Best front nine you have had followed by collapsing on the back nine.

[pktaske]

I played Pine Valley in 2012 (don't ask!). Shot a 47 then fell apart on the back 9 with a 55.

 

Interesting to note I didn't even know what Pine Valley really 'was' when I played it. Now I go to see the Crump cup and walk around in awe. Life is crazy.

[SurfDuffer]

-1 on the front.

+6 on the back.......was even par coming off of the 15th green then dropped five shots in the last three holes.

[Medson]

I saw your "collapse in back 9" and raise you a "collapse in the last 3 holes."

 

This was a while ago. I never broke 90 before that day. The course is par 71. So I need +18 to break 90 and +8 to break 80. 

 

I was about +7 or +8 after 15 holes. To add salt onto injury, hole #13, #14 & #15 are usually considered the toughest stretch. Hence, I was looking really good. And the thought of not only breaking 90, but also breaking 80 occurred in my mind.  

 

I tripled each of the last 3 holes for a smooth 87 or 88. 

[Dan Drake]

Opposite way, but I shot 50-38 last year at Windswept Dunes with @cardoustie.  We were tipping it out (7,752yds at sea level) and the wind was blowing 15+ all day.  

[cardoustie]

1 minute ago, Dan Drake said:

Opposite way, but I shot 50-38 last year at Windswept Dunes with @cardoustie.  We were tipping it out (7,752yds at sea level) and the wind was blowing 15+ all day.  

And it wasn’t running either

[RmoorePE]

First I am jealous of those of you who "collapse" and shoot a 77 or something "horrible". I shot a 77 in October and am pretty sure I floated from the clubhouse to my car I was so stoked.

 

Collapse for me would be a 107. Then again my 15 handicap is there for a reason. Wish I could call it a collapse, but I just know my game. If I make the turn plus 2, I just do the math and realize I'm probably going to go plus 10 on the back. Try as I might, something is going to go awry. And the opposite is true as well, typically make the turn at +10 knowing I'm going to get a relaxed 38-40 on the back.

 

Only part of my game that is consistent  -is that my game is inconsistent. 

 

One thing that is amazing about the golf mind is how a number on a card, changes the physical attributes of a golf swing. The two things have nothing in common: one is a text representation of something and the other is a physical act of moving an object to a target, yet most of us  high handicappers cannot disentangle them from one another. 

[Bakes0]

I’ve got two solid nominations. I hover between scratch and a 3 and my game is mostly a bunch of pars and very very few blowup holes. I keep it in front of me and am a really good lag putter. Whenever I do have the odd occurrence of throwing in a bunch of birdies (3 or more for me) it’s always offset with bogeys 🙂

 

First up, TPC Louisiana - more of limping home than collapse but still memorable for my putting barrage on the front 9.

 

Second, let’s take it to my home course in NY - Again, I’m a steady par kinda guy, so making it to hole 5 without one was a treat. Me and my normal four were playing our customary weekend money game and at the turn the two other guys me and my partner were playing against made it a point to start talking about the mental approach when it comes to going low. Great friends.

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by Bakes0

[Obiwan21]

I've never broke 90. About 12 years ago I finished the front 9 at 39....finished the back at 55. 

[Keen]

-1 on the front, +14 on the back 😐 as a 13 hcp. Jitters started on the 10th (after an eagle on the 9th), went downhill from there. 

[ksher84]

36 Front 43 Back. 9-hole course 😞

[Pmookie]

I’ll have to go the reverse on this one. Three years ago, Barton Creek, Canyons course. 49 on the front, drank two beers at the turn, one-under on the back!!!! The beers wiped my memory, and took my overthinking out of my game.

[MattyO1984]

I am genuinely not sure what my best front 9/worst back 9 combo would be but I do know that -3 for the first six holes and then +6 for the last 12 a few months ago is still one that bugs me. Try to take the positives from it through, I am not sure I have ever gotten to -3 at all before now.

[CTSpinDoctor]

30-43 fml

[mrp2wash]

35 (E) - 45 (+10) 80 

 

At that point I had never broken 80. That was a stomach punch.

[byoshio82]

Opposite for me at Pumpkin Ridge Ghost Creek shot a 43 on the front 9 followed by a (-6) 30 on the back 9!lol! It was an out of body experience on the back 9! 

[JShaw]

Just last year I went 38 46.  I've also done 37 47.  The worst meltdown for me was being +3 at the turn and +2 through 14 and ending up scoring +14 86.  The 10 I made on the par 3 15th was devastating.  I couldn't stand to look at my golf clubs for a couple weeks after that.

 

For the guys posting their 45-35 stories, that doesn't count in my book.  It's easy to play well after the pressure of putting up a good number is gone.  I've done that way more times than epic back 9 meltdowns.  

[coreyl]

33-42. In all fairness the bullxxxx started on #9 though as I had a 10 footer to shoot 31 and promptly 3 jacked for the 33. The 9 I took on #12 didn't help matters 😞

[-GoldenHawk-]

I went up and played University Ridge in Wisconsin last year with my buddies after only having played 2 rounds by the end of May (2020). Shot even on the front and then 46 on the back. It was freaking wild. Swing just completely fell apart. Partially because I was just dead tired since I hadn't hardly played any golf, and partially because my swing was not grooved at all. Back 9 was a mess!

[MooJersey]

I'm a very hopeful 22 right now.  My best front was a nice tidy little 40, followed by a 49.  Very disappointing, but I can hold onto that 40...and potential 80 forever !!!

[mizunoMX25]

I shot 32 1 year in our club championship first day. Was 5 under going into the final 3 holes. Double-bogey-bogey to finish with 71. Lost by a stroke that year.

 

My most memorable 9 I shot even par with no pars. I had 4 birdies and an eagle, two doubles and two bogeys. That's kind of folding throughout the 9 I guess.

[tee207]

34 (-1) on the front, 45 (+10) on the back 😑

[PEI_Golfer]

At one of the local courses where I was living at the time (only 6k par 70), I had a 29 front followed up by a 39 back for a very disappointing 68 (my best round).  Sadly, the back is the easier side as well and I was kicking myself hard about it.  Had some great breaks on the front like a bladed 5i on a 210y par 3 that rolled to 5' and an eagle on one of the par 5's.  Back 9 was 7 pars, 1 triple and a bogey on 18 to seal the deal...

[m d g]

Easy....played Pebble Beach with my wife and son a number of years ago. My son is not a low-handicapper but is really long (and cocky in a good way) so he wanted to play the very tips.

 

I was a 7-index but a short hitter (140 7-iron downwind on a good day) and was a bit reluctant but figured, what the hell, it will be a good memory for both of us.

 

38 on the front with a couple of burned edges. This course is easy!

 

50 on the back including one donated to Poseidon on 18. 

 

Three of those strokes I will attribute to horrific reads from my caddy.

 

The rest was really the problem of being a short hitter on the back 9. Many times my drive wouldn't clear the rough between the tee and the fairway. It's tough to stripe one down the middle 230 and still be in the rough : )

 

But it was February and the weeks before the round were cold and rainy, but on that day it was sunny, 75 degrees and just a bit of an ocean breeze.

 

We had a great time and I wasn't too worried about the score...

[m d g]

On 12/8/2020 at 7:11 AM, lefthack said:

And this is why I usually stop after 9.

That's what Peter Jacobsen says, 'The key to shooting lower scores is playing fewer holes.' : )

[lefthack]

31 minutes ago, m d g said:

That's what Peter Jacobsen says, 'The key to shooting lower scores is playing fewer holes.' : )

To be fair, I usually play 3 balls, so it's kinda like 27 holes. But yeah.

[back2golf]

My worst blowup was actually the second 18. Needed to shoot 158 to pass PGA playing test. Shot 74 in round 1 in the morning. Then shot 84 in round 2 that afternoon to pass on the number. Better yet I had to hit a 5 footer for double bogey on my last hole to hit the number. 

[oldmotor]

How bout 36 on the front, followed by a 50. Still 5 under my handicap....

[drr324]

Playing in a HS match, 18 hole event.  I was -7 through the 14th when our coach pulled up on his cart to see how things were going.  My partner ran over to him to tell him to leave- I was playing out of my mind and he needed disappear and not talk to me.  Nope, he had to "coach me up" and tell me to not think, keep it going, etc, etc.  Proceeded to go DBL, DBL, par, DBL and finish -1.   Was working on my personal best round and he coached me up alright....

[CactusGolf]

Always been my problem.  First round of the year I started at 3 under through 9...then 40 on the back.  The scorecard doesn't show the duffed shots and a topped drive.

 

[aenemated]

How about the other way around?

 

Was terribly rusty on the front at Sherwood the other day. Could not find a fairway to save my life for most of it and rolled into #9 +9. Disaster. Missing fairways there leads to missing greens leads to horrible up and downs. 

 

Got lucky for the day on #9 and hit a nice bomb to about 160 out. Fired an 8 from there that got lucky - I'd been leaving my irons out to the right the whole day but caught the upper left fringe and had a great look at a center pin. Caddy was convinced we could make this one so with some work, settled on the line from 30' out and halfway there, did the Tiger steez putter raise and walked it in.

 

Best putt I've made in a while. 

 

Then 5 iron off the tee to flighted 54° to ~12 feet on 10 and another nice putt. And it was on. 

 

Only 17 beat me up from a hard pull on my 5 that left me with an impossible lie. Buddy was in one of those rotten bunkers but I was still like "Man, I'll trade you." Did my best to get the club on the ball but it still ran about 25 feet past and had an AWESOME 3 putt from there. 

 

Sherwood - don't miss fairways. Don't miss greens. You'll get beat up if you do either. Badly. And you go 44/37. 

Edited March 27, 2021 by aenemated