I thought for this month’s column I would
share an emailed question I received from a
golfer and the subsequent answer I sent to
him. I believe his question and my answer has
relevance for many golfers!
Dear Jeff,
You don’t know me but I probably fall victim
to most of your articles on the internet.
I’ve read them ALL. My name is J.L. and I’m
trying hard to take my game to the next
level. I’ve made many sacrifices that you
talked about in one of your articles. My
problem during my rounds is the BIG NUMBER. I
can shoot the occasional 69 but my tournament
scores have suffered from one-hole spills.
Whether it is leaving it in the sand or not
carrying a water hazard, I normally seem to
BLOW UP, as my dad says. I work on all
aspects of my game constantly and am playing
great golf but don’t know if it’s a mental
thing or not. HELP! How do I avoid making
the BIG NUMBER?
Dear J.L.
At the risk of not being helpful whatsoever,
the honest answer to “How do I avoid making
the big number (BN)” is…it depends. One thing
that would be helpful to narrow down the
answer is to discern if there is a pattern
related to the BN. Does is come early in the
round? Does it come late in the round? Is it
on reachable par 5s? Is it on par 3s? Is it
related to a certain type of hole? (Water on
right? OB on left? Tight driving hole?, etc.).
Is it when you are near the top of the
leaderboard? Under par? After making a
bogie/birdie on the previous hole? If you can
discern a pattern, then there are course
management things or mental strategies to
address each of those types of situations.
If there is difficulty in figuring out a
pattern, then the next best guess (in my
experience) is that players do one of two
things that contribute to the BN…1) They try
to do something “heroic” when in trouble
(after they hit it in the trees they try to
advance the ball toward the green with a knock
down 4 iron cut around a giant oak!); or 2)
they panic and rush when in trouble (leave
your first bunker shot in the bunker and get
embarrassed and panic and slash the next one
out over the green into the hazard on the
other side!). Solutions? Obvious… for #1,
TAKE YOUR MEDICINE. Be OK with making a
conservative decision if in a difficult
situation- even if it means a safe shot hit
backwards. Bogie is typically a great number
if in deep trouble. There is no shame in
hitting a conservative safe shot. For #2,
make sure that you allow yourself the allotted
time to calm your mind and body when in
trouble so that your pre-shot is consistent…
irrespective of whether you are hitting an
approach after hitting the fairway in
regulation or whether you’ve just made a drop
after hitting it into the water, you want to
be CONSISTENT in how you approach the next
shot…
Hope this helps a little….
Good luck…Keep working!
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