“I get p***** off. I simply do not understand someone who hits a ball that lands behind a tree and can look at it and say, “Well, that’s golf”. – Simon Hobday
Post written by Ian Hardie
In the post ‘How to recover from a poor start’ I began to explain my first piece of advice to work towards recovering from a poor start
Which as you will remember I wrote in response to a question from a frustrated golfer
Who was thinking of ‘giving up golf for a while’
Due to him losing interest in the game after a run of recent poor starts
The first piece of advice – which is the first of six things that need to be done or understood
Was actually to accept that the first few holes of each game
Won’t always be that good
As in general
The golfer in question either did no warm up or on occasion a very limited one
Before heading to the first tee
The same as most other golfers
And as I have said a few times before when discussing the lack of proper warm ups.
‘Is it any wonder that most golfers start poorly?’
Most golfers start their game behind
Both physically and mentally
So during that first six or seven holes before we loosen up on the course
Accepting that poor shots may happen
And that mistakes will be made
Helps the golfer to ‘let it go’
The solution is to focus instead on every shot as a single event
Making no judgement as to whether the result is good or bad
This can begin to eliminate the problem of poor starts
Focusing on every shot as a single event
Once you manage to achieve it
Takes away one of the biggest problems that most golfers have
Which is having every miss hit or poor shot that they hit
Compound their mental state in a negative way
I’m sure we have all experienced it at some point in our golf
As nothing can destroy a round as easily
Which brings me to the second piece of advice on this topic
One that is going to be against
What we have all been taught by other golfers on the course
So as simple as this is to do
It’s going to be difficult to practically do while playing
As all the other players will still be doing it
And wanting to let you know about it.
What is it?
Stop adding up your scores after nine holes!
Most golfers play 18 holes as their round
And as you will have experienced over the years
Anything can happen during those 18 holes
So what has happened during those first 9 holes
Which in this case is ‘a poor start’
Doesn’t necessarily set the tone for the final score of the round
In fact one of the better rounds I have had over the years
Which came after a two week period of intense practice
Began with 10 pars in a row
Which you may be thinking wasn’t really ‘a poor start’
But in the context of my form at that time – it was
Anyway, it had me wondering if all the practice over the previous two weeks was worth it
Until I birdied 6 of the last 8 holes
For a 6 under par 65
And knew the practice was worth it!
If I had mentally been affected by the score for that first 9 holes
I may not have gone on to shoot that score
Which is what I notice that most golfers do
They stop after 9 holes and add up their score
Even going as far as debating it with the other players in their group
And comparing it to what happened yesterday
Last week
Or last time they played
Which creates two problems
The first is what we are talking about here
Which is losing interest after a poor start
Even though you will realise that you aren’t playing well
The last thing you need is to have that confirmed by a 9 hole total on the card
Reinforcing the fact that you aren’t playing as well as you may like
It’s a sure fire way to keep you headed on a downward mental spiral on the course
Which generally leads to a loss of interest in the game
Like the golfer who asked the question was experiencing
It also negates the advice I gave above about focussing on one shot at a time
Which is critical to recovering from a poor start
So treat the scorecard as it should be treated
Simply write down your partners score for each hole
As well as your own score for each hole
Then once you are finished your 18 hole round
Add the score up and sign it
You will be amazed at how often you can recover from a poor start
By not adding up your scorecard halfway round.
Play well
Look out for the next great piece of advice in ‘How to recover from a poor start – part three’ subscribe by email here to make sure you get it straight to your inbox
And get a free copy of my great new 62 page guide
“18 Simple ways to easily improve your golf.”
Gee, I nearly forgot
The other problem that adding up your scorecard after 9 holes causes I talked about in the post ‘What’s your golfing identity?’ check it out here if you missed it
