I am a 13.2 handicap. Been golfing for 2 years and started around a 28. Today I shot a 37 on the front and was riding high. Never broken 80, only shot under 40 on 9 a handful of times. I proceeded to shoot a 49 on the back.
What a fickle bitch this game is.
Anyone have legendary meltdown stories to help the burn?
Walk out of that round knowing that you got it in you. It takes time, and it will all come together at least once. Confidence goes a long way.
Don’t count your score at the turn. Don’t think about what you are at all. It’ll do wonders.
15 Handicap here. Was playing a round with a buddy from work, had a 7 shot lead on him going into the last hole playing a better than average round. He took a shot that got a friendly bounce off a tree and thanked the golf gods. My arrogant ass walks up and as I’m teeing my call proclaim ‘you don’t need the golf gods when you pipe down the middle’ - proceed to shank under a tree with no good out. Go skip it onto the fairway and hit the car path, and it bounces OB, drop and hit into a water hazard. Drop and hit into the same hazard again. Drop, hit into greenside bunker, chunk, chunk, on the green lying 10 and proceed to 3 putt for a 13. He hit a 21 ft par putt for a bogey 5 and beat me by 1.
@Eli
Tempt the golf gods and they will respond swiftly and with great brutality. Golf is most certainly not the place to tally your chickens based solely on the numbers of eggs you have.
@Eli
This hurts to read.
I once got to 18, a par 5, with 74 shots on the card… a par, and I break 80.
Snowman.
I shot a 48 on a relatively easy front 9. Said screw it and had a few strong drinks. Back 9 37. Lowest ever score is an 82 and my handicap is a 15. Golf makes no sense.
Chen said:
I shot a 48 on a relatively easy front 9. Said screw it and had a few strong drinks. Back 9 37. Lowest ever score is an 82 and my handicap is a 15. Golf makes no sense.
The few strong drinks makes perfect sense!
Chen said:
I shot a 48 on a relatively easy front 9. Said screw it and had a few strong drinks. Back 9 37. Lowest ever score is an 82 and my handicap is a 15. Golf makes no sense.
The power of the ‘swing juice’!
12.8 here and in the same boat as you. Have done it both ways… monster front and blown up back. Awful front, ready to quit at the turn and gone (-1) on the back. Try to be process-focused and take it all in one shot at a time. I’ll bet the 49 started with one bad hole and you forced shots the next few holes only to end up with bigger numbers. Patience, it’ll come.
Yep, been there, done that, doing it tomorrow.
Many times I have played well through 14-15 and then blow up on the last 3 or 4. Sometimes I blow up right away; I think ‘ah well, there goes the round’ and then I end up shooting 82 because I shoot +2 for the rest of the round. Other times I blow up in the middle of the round.
Feel like it’s just a rite of passage to have a great front 9 and blow up on the back.
Once it happens a few times, you won’t even be nervous after having a good front 9 anymore, then you’ll do well on the back 9 as well.
@Dexter
This is very true. I didn’t realize how much knowing what my score was impacted my playing ability until this happened a few too many times. Then I stopped looking at the total and broke 100 as a result. 5 days later I broke 90. I wish I could say I’m not a head case with it but it’s simply not true.
@Basil
Problem is as you get better, it starts becoming a lot easier to know exactly where you are. When it’s mostly pars with a +1 or -1 here or there, the math gets too easy to ignore.
Congrats on the not-quite-breaking-80! We’ve all been there with our own personal 'breaking ____ ’ goals.
Congrats. I’m a 13.3 right now, and I do stuff like that all the friggin time. 39/47 the other day. I’ve broken 80 a few times and have also broken the wrong side of 100, too. Keep at it. Course management and focus tend to be my biggest allies.
Listen to this:
I’ve shot 35/50 twice. Two different courses, many years apart. Golf is… interesting. Just remember that you don’t do it for a living and have fun whether it’s a 37 or a 49.
I am always on the flip side of this these days (~40yo now). Younger days when I was playing all the time with my dad, I’d be breaking 90 consistently; low was 82. Fwiw just casual rounds for me, never played for a school team or anything (tbh solely because golf had boys and girls separately at my high school and tennis and soccer both took coed trips lol). But the old man was playing of a 5 hcp in leagues and whatnot so he taught me how to keep the rules/scoring legit.
I have still never broken 80 but for some fucking reason these days my scorecard always looks something like 55 front 38 back. I’ll start off like fucking Michael Jordan with a triple triple, then by the back I’m firing in pars with a couple birds, couple bogeys and like one double. Infuriating as fuck, and I’ll see you next week.