Stroke Saver: Plan For That Blow Up Hole

We’ve all been there. We’re cruising through a great round, hitting the ball fantastically, making some long putts, and then it happens… The Blow Up Hole. It starts off with something small, like a drive that finds a bad patch in the rough, or even worse, that rolls into that bunker that we know we can’t reach off the tee. That perfect shot out ends up landing in the greenside bunker where we blade the ball out of it across the green and land behind some trees. The pitch from there hits the one branch between us and the hole and now our worst case bogey chances are already gone. We manage to three putt and escape the hole with e 4 over eight. So much for a good round, right? Usually, a person will throw in the towel after a hole like this, but with a few simple thoughts in your head, you can push past the blow up and move on to the next tee.

1. Plan for the blow up – We know it’s going to try and make an appearance, so do your best to know when you can expect it. Check your scorecards over the lasts 5-10 rounds and see where it is. If you have a pattern for it showing up, make a new plan for that hole. If it’s a bit more random, try and setup the few holes that it’s on a bit differently and see if there is a way to minimize the chances of it showing up.
   
2. Don’t panic when the first shot goes wrong – Blow up holes are usually a result of compound mistakes. Things like letting a good shot that was “too good” and not taking the time to assess your next shot are the number one causes of the blow up. When you hit a gorgeous drive that rolls through the fairway and into trouble, make the safe play out, don’t try to execute the hole the same way you would if the drive had found the fairway. If your bunker shot flies over the green and behind a tree, take the time to check your club selection for the next shot. It’s a very small mental change, but can make a huge difference in your score.
   
3. Reboot when it happens – Even the best laid plans will still yield a terrible hole once in a while. Think about the 9 that Ernie Els posted at The Masters. Sometimes those holes just happen. Here’s the important thing to remember, a round of golf is 18 holes long. A 5 over on one hole can be made up over 9 holes pretty quickly by turning 5 bogeys into 5 pars. Sure if you are an under par shooter, it would be birdies instead of pars, but you can recover those strokes if you can just turn off that bad hole and start your game over. This is crucial if the hole is early in the round. Clear your mind and start the round over on whatever hole is next. If you don’t, and you keep thinking about that past shot, or how bad this or that was, you’ll probably repeat them on the next few holes.

Blow up holes happen, and honestly, even the best planning in the world won’t help keep your ball from rolling into a divot in the fairway or bouncing left into the rough behind a tree. These things just happen and that’s why no matter how ‘good’ you get at golf, every round is an adventure. You can play a hole 100 times with the same clubs and the same swing, but your results will be different every time. Understanding this, and learning to identify the holes that are your trouble spots can help, but those scores will never completely go away. They just wait for you to let your guard down, or try that impossible shot, or even just sneak up on you with a slow green or big breaking putt. Being prepared to react to them and not panicking is step one, and resetting your mind when it does happen is step two. If you can do this, you’ve already started down the path to scoring better, and that’s what it’s all about.