Blowing a great round on the final hole

So last night in league (9 holes) I had the round of my life going. Par, bogey, par, par, birdie, par, par, birdie. -1 after 8 holes.

The ninth hole is a par five. There's a water hazard along the right side of the fairway, the last half of the hole, and bunkers on both sides of the green. I have birdied it a few times but usually make par or bogey. Occasionally I get into trouble and take a double.

I knew I was -1, and my best-ever 9-hole score is 37. I decide to play it safe, thinking I'd settle for a bogey and have my first-ever even-par round.

Can you see where this is going? I take an easy swing with driver and end up in long rough on right side of fairway. Second shot gets me in the fairway but about fifty yards back from where I usually am. Third shot I choose a club to put me well short of the green to avoid the traps. Fourth shot I make a weak chip and barely get on. Pin is in the back of a long green. I three-putt for a double bogey. 37.

I'm somewhat happy that I equaled my previous best score but am kicking myself that I let up like that and totally blew that last hole.

So here's my question. What do you do near the end of a great round to remain calm and keep playing your game rather than becoming too careful and coming up short? I'm hoping I get another chance to lower that score and want to have a better plan next time.

Yep... I just posted a similar experience recently. I was +1 through 17 and had a triple on 18. Still broke my personal best, but the "what could have been" has haunted me all week.

> @Mych said:

> Yep... I just posted a similar experience recently. I was +1 through 17 and had a triple on 18. Still broke my personal best, but the "what could have been" has haunted me all week.

Sorry that happened. Was it because you tried to play it safe like me and it backfired?

Most importantly, congrats on a great career best round. Among the many mistakes I make on the golf course are sometimes trying to be too smart instead of just playing my game and letting the outcome fall into place. If you have a chance to play that course again outside of your league, try to play it and make bogey and plan out the shots you want to hit. Once you make bogey or better, you'll have a path and plan for exactly what to do and how to play the hole.

I was in a similar situation last weekend. I knew I was playing well (though I hadn't added anything up, I don't like to know where I stand), so I just tried to focus on doing what I had been doing the entire round. Basically I didn't try and change to be more conservative, though I didn't try and pull off any hero shots. I think there's definitely a marriage that can be made between "conservative" and "aggressive" play, where you can still press the foot down without being stupid

> @fillwelix said:

> I was in a similar situation last weekend. I knew I was playing well (though I hadn't added anything up, I don't like to know where I stand), so I just tried to focus on doing what I had been doing the entire round. Basically I didn't try and change to be more conservative, though I didn't try and pull off any hero shots. I think there's definitely a marriage that can be made between "conservative" and "aggressive" play, where you can still press the foot down without being stupid

Yes, I won't go the super-conservative route again next time.

I guess what I'm looking for is tips on how to stay calm and play your game. What do you focus on to keep from placing too much importance on that last hole? Do you do anything to distract yourself from that? I'd like to get disciplined enough to feel like it's just another shot, but when you know that it's not, how do you cope?

> @ladygolfer2 said:

> > @Mych said:

> > Yep... I just posted a similar experience recently. I was +1 through 17 and had a triple on 18. Still broke my personal best, but the "what could have been" has haunted me all week.

>

> Sorry that happened. Was it because you tried to play it safe like me and it backfired?

>

https://forums.golfwrx.com/discussion/1772710/so-happy-so-angry

Yes... and I still think it was the right way to play the hole. Honestly, I had one horrendous shot, my approach shot on 18 was my worst shot of the day by far. On a scale from 0-10 with 0 being a whiff and 10 knocking down the flag, it was a 1. I made contact, that was it. If it was a 4 or better (thin, fat, too much draw, too much fade) but didn't find the water, I would have been able to easily bogey that hole. So I don't think the approach was wrong for that hole, but the execution was non-existent.

> @ladygolfer2 said:

>

> Yes, I won't go the super-conservative route again next time.

> I guess what I'm looking for is tips on how to stay calm and play your game. What do you focus on to keep from placing too much importance on that last hole? Do you do anything to distract yourself from that? I'd like to get disciplined enough to feel like it's just another shot, but when you know that it's not, how do you cope?

I try to keep my mindset the same on every shot. I try to choose the shot that is best on that hole, that will get me the best score most of the time. And then I try to shut out all the distractions, and just hit that shot. It doesn't always work, but I try to forget all of the future implications, all of the recent past. I've considered that stuff in making my shot selection, so its time to discard that and just hit the shot. Do you use a specific swing key or feel? Use it, just like you would on any other shot. Its one thing to make a conservative choice, that's not necessarily bad, but you should be making a normal aggressive swing even after you've chosen a conservative shot. I don't like taking, to quote you, "an easy swing" with my driver, I like to take a normal solid swing. You got to -1 by playing really good golf, you should just keep going exactly the same way. You should be making your normal pre-shot routine. Don't rush, don't take longer than normal, just make it as normal as possible. And remember, no matter how much you care about achieving a milestone, at the end of the day its just golf.

@Mych makes a good point too. We all hit bad shots, that's just human variability. If you had had your bad hole on 1, and made birdie on 18 to tie your previous best, I imagine you'd be pretty proud. You can't know that your self-applied pressure caused a couple of bad shots, it could simply have been your normal human variability.

I see that far too often with a few friends. About to card their best round and suddenly on one hole, they fall into an imaginary mental quagmire. The problem with playing it safe, you still need to choose the right club and execute the shot.

Stop over-thinking score, focus on choosing the right club for the shot, trust yourself and then execute.

Unless its necessary, i try to not think about my score, never add it up between 9's, play my game. You can second guess all day, if you played aggressive this or that, played safe didnt work that time. play your game, dont run from it.

Play the game you brought to the hole and don't think about the end. You settled, pre-drive, for a bogey instead of settling for the par or birdie.

Aim conservatively, swing aggressively.

> @Loki said:

> Play the game you brought to the hole and don't think about the end. You settled, pre-drive, for a bogey instead of settling for the par or birdie.

>

> Aim conservatively, swing aggressively.

That's exactly right. It's the same principle as "aim small, miss small". You're more than likely going to be in a variant of what your goal is, and in this case that goal was bogey, and he was 1 stroke away. If aiming for birdie, heck he could have made birdie.

1st problem- You knew what you needed when you walked up to the tee. Well, to be fair, that is also the 2nd and 3rd problem.

It's the old: "Wow, all I need is x for y!!!" syndrome.

One day I was on fire (kind of) and my buddy says after we finished 16 : "Wow, Ray, you're 1 over today!" I nearly hit him with a 3 wood. "NEVER tell me the scores". Naturally, I bogeyed 17- an EASY par 3 that is usually a perfect PW. thinned it and had to chip up from over the back. Fortunately, I settled down and birdied 18 (par 5). But seriously, You probably already knew you had a good day going and had a really good frame of mind for the round. And even if you didn't know exactly what your score was you probably would have had the doubts on that hole anyway because you said it ALWAYS gets you. And that's another problem. Don't remember the days it eats you up, remember the days you bested the hole.

What I've tried to do is not play 1 18 hole round, I will play 18 1 hole rounds. Each hole is it's own entity apart from each other. A bad hole is only one bad hole out of 18. If you go thinking "oh, man that's gonna ruin my round", it already has.

> @RayGorman said:

> What I've tried to do is not play 1 18 hole round, I will play 18 1 hole rounds. Each hole is it's own entity apart from each other. A bad hole is only one bad hole out of 18. If you go thinking "oh, man that's gonna ruin my round", it already has.

Amen to this, and I'll go a bit farther. I try not to even think of complete holes, I prefer to think of individual shots. When I step on a tee for a par 4 or 5, I'm not thinking of par, or birdie, I'm trying to think of where I want to hit my tee shot. I can't make a birdie putt from the tee, I can only hit the drive, so that's all I even consider. Yes, I plan that tee shot with the rest of the hole in mind, but there's only one shot that counts.

One of my playing partners is ALWAYS adding up the scores, especially before 18, and it drives me insane. I've had to bark at him that I DON'T WANT TO KNOW. I don't even really care about my 9-hole score. What good could it possibly do?

Sometimes playing it safe, or too safe, actually gets us into more trouble. Been there... I think the best way to approach things is just play your game. What will be will be

Unless you are a very consistently good golfer, I find that doing layups and "playing safe" is usually a waste of time. Obviously, each safe option on varying holes is different than the next, but i often play with a gentleman who hits his driver about 220 and crooked on a good day. Then, on a short par 4 with no added trouble the farther you hit it, he'll take out a hybrid, and hit it crooked and 165 into the junk anyways, and now is 50 yards farther back in the process. I often think, "what's the point of laying up" unless you are almost certainly not going to play into trouble. Most amateurs aren't good enough to avoid trouble left or right any better than with a driver, and are sacrificing distance in the process.

I'm not trying to judge your situation. You did a good job describing the hole and your reasoning, and I don't think you made any monumental errors. I think you just let your brain get in the way a bit. Keep at 'er, you'll find what you seek. :)

I blew a round last week where I was 5 under thru 12 .... and let 4 shots fall before I rallied with a birdie on 16

I forgot my old tried and true rules

1. Keep doing what you are doing. Don't change your plan based on how the round is moving along

2. Focus on the process of each shot, not the results

> @"Big A HG" said:

> Unless you are a very consistently good golfer, I find that doing layups and "playing safe" is usually a waste of time. Obviously, each safe option on varying holes is different than the next, but i often play with a gentleman who hits his driver about 220 and crooked on a good day. Then, on a short par 4 with no added trouble the farther you hit it, he'll take out a hybrid, and hit it crooked and 165 into the junk anyways, and now is 50 yards farther back in the process. I often think, "what's the point of laying up" unless you are almost certainly not going to play into trouble. Most amateurs aren't good enough to avoid trouble left or right any better than with a driver, and are sacrificing distance in the process.

>

> I'm not trying to judge your situation. You did a good job describing the hole and your reasoning, and I don't think you made any monumental errors. I think you just let your brain get in the way a bit. Keep at 'er, you'll find what you seek. :)

Agreed, we have 4 really hard driving holes, 3 are par 5's. I hit driver anyways. My rationale is that if I do hit it into the hazard I can still reach in reg in 3 shots

I've learned to develop a knock down tee shot. Rather than slow my swing for a conservative shot which never works, I choke down, shorten my back swing and continue a nice load and let er rip. I tend to have a lower trajectory and maybe less yards but will find the fairway and you're still maintaining your momentum and timing. Don't forget to breathe and stay in your routine.

> @USCdrifter said:

> I've learned to develop a knock down tee shot. Rather than slow my swing for a conservative shot which never works, I choke down, shorten my back swing and continue a nice load and let er rip. I tend to have a lower trajectory and maybe less yards but will find the fairway and you're still maintaining your momentum and timing. Don't forget to breathe and stay in your routine.

Love it - the choke down driver is now proven IIRC to be much easier to hit than a 3w for a lot of players (head size, frequency of use, MOI etc etc)

Wow! Thanks so much. You guys have given me a lot of good things to remember. I especially like these comments:

1. It’s ok to choose a conservative shot but I still need to swing that club aggressively.

2. Think of each hole as a separate part of the round.

3. I should be happy with my score because if the double bogey had been my first hole I’d still be super happy with the rest of my round.

4. Remember to keep breathing and follow usual routine

Thanks a lot for all the comments and suggestions.

One thing I've taken away from the last few weeks of playing well is my pre-shot routine. Do you have a consistent pre-shot routine? Every shot that I take I will have a pre-shot routine that I replicate shot after shot. It puts you in the same mindset on every shot, whether you had an eagle or double the last hole. I can put aside the good and bad shots and just concentrate on the next one. It settles the breathing and nerves/excitement about the next shot.

And completely agree with @cardoustie. Keep doing what you are doing well, especially if you're driving well. I was driving the ball really good a couple of weekends ago and was too cautious going down 16. Took 3 wood instead of driver and left too much into the green. Hit 3 balls into the trees and ended up carding 11. I was +6 going down 16 so would have played close to my 8 hcp had I parred in. Not to be. Last weekend I was driving equally well, took driver and ended up 10ft from the hole after my second. Easy 2 putt on my way to a level par gross, my best round for a few years. And won the competition in a field of 189.

In last week's competition I didn't actually know my score so that it didn't affect my performance on the last few holes, which are tough driving holes. I took driver on them all and ended up 1 under for the last 3.

> @jonnymc44 said:

> One thing I've taken away from the last few weeks of playing well is my pre-shot routine. Do you have a consistent pre-shot routine? Every shot that I take I will have a pre-shot routine that I replicate shot after shot. It puts you in the same mindset on every shot, whether you had an eagle or double the last hole. I can put aside the good and bad shots and just concentrate on the next one. It settles the breathing and nerves/excitement about the next shot.

> Last weekend I was driving equally well, took driver and ended up 10ft from the hole after my second. Easy 2 putt on my way to a level par gross, my best round for a few years. And won the competition in a field of 189.

Congrats on your recent win!

I’m going to focus on a consistent preshot routine. I have one for driving and putting but need to be more consistent in having a routine with other clubs.

OP, I feel your pain! I am a master at blowing up final holes that ruin rounds...I just played on Tuesday this week and needed a par at the par 5 18th hole and made a horrible bogey to shoot 80. What should have been an easy par and a 79 sounds so much better than 80...

You were not making safe decisions on holes 1-8, correct?. You were playing golf and it worked.

-1 thru 8 is solid. Well done.

However, stepping on 9 tee you decided to play it safe and by mentally accepting bogey you figuratively "let the air out of your tires" and tried to drive it in with flats. Why?

You were playing well enough to make bird. In the future, get up on the tee, take a few loose swings and mentally focus on making birdie. If there was any day you were going to birdie # 9 - this was the day.

> @Ferguson said:

> You were not making safe decisions on holes 1-8, correct?. You were playing golf and it worked.

> -1 thru 8 is solid. Well done.

>

> However, stepping on 9 tee you decided to play it safe and by mentally accepting bogey you figuratively "let the air out of your tires" and tried to drive it in with flats. Why?

>

> You were playing well enough to make bird. In the future, get up on the tee, take a few loose swings and mentally focus on making birdie. If there was any day you were going to birdie # 9 - this was the day.

>

>

I know! I sure wish I could redo that hole. But I know this . . . I won’t blow it on the last hole again because I’m being cautious.

This will make you feel better

When I was 18 it was me against another 18 year old kid for our Club C at a muni track, men's club C, not the juniors. A big deal for me at the time.

On day 1 I hit it perfect all day. Get to 18 and am 2 under. Take out 2 iron and block it in the woods and make a 6 to shoot 71. My "older" playing partner (he was 35 or so) told me I was an idiot afterwards. "You haven't missed a drive all day and then you try to steer it home.?" Anyways, I have the lead against this other kid with three holes to go in round 2 and make a triple by hitting 5w off the tee on the 70th hole. I lost by one to this kid that ended up playing D1 golf in Texas. Still haunts me.

The other day when I blew my 5 under. Same play. Hit 7w off the tee on our hardest hole leaving me 190 in vs 140 or 150 like normal. That led to a bogey and the start of my 3 hole death spiral. Sometimes it's hard to learn in this game !

(And I have many MANY more epic meltdown stories from rounds in big events, provincial and national am's and mid-am's, club c's etc etc). I've won 3 club C's in 38 years of playing but should have about 10 or 12 !!! Golf is HARD!

There's a great book on the focusing of the process vs the results by Gio Valiente. I suggest you read it.

> @cardoustie said:

> This will make you feel better

> When I was 18 it was me against another 18 year old kid for our Club C at a muni track, men's club C, not the juniors. A big deal for me at the time.

> On day 1 I hit it perfect all day. Get to 18 and am 2 under. Take out 2 iron and block it in the woods and make a 6 to shoot 71. My "older" playing partner (he was 35 or so) told me I was an idiot afterwards. "You haven't missed a drive all day and then you try to steer it home.?" Anyways, I have the lead against this other kid with three holes to go in round 2 and make a triple by hitting 5w off the tee on the 70th hole. I lost by one to this kid that ended up playing D1 golf in Texas. Still haunts me.

> The other day when I blew my 5 under. Same play. Hit 7w off the tee on our hardest hole leaving me 190 in vs 140 or 150 like normal. That led to a bogey and the start of my 3 hole death spiral. Sometimes it's hard to learn in this game !

> (And I have many MANY more epic meltdown stories from rounds in big events, provincial and national am's and mid-am's, club c's etc etc). I've won 3 club C's in 38 years of playing but should have about 10 or 12 !!! Golf is HARD!

> There's a great book on the focusing of the process vs the results by Gio Valiente. I suggest you read it.

Thanks for sharing. I will look for that book. I’ve read a couple by Dr. Bob Rotella that I find helpful. Love reading about golf.

On one of the many (seemed like a hundred but it was probably about 8 or 9) rounds that finished with 80 or 81 before finally breaking into the 70's for the first time, I simply needed to par the last two holes. Not only that, absolutely nailed one of the longest drives of my life down the middle of the 17th fairway. Normally I hit 7 or 8 iron into that green but I was standing inside the 100-yard marker with a gap wedge in my hand for the approach.

Then, honest to goodness, the thought occurred to me, "If I can just get birdie here, I could bogey the last and still have my 79". From there my so-called thinking was off to the races. The flag was on the front of the green, just over a bunker. So I figured I'd hit sand wedge, just enough to clear the bunker and have a short birdie putt. The gap wedge might end up 20-30 feet past the hole.

For a 20-handicapper, that is the most preposterous line of "reasoning" imaginable. Gee, just hit the darned gap wedge into the middle of the green. But I pulled SW, missed carrying the bunker by about half a yard, plugged under the lip, made a double there and...of course...parred the last hole for yet another 81.