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How Do You Calm Down on the Course?

Nappy

Nappy

2024 Shaft Up #1 with UST Mamiya
Albatross 2024 Club
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We've all done it. Hit a bad shot out of bounds and then it snowballs from there.

What steps does everyone take to calm down, re-group and not let one bad shot ruin your entire round?
 
I will walk a shot off. (If riding in cart, I will walk to my ball) or try to just take in some of the scenery around.
 
Drink a beer and swipe on my phone a few times
 
Laugh. No seriously. Life is too short. Go hit another shot and make it a good one!
 
Snickerdog said:
I will walk a shot off. (If riding in cart, I will walk to my ball) or try to just take in some of the scenery around.
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I do this too. Grab my next club and walk to the ball. Usually always helps.
 
After years of losing my mind on the course, I made a new rule that I've been able to abide by for the most part -- when the bad shot is in the air, I can curse, yell, twist my body into a pretzel (often all three at once), any sort of rage release my instincts can concoct -- but by the time the ball lands, I'm over it. By the time I'm standing over the next shot, I'm focusing on what I have to do, not what just happened. The next shot isn't always better, and sometimes worse, but if it is it's because of a mechanical or timing flaw, not because of emotion or elevated heart rate. It's helped keep a lot of bad rounds from going nuclear.
 
Very similar to Snickerdog, walking off a bad shot works well for me. I take my mind away from the course for a minute and think about how lucky I am to be playing golf at all. Very few people in the world get to play this wonderful game (as a percentage). If I can put things in perspective those bad shots don't bother me that much. It might be different if I was earning a living on the golf course, but that'll never happen!
 
DucatiGirl said:
Laugh. No seriously. Life is too short. Go hit another shot and make it a good one!
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Truth. Any day golfing is better than doing anything else.
 
I ask myself, outloud, "where are you?" I then answer myself with everything mental and physical going on. It really brings me back.
 
I tell myself I am not good enough to let a shot or series of shots ruin my day on the course. They come and go and so I just move on.
 
Music helps me sometimes but really I'm just trying to maintain perspective and realize that I suck at golf no matter how well or poorly I'm doing at that moment. Enjoy the blessing of being able to play and focus on that as much as possible...I'm a work in progress. :D
 
shanewu said:
Music helps me sometimes but really I'm just trying to maintain perspective and realize that I suck at golf no matter how well or poorly I'm doing at that moment. Enjoy the blessing of being able to play and focus on that as much as possible...I'm a work in progress. :D
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Need to try this too

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Nappy said:
Need to try this too

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Click to expand...

My dad and I were getting a lecture from my mom and my wife about this last weekend. :D
 
Music and breathing. In that order. Works almost everytime.


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Just don’t get worked up about it. For me, I don’t play or practice enough so blow ups are not a big surprise. Also remind myself I’d rather be out on a golf course than most any other place.
 
Shaman don’t get mad, he gets even.

(Cue kick-ass early 70’s blaxploitation movie soundtrack.)
 
I’ve been reading books from Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott, founders of VISION54. Their book “Every Shot Must Have a Purpose” is informative, but their latest “Be a Player: A Breakthrough Approach to Playing Better ON the Golf Course” puts it all together for me.
 
I’ve moved to humor instead of getting steamed. I still get upset, but I’ll say something snarky about my shot and get a good laugh from it. I care, but getting pissed has never served me well in the past. I have a serious case of RBF, so nobody really knows if I’m blowing up or joking until a few bad shots in when I just start laughing.
 
A solid, consistent routine helps!


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honestly all the years Ive tried every single bit of advice. And none of it means a thing (for me). I can birdie the very next hole and par the next or triple it and the next two regardless how I feel. I've hit so many bad shots that I am numb to it as I hit the next ball regardless. Don't get me wrong I can still be angry and upset with myself but still when I take the next shot I make like its the first one of the day. Sounds hard to believe I know but it just doesn't matter. I can go from the best golf ive played to the worst and back to the best again and back to the worst again and all in the same round. No rhyme or reason to it. Great and horrible holes come on batches and also alternate every other one. All I can suggest is ....the shot we are standing in front of is the only thing that now matters. One shot at a time and let the score fall where it may.
 
Generally don’t get too excited..although a skulled or chunked wedge drives me insane.

I will take a deep breath, ask myself what I’m doing and call myself an idiot..then it’s on to the next putrid shot.
 
to add to my last post. There is one thing I sometimes do just to ease tension from being aggravated and that is laugh at myself. You'd be surprised how intentionally laughing out loud at the horror I just hit helps relieve a lot of stress. There are times I just crack myself up almost as though laughing at someone elses poorest strike like I am outside laughing back at myself (if that makes any sense..lol).

And then yes I admit there are rare times Ive walked of the course too. I mean my one shot at a time logic works most all the time and I am able to swing the next club pretty much without concern for the last one. But once in a while all the hard work and lessons and practicing and time and money and you not only see no return but also a horror show and it can take its toll on me. Prhaps if I didn't put that much into it, it would be so bothersome because id have the excuse that I don't work enough at it, I don't put enough into it, I don't play or practice enoufh etc... but I don't have those excuses no more. I cant use them anymore. So yea sometimes it gets to you that your just not one the luckier players that the game comes a bit easier for. It can at times when its that poor become no longer fun and when that happens, then Im better off walking away and doing something more pleasant with my free time and disposable income vs being miserable and feeling defeated. But then Im back the very next chance I get....lol
 
Hackapotamus said:
After years of losing my mind on the course, I made a new rule that I've been able to abide by for the most part -- when the bad shot is in the air, I can curse, yell, twist my body into a pretzel (often all three at once), any sort of rage release my instincts can concoct -- but by the time the ball lands, I'm over it. By the time I'm standing over the next shot, I'm focusing on what I have to do, not what just happened. The next shot isn't always better, and sometimes worse, but if it is it's because of a mechanical or timing flaw, not because of emotion or elevated heart rate. It's helped keep a lot of bad rounds from going nuclear.
Click to expand...

Amen. I've gone nuclear a couple of times with really bad shots. I then realize that it will destroy the rest of the round. So I get to a happy place and breath after I've said a few choice words.
 
I just think of the clowns I have to deal with at work and think to myself no matter how bad it is on the course its 10 times better than that.
 
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