7 Top Tips to Recover from a Poor Round
For the avid golfer, there are few more frustrating things in life than a shockingly poor round of golf.
What constitutes a bad round is, quite clearly, a very individual thing and it depends on a myriad of variables such as your current handicap, the current trendline of your game, how you expected to play, and plenty more besides.
When your sport of choice is as difficult to master as the game of golf, it's only natural that you'll come a cropper from time to time. However, instead of frantically overreacting, you may just need a mental reset before you next tee it up.
To help you shake it off and refocus on your golf improvement, check out our top tips to help you recover from a bad round of golf.
Don't panic - it happens!
It's very easy to get down-hearted after a nightmarish round of golf. It's not what you had in mind when you walked to the first tee, and it's only natural to let it get to you a little.
How many times have you seen a Tour pro shoot a crazy low number and then follow it the next day with an over-par round?
It's almost impossible to second guess what the golfing gods have in store for you on any given day. What's important is that your score today has been consigned to the history books - you can't change it.
What you CAN change is what happens tomorrow. Shake today off as a single poor round and keep striving for better.
Review your round
When you get a bit of time at home, take out your Hole19 App and delve deeper into your Round Summary.
Here you'll find all the key stats from your round: Driving Accuracy, Greens in Regulation, Putts, Recovery Performance and more. You can, of course, open your Digital Scorecard to get an overall snapshot of your round.
When you've trawled through your summary you'll usually conclude that your round wasn't as bad as it initially seemed.
Take away the positives
After reviewing your Round Summary, and taking into account your own memories of the day, take time to reflect on the positive aspects of your day at the golf course.
Perhaps you lost shots around the green, but your long game was decent. Maybe your game was generally solid, but every other tee shot landed you in position Z, or your pitching and chipping was pretty solid, but you couldn't putt for toffee. You get the idea!
If you can take away the positives, you'll be able to dust yourself down and get ready to post a good number next time out.
Hit the range again
Heading to the range after a dodgy round can the perfect way to exorcise a few demons and get back in the zone. Importantly, don't get too technical. Your swing is likely fine. Instead, your focus should be on finding some sort of rhythm and tempo again. Check your fundamentals too.
While we advise not getting too technical, as we always say... don't be a machine-gunner either. You're going to get no benefit from mindlessly blasting golf balls. Take at least 30-40 balls where you aim for a chosen target and swing your swing - focusing on the feels/moves that have served you well in the past.
When it feels like you've ironed out the kinks, it might be an idea to not overdo it and work on other parts of your game with the remaining balls.
While we're on the subject of driving range practice, a great aid to help you get the most out of your sessions comes in the form of the Core Golf App.
It's stacked with detailed golf drills and personalised milestones, while it presents a performance radar graph that makes it super simple to track your progress.
Consider taking a lesson
It's a staple of many of our list of 'top tips' and that's simply because almost every golfer can benefit from engaging with a local (or online) golf pro.
Having someone who knows the game inside out looking at your swing from a variety of angles will flag up issues with your swing and, best of all, the fixes that could start to unlock your true potential.
If you're feeling lost, take a break
If one bad round has become a few, or you've hit the range and you're failing to iron out the issues, a reasonable option could be to take a couple to weeks away from the game.
At times we can become muddled in our thinking, possibly from trying to hard - watching too many videos, reading too many books etc. A mini-detox could be just the tonic to help you get back to basics.
Practice positive reinforcement
The Highlights section of your Hole19 App will give you a list of your greatest achievements during your golf career to date. Your lowest score, your longest drive, fewest putts, highest recovery percentage... the list goes on.
The key message that this reinforces is simple: YOU'VE GOT GAME!!. All the facets of your golf game are there, and a round will arrive where you put them all together. What a glorious day that will be!
Try to remember those best-ever scores or greatest-ever shots, and it can help rekindle that drive and determination to keep on improving.