How To Stop One Bad Golf Shot Ruining A Round

Often golfers can be heading for a good score and then one bad golf shot can set off a chain reaction of bad golf shots.

This is a very common problem and there are many things you can do to prevent this from happening. The one biggest thing I think is to have a pre-shot routine and then stick to it no matter what. Now this takes discipline to do and it can be very difficult at times, but you simply must do it if you are ever going to beat this thing.

Now your pre-shot routine must be very precise. You don’t have to be so precise that it goes for a certain length of time but you do have to do the same movements over and over again. So that’s one thing you can do to really beat this problem.

I believe that after every golf shot you hit that isn’t up to your potential (and with the game of golf that will be most of them) you should take a moment to shut your eyes and visualize how you would’ve liked to have played that shot. You see, most people play a bad shot once and then replay that bad shot over and over again in their mind.

You’ve got to stop this from happening because the more you focus on something the more you’re going to get it.  So immediately after any bad shot simply take a few deep breathes and close your eyes and visualize that shot again, how you would’ve liked to play it.

After you’ve done this don’t rush to the next shot, take your time. And here’s a suggestion of what you can do before you play the next shot. Take out a club and shut your eyes and have a few swings just concentrating on the feel of the clubhead. Let the clubhead control the swing, not you.

Also have a few swings while gently humming to yourself trying to maintain a quiet tone. And if you are swinging too fast or you’re not swinging with any rhythm then your humming will speed up and this will give you great feedback as to how your tempo is. Simply keep swinging and concentrate on your tempo so that your hum stays at a constant pitch throughout your swing.  This is also a good practice technique that you can do when hitting golf balls.

Now picture this.

You’ve been playing great and then you hit one bad shot and one of your playing partners goes, “you dumb jerk, you stupid idiot, what did you do that for you?”

Would you be happy?

Of course you wouldn’t, so why would you accept thoughts like that from yourself? You shouldn’t. After a bad shot simply accept it and move on. Hey, everyone has bad shots, golf is a game of mistakes.

The better golfers simply learn not to let one bad shot turn into two, then three, then four. And to stop this rut you’ve got to notice how you’re moving your body, how you’re talking to yourself etc, etc. Now what most people do when they play a bad shot is they speed up, so be especially weary of this. Slow down. Change the pace of your walk. In short do something different until you get back into your natural rhythm again.

Do these techniques and you’ll find your bad shots won’t lead to more bad shots, but if you don’t do these techniques then you’ll always have a big disaster regularly. The choice is now yours!