Recent golf and double bogey avoidance

It keeps us humble

I’ve had the opportunity to get out and play a few times over the last few weeks. Scores have ranged from 75 to 84 with 5 rounds under the belt. It’s frustrating on the days that the 80s come into play but well within the 15-20 stroke range I should expect to see from my scores over the course of the year. The one day that I played 27 holes, I went 35-49-38. I mean…talk about a roller coaster. And I honestly felt like I hit the ball pretty well on the 9 holes that came up 49. Just got in some tough spots and a few holes got out of hand. That’s golf for ya.

July is going to be a heavy golf month. My brother is coming into town this weekend for the week and we’re going to load up some golf and do some training. I look forward to it as he has gotten bit by the golf bug and is intent on stepping his game up. We’re going to have a lot of fun unpacking course strategy, short game shots, pre-shot routines, etc. I think we’ll likely end up playing 6-7 times while he is here so I am going to get A LOT of data for my own golf as well.

A focus for this week of golf is double bogey avoidance. I’ll be putting a focus on putting the ball in play and keeping myself honest when I get in trouble. Even Tour pros make bogey about 80% of the time when they are in recovery situations. We can work with bogey. Double bogeys and worse just don’t cut it.

A question to take away for our games:

From our recent rounds, when we double bogeyed, why did it happen? Drill down and figure out the root cause. One one of my recent rounds when I tripled here’s how that would play out:

Why did I triple bogey the hole?

-I hit my second shot into the front greenside bunker then failed to get out on the first try and the second attempt skirted to the back of the green

Why did I hit it into the greenside bunker?

-I did not take enough club because I used the number to the pin and it was a front pin

Why did I use the number to the pin?

-I was trying to make birdie and hit it close instead of aiming for the middle of the green

Why was I trying to make birdie?

-Because I was one under at that time and wanted to “keep going for it”

It’d be easy to blame the mistake on not getting out of the greenside bunker on the first try but the fact is, I never should of been there in the first place. If I had selected the club that got me to the center of the green like I had been doing all round, I would of been perfect anyways or at worst, middle of the green and putting for birdie.

It’s important for us to identify the root cause. Let’s try another one. I took a triple after hitting my driver too far right and onto the adjacent hole with trees in between. I then tried to hit it back over the trees and onto the green and it ricocheted in a penalty area and I had to take a drop. There are two mistakes here.

First:

Why did I hit driver to the right on this narrower hole?

-I wanted to get a drive closer to the hole so I had a wedge in my hand

Why did I want to get a wedge in hand for my approach?

-I had just made the previously mentioned triple bogey two holes before and wanted to “get up there” to try and get one back. I should of hit a hybrid or 4i off the tee since my dispersion is much tighter with those clubs. So that’s the first mistake. Pressing when I should take what the course is giving me.

Second:

Why did my second shot ricochet into the penalty area?

-Because I hit my 9 iron too low and it hit the tops of the trees

Why did I hit my 9 iron too low?

-I was trying to hit a high, cut (not my natural ball flight) to still make it to the green and it came out lower which is natural for me

Why was I trying to hit an unnatural for me, high, cut?

-I was pressing to still get my ball on the green for a birdie putt instead of taking my medicine and hitting a wedge over the trees and short of the green

Why was I pressing?

-Because I wanted to make up for the triple bogey two holes before

And just like that, 6 over on two holes. We must avoid making strategy errors and compounding mistakes. Take some time to think of your recent round and see if any of your errors were similar to the above. We don’t have complete control of the outcome of our shots but we certainly have the ability to make good decisions that give us the best chance to recover without too much damage.