We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Do You Quit?

I grind,had a stretch of holes of 5 doubles and 1 bogey. I proceeded to par the next 5 and birdie the next. I grew confidence on the first par and it was an upward trend from there.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
 
I would never quit and I've had some horrible ball striking days . Always just tried to fix it for that day.
 
The only time I've quit during a round of golf is when the pace of play is so painfully slow that it's no longer fun to play.

If I'm all over the place with my game, I'll play an "instructional round," and work on shots and ball striking during the round. It can sometimes get me back into scoring well. But, it also keeps my expectations tempered for the rest of the round.
 
Stay positive in the face of whatever is happening. Trying to stay loose, not tense up and to make something happen.

I had one of those rounds yesterday, not making good swings, missing putts, short game was off resulting in being eight over through seven holes. Drive on 8 was in trees left, I got the approach too high into some overhead limbs and the ball fell short leaving about 30 yards over a bunker to a skinny neck of green with a stream behind. I thought "what the heck" and took the aggressive line at the stick instead of safe play to the middle of the green and somehow hit a decent lob, stopping about 8 feet from the hole at the very crest of the green, another foot and it would have rolled into the creek. The putt was an 8 footer, down hill with about 18" break and I made it, first putt I had made on the day. That seemed to be the turning point, saving that par, I went on to finish the round going one over par the rest of the way.
 
My next shot is always going to be an awesome one. However, if THAT one isn't awesome, I don't get all down in the mouth, because the NEXT next shot will be awesome.
 
I try and settle myself down so I can stop playing swing and start playing golf. Started Trip/quad on Sunday and ended up +3 above my cap and only losing by 3 and actually tied it up after 14. I was down 8 after 2. (My brother went par birdie.)
 
Play it out. Maybe take a risk I normally wouldn't, but never flat out give up
 
I used to slow down quite a bit depending on where I was playing. No point in stressing myself out if it was a practice round. If it was in a tournament I would grind.
 
I don't think my attitude changes all that much after a rough start. I still assume I'm going to make some birdies at some point in the round, so maybe I'm no longer thinking I can take it deep (I can't really do that anymore anyway), but I still figure I can get it back to around par or something.

But I also don't think I would say that I start grinding. If I have 15 holes left, that's a lot of time. If I'm +8 with 6 holes to play and I really don't want to shoot 80, then I might start grinding. Though, at this stage in my golf life, I'm probably just as likely to enjoy the day and not stress about my score as I am to really focus on grinding out a number.
 
Physically I will never walk off the course because of poor play.. I have wanted to but never have. Now if something goes wrong with my body where I can't function, then I will hang it up. I had to do that this year with severe muscle spasms in my back. I had to be taken to the ER so that was no joke.

Mentally,,,, I can definitely check out of the game if my game becomes sooo bad that I have nothing left to fight with. I will finish the round the best I can however when my concentration has gone to the toilet, I'm done.
 
I grind it out. SME days it works better than others. I try not to let the bad holes get to me. I have been able to rattle off a bunch of pars after a couple bad holes
 
I like to grind it out until the last few holes at least. If I'm 5 over after 4, I tell myself I want to play the final 5 holes at even and see what happens. If I get there then I'll keep playing. If it still falls apart after 13 or 14 I'll give in and try and have fun or try different things I wouldn't normally do.
 
Exactly what happened to me today. I had high hopes of a good score but started off terribly, but just kept grinding and finally settled into a rhythm.

It's like running. There are days you feel like crap, can't find your pace and are miserable. Those are the days when you actually improve the most because you learn how to run through all that stuff. Same with golf. Learning how to play through the bad spells is important and the only way to learn is by grinding on no matter what.
 
I will give it my best 12 to 13 holes. But if I just can't hit the ball at all that day I let the anger go and just try to hit one good shot to remember at the end of the day. But when I play bad for a whole 9 it makes my blood boil
 
I would totally grind that out, the way I look at it is I'd only be 4 over so I'd just think we'll I got my bad holes out of the way early today. Couple of birdies wipe that badness right out.
 
Do You Quit?

If I'm playing in an official THP event im grinding it out bc I owe it to my partner/team to give it my best regardless if the current results seem bleak.

If by myself or during a causal round I'll still care and try to fix what's wrong, but I won't grind as hard and be a little looser.
 
Last edited:
I usually wait until after 9 holes, if I haven't gotten a semblance of my game back up to that point, then I just phone in the rest of the round and try to have a good time. Some days you just don't have it, but it's almost always good company anyways.
 
I don't quit (okay, one time I walked off the course it was so bad - playing by myself, having zero fun, hurting, and I just decided it was time for a rest), but how I proceed depends on a lot of factors. Who I'm playing with, how I've been playing recently, etc.

I either buckle down and really grind hard trying to score, or I'll loosen up and simply allow the natural course of not worrying about score help me "find" something. Or not, but I won't worry about the round leaving. Really grinding hard just isn't always the answer for me. What I know is that every player has bad days and sometimes the best way to get through them is to admit it's a bad day and roll with it, not worrying too much about what's happened and come back the next time expecting better results.
 
For those that are answering "Phone it in" or "Have some fun", do you think it keeps your handicap artificial?
 
Last edited:
I try to grind my way back... However when I try harder it only gets worse for me. I don't just give up though. I will go down swinging...
 
I figure my score will suck, try to find something positive in a round, a good shot, a good hole whatever. Normally when it happens early I just try to come back with a good back 9.
 
I try to relax and tell myself it's always a new hole, and do my best to turn it around. I had a round a few months back where I took a 52 on the front 9, then something clicked and I fired off a 40 on the back. This game goes in waves, so I try and ride them as best I can.
 
I think I grind it out, I hope I grind it out.

There have been a few rounds that I will realize by the 15th hole that it isn't going to turn around so I will have fun and try to finish strong. But I hate giving up on a round.
 
I'm typically a grinder but admittedly have mailed it in during some casual rounds. I hate that I did though.

One of my Mini-tour Tournaments this year was 36 hole stroke play and I started triple triple double or something. I grinded my way back and finished 7th out of 26 and I was quite proud of it.
 
Had a round a couple weeks ago that I completly fell apart on. Was more dissapointed in myself that I didnt handle it mentally as well as I should have. I didnt try to make an adjustment off the tee, I didnt try to keep balls in play, etc. I played stubborn, stupid golf the whole round. I was shanking shots and popping up drives left and right. It was awful. I don't think I quit because I kept at it, but I have never wanted to get off the golf course more in my life. It was a good learning experience for me because I was not happy with how I played but I was really upset about my attitude and approach when things got bad. That round stuck with me for awhile and made me think a lot about what I needed to work on (not golf stuff)

The round after that I carried on my poor play and low confidence level for the first 5 holes or so. I was thinking "here I go again" but this time I made an adjustment and I tried to just mentally get past it. I ended up parring 5 of my next 6 holes and played much better overall the rest of the round. For me my biggest problem (and the reason I burned myself out of golf) was that I took it to serious and was way to hard on myself. I try to enjoy golf more now and so far have been much better about it. Its not always easy for me but my approach now is that I try to go one shot at a time and forget about what happened. When things go bad and I know my score is going bad I just work on feeling more process oriented "how my swing is feeling", "How my putting stroke is"... When that doesnt work, I just start to drink.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top