Avoid Blow up Holes with Better Course Management - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Avoid Blow up Holes with Better Course Management - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

If there is one thing that I hear from golfers is that all the time when they are telling me about their latest round of golf. They say I played 14 holes brilliantly and I just had a few blow ups; 4 bad holes cost me the entire round and that is a lot of what happens for most golfers when they play. They might have 14 or 15 good holes that is at or under their handicap then they might have 1, 2, 3 nightmare holes and maybe a stable 3rd round that would mask those bad holes a little bit; but if you are playing medal, you have to be really careful that you don’t allow those bad holes ruin your entire round.

So most bad hole, most blow up holes as you might call it would start from the teeing ground and it is often people trying to play too aggressive, trying to go for a par or a birdie when maybe their handicap allows them to make a bogey or a double bogey particularly on tough holes.

So next time you play, play with the mindset that you will always going to play the shot that you know you can play rather than the shot that you think you should play, and that is a line from Barbara Taylor’s book and I think that is a really good attitude that you should take on the golf course. Just play it nice and safe. Don’t always hit driver. Hit 3-wood, hit a 7-iron off the tee on a narrow hole if you need to but just get it in play off the tee. Second shot, nice and close up near the green. Chip on for 3 couple of putts, make a bogey on a difficult hole. For most golfers with a handicap, making a bogey on a tough hole is still going to be worthwhile. It is still going to be okay. You always have the shorter holes, the easy holes to attack and try and make your pars on those holes. But if you can make sure that your worst score is 1 over your net handicap, so a 1 point but you never get 0 point, you never get a blub as long as you are only 1 over your handicap on your worst holes; generally, your good holes will outbalance that and you will have good game that is leveled on your handicap.

 2012-04-30

If there is one thing that I hear from golfers is that all the time when they are telling me about their latest round of golf. They say I played 14 holes brilliantly and I just had a few blow ups; 4 bad holes cost me the entire round and that is a lot of what happens for most golfers when they play. They might have 14 or 15 good holes that is at or under their handicap then they might have 1, 2, 3 nightmare holes and maybe a stable 3rd round that would mask those bad holes a little bit; but if you are playing medal, you have to be really careful that you don’t allow those bad holes ruin your entire round.

So most bad hole, most blow up holes as you might call it would start from the teeing ground and it is often people trying to play too aggressive, trying to go for a par or a birdie when maybe their handicap allows them to make a bogey or a double bogey particularly on tough holes.

So next time you play, play with the mindset that you will always going to play the shot that you know you can play rather than the shot that you think you should play, and that is a line from Barbara Taylor’s book and I think that is a really good attitude that you should take on the golf course. Just play it nice and safe. Don’t always hit driver. Hit 3-wood, hit a 7-iron off the tee on a narrow hole if you need to but just get it in play off the tee. Second shot, nice and close up near the green. Chip on for 3 couple of putts, make a bogey on a difficult hole. For most golfers with a handicap, making a bogey on a tough hole is still going to be worthwhile. It is still going to be okay. You always have the shorter holes, the easy holes to attack and try and make your pars on those holes. But if you can make sure that your worst score is 1 over your net handicap, so a 1 point but you never get 0 point, you never get a blub as long as you are only 1 over your handicap on your worst holes; generally, your good holes will outbalance that and you will have good game that is leveled on your handicap.