How many balls do you lose per round?

[jpotas]

Simple question. I've always felt penalty strokes / lost balls are the biggest thing holding my game back. I lose on average 3-4 balls per round and can lose 10+ on a bad day which can almost double the cost of the round lol. I have also lost at least one ball every round I've played this year.

I feel like you must really have a great short game to have a 10 handicap if you are averaging 3-4 lost balls plus the the penalty strokes for those 3-4 lost balls. If you can straighten those drives out you should be a scratch golfer!! good luck.

 

[Sox_Fan]

Definitely less than 1. Unless you count the worn out balls (after 3 - 4 rounds) I fire onto the driving range after putting out on 18 because I am not going to use it again. Probably actually lose a ball maybe once every 20 rounds.

 

[olperfesser]

I need to hit over water on 7 holes on my home course. Usually lose to one of them. Sometimes, I can recover the ball and finish without a loss. Sometimes it just disappears.

 

[MikeF]

Usually 0, I normally end the rouund up on balls too. If they are a ball I use, then they go in the bag, if not then I pass them onto my lad to use

 

[Junkyard]

Its not like I swing all out and am off balance. 260 for me is either a mishit (like in the pic), into a wind, or a very easy swing. And yeah I'd lose slightly less balls if I tried to hit it 260 every time, but I'm pretty sure my scores would be higher. Its not like I magically start hitting the ball straight when I swing softer. Pretty much the only reason I hit fewer balls out of play swinging 80% is because you go less offline the shorter you hit it. So yeah I'm not doing everything I can to not lose balls but the goal of golf is to shoot the lowest score not to lose the fewest amount of balls.

P.S. You can eye roll as much as you want but it doesn't make you right lol

I don't want it to seem like we are ganging up on you, but if I look at the portion of your post that I highlighted I see what I consider to be pretty solid advice. Based on your other posts, I get the impression that you play with the "bomb & gouge" attitude that they use on tour. If 260 with driver is a mishit but not necessarily controllable then I think you should work on dialing it back until that distance/club is controllable. Once you have confidence that the club is going to find the fairway or first cut then work your way back up to the extra distance.
If your goal is to shoot the lowest score then I would make every effort to lose less balls, since each lost ball is at least a one stroke penalty. Sure, hitting a driver 250 may not seem sexy to you, but when I'm sitting around the patio after my round we're comparing our final scores, not how far we hit our five irons

 

[Junkyard]

On average I lose 1 ball every 4 rounds. Between yesterday and today, I pumped 4 balls OB so I've been above average And that's after shooting my best score of the year last Sunday.

 

[GenErr]

I can go a couple of rounds without losing a ball, and in fact find a lot more than I lose.

 

[Scott F]

For you guys who are losing a lot of balls. Where are most of them going? Water? OB where you just can’t get to it? Rough? Just didn’t see where it went?

 

[links_slayer]

Tough to answer. Ive played 75 holes with the same ball and have also lost 4 in one round this year. No idea what my average is.

 

[G-Man]

Lost 1 all day this round and the last round

 

[ddstanford]

Our course is pretty friendly, but one of mine went into the water today and I found 5

 

[leftshot]

I think you are right. Hank Haney is always saying you have to eliminate 2-pitches, 2-chips and 3-putts. But I'll bet if he heard you were losing 10+ balls in some rounds, he'd say, "yeah, start there."

 

[smgoldstein]

can lose 10+ on a bad day

That seems like a lot for a 10 capper.

 

[leftshot]

So, I wear out balls now, but it wasn't always so. I remember the first round my brother and I played after taking lessons. We lost TWELVE BALLS...on the first hole!

 

[PatsFan]

Last round I didn't loose a single ball. If I lose them it's either
A: Water hazard
B: OOB
C: Way too long Rough. When everyone sees where it lands and then its nowhere to be found.

I am finding it to be C way more often as I am starting to hit the ball better.

 

[greenOak]

I feel like you must really have a great short game to have a 10 handicap if you are averaging 3-4 lost balls plus the the penalty strokes for those 3-4 lost balls. If you can straighten those drives out you should be a scratch golfer!! good luck.

Not particularly actually. I just hit the ball far so the rounds I‘m somewhat straight I have
less than 100 into a ton of the holes. I‘m good around the greens but below average with the putter. Also, the way I see it I’m probably losing closer to 5 strokes due to lost balls. Even if every ball lost was stroke + distance I’d be losing 7 strokes per round, and most of the lost balls are lost into lateral hazards.

Moreover, despite being erratic off the tee, last year gamegolf rated driving as my best part of my game by strokes gained. I switched to myroundpro this year and it says the same thing.

That seems like a lot for a 10 capper.

It is, but it’s not like it’s a common occurrence. It’s probably a 1 in 50 thing. Seven is my max balls lost this year in 13 rounds. Not to mention that I’ll be net 10 over at best when I have a round like that.

I think you are right. Hank Haney is always saying you have to eliminate 2-pitches, 2-chips and 3-putts. But I'll bet if he heard you were losing 10+ balls in some rounds, he'd say, "yeah, start there."

Yeah I pretty much never two pitch or two chip. Three putts can still be an issue though.

 

[InTheRough]

Simple question. I've always felt penalty strokes / lost balls are the biggest thing holding my game back. I lose on average 3-4 balls per round and can lose 10+ on a bad day which can almost double the cost of the round lol. I have also lost at least one ball every round I've played this year.

Losing 3-4 balls per round? And 10+ on a bad day? Solution: Play a different course.

I can play one course in my area that's rated 72.5/125 and use the same ball for two, sometimes three rounds. I shoot 90-95. There's another course in the area that's rated 68.1/113. I shoot 95-103 on it with a guaranteed loss of 3 balls per round - Water on the right. Water on the right. Out of bounds on the right. Guess which course I don't play anymore?

 

[HarlettoScara]

I'm losing quite a few at the moment, the rough at my course is penal and I am incredibly wayward off the tee for some reason these last few rounds. Getting to be quite the struggle.

 

[TheDoctor]

I have probably averaged about 1 per round over the last half dozen rounds or so, a couple of those I didn't lose any, but others were a couple balls

All but 1 of those lost balls was in rough, and every time we were pretty certain of the area it was in but just couldn't find it due to how thick and wet it was
The other lost ball was a pull OB into thick trees

 

[Scorp]

There are times my ball lasts multiple rounds. There are times my ball lasts a few holes. It varies with my losing between 0-4 balls give or take... sometimes more, sometimes less.

 

[Hamfist]

That's fair, and that is one I was including in club/tee selection. If you can't make it and keep trying you or me or anyone probably should have moved up or changed their club/approach. I certainly wasn't trying to trigger anyone or make them feel guilty about their struggles. Course management is a skill and not knowing or being good at it is different than not being able to execute it. I guess I just assume it doesn't take long to see what's definitely not working in terms of attempted shots, and try something else next time. I'm sure there's peer influence and personal expectations involved in some of that too. I encourage someone to let more of any of that go and suggest shots more likely to succeed when I play with them though.

If you and I ever tee it up, you are only allowed a 7-iron, a wedge of some form and a putter.

 

[Hamfist]

3-4 per round if we're averaging. Some streaks are less, some spikes are more. That's why I use relatively inexpensive balls.

 

[DaBuckBoys]

I lost one on Friday in a 9 hole round. Hit it thru the fairway and lost in tall grass. That brings me to 5 balls lost in the last 72 holes which is the best stretch of my life. Of the 5, I dunked one in a creek with a wedge and lost another with a fairway wood off the tee. So only 3 balls lost with a driver.

Coming into this year I was a 3-4 lost balls per round. The driver is just working really well.

 

[OldandStiff]

If you and I ever tee it up, you are only allowed a 7-iron, a wedge of some form and a putter.

March play, no handicap and it's a deal!

 

[DaBuckBoys]

For you guys who are losing a lot of balls. Where are most of them going? Water? OB where you just can’t get to it? Rough? Just didn’t see where it went?

Local course has several creeks, a few ponds, and some pretty good rough with clover that always seems to swallow somebody's ball every round. The real danger is the thick heather grass on nearly every hole. If you get more than a couple feet into it, good luck...