Don't you hate it when this happens?

[Big D McGee]

My mental game needs more toughness!!

I played Paxon Hollow golf course for the first time on Sunday. Very nice track meticulously maintained, with some truly excellent golf holes. Got matched up with 3 really nice guys.

I started off promisingly enough. Absolutely hammered my drive long and straight, about 220. (It helped my confidence that the other 3 guys duffed their tee shots). Had 100 yards into a flat green, hit a pretty chunky PW that rolled up to 5 feet! Birdie out of the gate! CHA-CHING!

Second hole was a par-3 that had a stated yardage of 119. I took a 9-iron which is usually good for around 125 with a ¾ swing and came up just short. Scrambled for par, and lo and behold I was -1 through 2 holes, my best start EVER to a round!

Hole 3 started the damage. The guys had warned me that #3 “isn’t even a golf hole”. It’s a par-5 that’s only 480 yards. I figured I should be able to par the hole, at worst. However, the reason these guys disliked the hole so much is because it’s not so much a sever dogleg right as it is a circular hole with a mountain in the middle. I hit a pretty good drive around 200, and I had no view of the fairway after 50 yards. That’s how badly it curved. Hit a 52* to the middle of the fairway, and I still had 230 to an uphill green. Hit a 5W ok, and STILL had like 40 yards left. So now I’m lying 4 and not on the green. Hit an indifferent LW to the back of the green, and proceeded to 3-putt for a very ugly 8.

It was pretty much downhill after that. I hit exactly ONE more GIR, on #17 a really nice par-3 that’s only 120 yards but with a 100-foot drop in elevation. I went from realistically having a chance at shooting a low 90’s to shooting 102.

I realize I gotta just grind when I have a blowup hole, but damn it’s hard. What do you all do when one early hole wrecks your card? How can you stop the “leaking oil”?

My swing is really pretty much good & repeatable now (though I need more distance), but I need to get more focused and not “give up” after a disaster hole.

Don’t you hate it when this happens??

[RagingAardvark]

I had pretty much the same thing hapen saturday: par, birdie, complete implosion. (cool)

 

However, I just let that hole go, it's done, played the next one without thinking about my blow up hole..played the rest of the round well enough to bne my best 18 in a couple months. You just need to learn to let the bad shots go :beach:

[The Big Schwag]

I am my own worst enemy on the course here are a few things I do:

 

-Think positive, getting all mad gets you out of the grove

 

-I take one practice stroke and imagine the ball flying and landing where I want it to

 

-be confident in your shot, when you decide what club and shot you are going to hit step up and hit it, nothing worse the second guessing your self on the down swing

 

-know your limits don't challange the water or bunkers If you are not 100% sure you will get there, laying up seams like the weak way out but in the end it might save you strokes and in golf you don't measure you count

 

these things have helped me out last week I double boged hole one (par 4) and took a 11 on 2 (par 5) came back and shot a 47 on the front (par 36)

[Big D McGee]

^^I'll definitely take your advice, especially about be confident about club selection.

 

It's not like the rest of the round was a complete disaster. Aside from #18, I hit decent-to-excellent tee shots on every hole. Nothing super-long, but I hit 11 fairways. My problem came on my second shot, or my third into a par-5. I get so tentative, worried that I'll hit over the green, that I end up not only taking too little club, but I make a poor swing and come up short. Every single one of my missed greens was short. Even the 3 par-3's I missed.

 

I need to be confident, playing the Philly muni's like I do, I have a very good feel for judging what I club I need by a visual estimation (no yardage markers on munis). I need to step up and HIT the club that I FIRST think about hitting.

 

I'm playing again next monday at Paxon Hollow. At this point I gotta just figure I can't do worse than 102, I need to just play smart but fearless and trust my yardages.

[The Big Schwag]

get a laser range finder

 

no better way to gain confidence then to know the exact yardage to the pin, front edge or any carry you may need to make

[Big D McGee]

^^I've been thinking about getting one, not only to help while playing, but also to help me be more consistent with yardages for different clubs. The yardage markers at my range are pretty bad; I can hit a 5-Iron "180 yards" at the range, but only 160 on the course. I think a range finder would help me.

 

Also...yardage markers on par-3's are suspect sometimes. I can generally hit my 9-iron 125 with a 3/4 swing; I came up well short of #3 at Paxon Hollow which is listed as like 119. I think it was more like 140!

 

Any models that are good but reasonably priced?

[The Big Schwag]

I'm saving up for the Bushnell Pinseeker 1500 tournment its about 450 CDN. although I heard the Bushnell Bullseye is the same thing just geared towards hunters and it can be had for cheaper, I have played with a bushnell can't rember the model number it worked out good only problem was that it could not lock onto small targets (ie the pin)

 

check out ebay