After a bad hole I look at the next hole with a positive attitude. I know I will do better and usually I do! I will make a par or birdie. I bear down and concentrate on my swing and nothing else.

I just write a bad hole off to being a blowup hole, accept it and hit the reset button. View the bad hole as practice to get the bad shots out and go forward.

I mentally press reset after every hole. Each hole is a mini game for me, where I'm trying to get the ball in the hole for the fewest strokes. I've got so good at letting bad shots go that I occasionally forget to add them into the score :-)

I also find comfort in my present routine, and make sure I follow it after a bad shot to avoid rushing.

Like the current and GOAT coach of the N.E. Patriots said, "on to the next". Simply as that... Forget the last hole even if you shoot an eagle or quad. Just concentrate on the shot at hand.

If you start thinking about the past, it could be a long mental day for ya..

Usually when I have a bad hole, i just laugh and move on. Life is too short to dwell on the past.

On to the next!

As long as your golf ball is properly inflated you'll be fine. ;-)

In all seriousness, I like to review scorecards during the off season as well, and strangely, I actually had the opposite revelation. I tend to follow bogies with birdies. Even when we played in the TT invitational on Pinehurst No.2 I had an absolutely terrible hole on the 4th and immediately followed it up with a birdie. (could be the 4th was the No.1 HCP and the 5th was the 15th, but still...) I noticed it happens more often than not.

Mentally I guess I just get ticked off and probably focus a bit more.

I'd say 90% of my bad holes are mental mistakes, and the really bad ones are when I compound misses by playing overly aggressive.

Like others have said, just forget about it and move on, or use it as motivation and sharpen your focus for the next hole.

Think of it as 18 independent games. Even the pro's have bad holes.

i just let it go. take a chug of water and move on.

What bad hole? A deceased friend once told me after I made a double bogey on the first hole. There's seventeen potential birdies so don't worry. He was the most positive person I ever knew, even in death.

A shot of Crown to settle down with. You can get 18 shots out of a bottle, just enough for a round of golf. Coincidence ? Hardly....

I have a few scorecards that look like that. I tend to block my tee shot right. If I have a bad hole I remind myself to slow my swing speed down on my tee shot...just swing thru the ball. If I miss a fairway, I play back to the middle instead of trying a low probability shot. I would rather get on one over than, try the low probability shot and add more strokes.

Give yourself a chance to score and take each shot as it's own. I feel like everyone always try to make something out of nothing, learn to take your medicine and punch out when you have to and understand bogey is always better than double or triple!

I try to refocus on my process and routine. For me it seems like bad holes usually follow birdies. I think it's a mental thing.

Nicholas,

Limit the damage! Saving strokes in a round isn't limited to just make a 3 instead of a 4, it's making a 5 after a really bad drive instead of making a 6. Limit the damage of the bad holes and getting back on track will be much easier!

Good luck!

- Sam

Golf is not a game of Perfect - “Golf is about how well you accept, respond to, and score with your misses much more so than it is a game of your perfect shots.” -Dr Bob Rotella

For me I try not to worry about making bogey, makes the short putts easier to cope with and when you have to take your 'medicine' the bogey is acceptable.

Golf is a game, it's meant to be enjoyable!!

I learned to play 1 shot at a time & really focus on the shot at hand. I also learned to reduce my expectations & stay patient. Don't push it. let it come to you.

My bad holes are a result of bad swings or bad thinking. Usually it will be in the short game like sculling a chip, chili dipping, taking two strokes to get out of a bunker, etc. When this happens on several holes and it's still early in the round I go into a conservative mode and that is a band aid to just get me through what holes are left. Examples are using a 7-9 iron to chip using your putter grip and putter swing if there are no bunkers to contend, just get the ball out of the greenside bunker anywhere on the green and give yourself a chance at par instead of trying finesse the shot and hole it out, when in the rough do a reality check, what are the odds of getting the ball on the green with that mass of tree limbs in front of you ? Just get the ball back in play and try to get up and down. This usually will result in no worse than bogey.

I've found throughout playing competitively that getting angry and worked up over a bad shot only leads to more bad shots and eventually a horrible round. The only person that your anger affects is yourself. When I hit a bad shot or have a bad hole I try to continually remind myself of all of the bad shots I've seen on TV at PGA tournaments. These guys are the best in the world... while practicing helps limit bad shots they are not completely avoidable. It happens and you just have to play your game one swing at a time.

A positive attitude leads to negative scores!

I break my round up into 3 hole segments. If you have a bad hole, do what you need to do to save that 3 hole section. Then start fresh with new one, try to beat the previous.

Nobody likes failure, but in this game you have to accept it, then move on. A short memory is a big plus in golf. The mental part of golf cannot be understated.