Your getting there. What typically causes your blowup holes? Is it errant T-shots?
True. But I have found that there are two kinds of bogey golfers. The first kind is the player that pretty much bogeys every hole give or take.
The second kind is someone who is learning and has the potential to shoot pretty low scores. They get many pars and even a few birdies but then they get doubles and triples because usually they whack the ball out of bounds or something crazy like that.
Are used to be that guy but now I have eliminated the blowup holes in frequently get into the 70s but usually no worse than the low 80s
Yeah, my issue is inconsistency.
I have the tools of a good golf game. My swing is fundamentally sound, it's more a matter of me just needing a lot more reps. I definitely think I have the potential to shoot much better scores. Managed 37 putts yesterday, so that's roughly (+1) where I should be and pretty standard for me.
To give you a sense of where I screw up my game, I'll go over all the double-or-worse holes I played yesterday. Bear in mind this is a par 60 course, so the fact that some of these par 4s are short shouldn't surprise you.
#1 - ~280 yard par 4. This course doesn't have a range so I never take driver off this tee. Hit a 5 iron. Relatively good strike, down the right side, in light rough. Hit about 190-200 yards and I'm in range of a SW. Proceed to chunk the sand wedge about 45 yards. Hit the sand wedge again, lands on the green but rolls off the back. Pitch onto the green, and two putt for a double bogey. Clearly the fault here was my short game.
#6 - 300 yard par 4. Elevated tee. I made the bad decision and pulled driver. Thankfully didn't shank it, but ended up OB to the right. Lost ball, had to take a drop. (I believe I should have hit provisional, which I need to change going forward...) Lying 2, my 3rd shot is another chunked SW. Get a little closer, and take another SW which goes just slightly off the back. Have a tricky downhill putt from the fringe, which I leave WAY short, and two putt from there for a 7. So my downfall was an OB drive, a chunked wedge, and three puts.
#7 - ~150 yard par 3. Competely wormburner my tee shot. Just a total skull. Leaving me about 75-80 to the [back] pin. I choke down on my SW, trying to take a reasonably full (but gentle) swing. Strike the ball PURE... Which means I go about 8 yards too far, into the bunker behind the green. And because it was a beautiful, high, sand wedge, means it was coming almost straight down, and ends up in its own ball mark. Thankfully not plugged, but a terrible lie. Took me two to get it onto the green. So now I'm lying 4 on a par three, and two-putt for a triple-bogey 6. So the tee shot was bad but recoverable--I certainly could have gotten up and down for bogey. But the second shot going over the green into a terrible lie in a bunker was killer.
#16 - ~150 yard par 3. Completely shank my tee shot, low, FAR right, and short. Luckily not OB. End up with the ball well above my feet, and chunk a SW. Next SW shot lands on the green, but rolls about 8 ft off the back edge. Still within puttable distance, which I prefer because again I'm going to have a tricky downhill putt. My first putt gets caught up in the fringe a little too much and ends up rolling onto the green but still ~15 ft from the hole. Two-putt from there. So again, downfall was an errant tee shot, a chunked wedge, and then 3-putting. Finish with a triple-bogey 6.
#18 - Normally 225 yard par 3, in this case the tees were up so it was about 200. Take a 4 iron. Hit a halfway decent tee shot, but it had a little too much draw and ended up left of the left side greenside bunker. BARELY avoided dropping in a water hazard, but the downside was that it left me with a really tough uphill lie near the edge of the water. Hit my 60 degree wedge, but didn't trust myself enough to hit it as hard as necessary, and just barely made it onto the green. Lag putt was halfway decent, leaving myself about 5 feet for bogey, but I missed it and finished with a double-bogey 5. Really the only killer here was that I couldn't two putt this one. My wedge wasn't a good shot, but I got on the green, so I blame my putting there.
Just for comparison, I'll go over where I made par or better...
#2 - Par 3 normally ~180 yards, but playing about 170 with a front pin. Again still barely warmed up b/c the course doesn't have a range and it'd been a few weeks since I last hit. Take a 6 iron. Not a great hit, definitely low on the face, but starts right with a slight draw. Runs up onto the green and ends up on line with the flag about 20-25 ft past the pin. Again a downhill put (many greens here slope back to front), which I'm too afraid of going 10 feet past the hole, so I leave it maybe 7 feet short. But it's a straight putt, and I manage to sink that one for par.
#3 - 150 yard par 3. Take 8 iron, and again don't hit well--line drive hit extremely low on the face. Hit straight and slightly left of the flag. Hits a little berm in front of the green which slows it down and kicks it to the right. End up a little past pin high on the green, about 15-18 feet right of the hole. I read a some right-to-left break (again, slope is back to front), but end up hitting it slightly left of where I wanted and it broke more than I thought, so I'm left with a 3-footer for par, which I sink.
#4 - 266 yard par 4. Still don't feel like I'm hitting well enough to pull driver, so I grab the 5 iron again. This hole is forgiving to shots errant right, with a big slope that funnels things back towards the fairway. I strike the 5 iron quite well, but it's to the right. As it's coming down it must have gotten tangled up in some trees, but it drops and the slope takes it across the cart path back towards the fairway. Leaves me about 115 yards to a center pin location. I take a choked-down short-swing PW, and strike it perfectly. Best strike of the day so far. It's a little long but on the green. Unremarkable two putt for par.
#10 - Probably shouldn't count this, but I will. It's normally a 240 yard par 4, but there was some maintenance to the tees so it was playing ~190. A bit tricky because the alternate tee location was on a slight slope, with the ball above your feet. Take the 5 iron, had a halfway decent strike but a bit low on the clubface, ended up just barely green high a little bit to the right. Unremarkable pitch and two putt for par.
#12 - Short (115 yard) par 3. Took the choked-down 3/4 swing PW again. Struck it really nicely, but pulled left. Basically pin high and about 3 yards off the left edge. Again the green slopes pretty strongly back to front (left to right from my vantage) so I know my pitch will curve quite a bit. But I hit a great pitch, and it ends up basically perfect distance and about 3 feet above the hole. Make the putt for par.
#14 - Uphill par 3, normally ~165 yards but due to the tees being a bit up and the pin being in front I figure it's playing about 145-150. Pull the 8 iron and strike it pure, albeit a bit to the right. Ends up a little past pin high and a bit right, leaving me about a 20-25 footer. Unremarkable two putt for par.
#15 - 150 yard par 3. Again pull the 8 iron and just trying to swing easy. Felt like good contact, ball starts a little right of the hole with a nice draw bringing it back exactly on line. Oddly, I must have swung too easy or it wasn't as pure as I thought, because it lands about 3 feet short of the green. I'm left with a 20-25 foot uphill putt. Luckily my buddy had duffed his tee shot and then chunked his pitch, and his ball is about 3 feet right and 2 feet short of where I lie. So he's away, and nearly makes his putt (and gives me a perfect read). I end up striking the putt exactly as hard and on the line I wanted, and sink it for birdie.
So my blow up holes aren't any single thing, but it's usually just having two bad shots on the same hole which screws me. I can often recover one bad shot for bogey (and occasionally par, on a par 4, if my second shot is really good), but two in a row is usually where I start getting into trouble. And I need to work on my short game, because three putts and duffed pitches will screw up your scorecard REAL quickly. I didn't even cover two holes where I didn't get onto the green until my third shot on par threes, but was decent enough on my final pitch to leave myself a makeable bogey putt.
