn't my poor swing, but on the next shot, I was faced with an extremely difficult chip out of the junk to a short-sided pin. There I made a poor swing at it and bladed it 20-feet past. I then 2-putted for double (and it took two really quality putts - I could have easily made triple). So the bad decision on the shot before put me into a position where I did not have the skill to execute the shot, and a poor swing was the result.
As I stood on the green reflecting on what I did, the correct decision was completely apparent. Had I aimed right, a pull would have put the ball close to the pin. Had I pushed the ball, I would have had a simple pitch, uphill, with tons of green with which to work - something certainly within my skill level.
Second situation:
I had hit a perfect drive into the fairway, 140 out, after coming off back-to-back pars. I was feeling good. The green was fronted by a lake. I decided on 8-iron since that's my 140 club. However, I think the realization that coming up short was dead forced me to tense up and execute a poor swing. I chunked it pretty badly and heard the splash as it landed solidly in the water, about 80 yards away.
After rolling in my triple, I reflected upon what I could have done differently. I think had I taken an extra club and concentrated on a smooth, easy, sweeping swing, rather than having to execute an excellent 8-iron, my chances of clearing the water and leaving myself in position for a bogey at worst would have been dramatically improved.
Do you see this in your game? Can you look back and attribute poor swings to poor decisions?
