Managing your miss

Managing your miss

By Tyrone Gibb – BSI Golf Coach

People have a misconception that Pros don’t miss shots, they definitely do. Course management is crucial to managing a good round, missing in the correct places to make it easier to save par. We all will hit bad shots, having good management to miss the shots in the correct places can save you mental stress, and score stress. Pros mostly play practice rounds to make sure they come up with a game plan for that specific course, for their specific game type.

What is managing your miss?

For example, if I’m hitting my approach shot to the green, and the pin position is in the front of the green, with a false front, selecting a club that would allow me to not miss short. This will help if I miss the green with my approach, making sure I don’t short side myself and make it tough to make an up and down. Fortunately, Pros have caddies that help with managing the miss, as amateur golfers, we are assigned this task without any help.

Taking time to understand where the danger is on the course may save you a few shots.

Here are a few tips to use out on course.

1. Understand your miss – if you consistently miss shots to the right, make sure you align correctly, knowing if there is danger right, that you never cross the danger line. Thus, managing the miss right.
2. If you struggle with striking the ball, make sure you aren’t taking a club you are swinging too hard with. A better strike will produce a better shot than a high swing speed with a bad strike. Managing your bad strike will help with short, fat shots.
3. If you hit a bad shot into the trees, remember one thing, ‘play ONE recovery shot’, put the ball back into play instead of taking the shot on that has a high rate of failure. This will help with making a bogey, rather than making double or triple bogeys.
4. Make sure you are taking into account factors that can contribute to missing your shot. Eg: Distance, wind, altitude, temperatures, quality of lie, your own ability to pull off a shot and course conditions are a few examples.

Manage your miss out on the course and you can save yourself a-lot more shots, make the game easier by playing the course and not yourself. Understand your ability and your miss and MANAGE that miss to make sure you aren’t making silly mistakes by not MANAGING your miss.

Missing shots out on the course is all part of the game, managing the miss can help you enjoy your bad shots more and make better swings after missing the previous shot. Manage your miss and see the results without having a lesson.