Move On: Mental Tips

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By Chris Hatem

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  1. Chris Hatem

    Chris Hatem
    Boston

    At the Travelers Championship this past weekend watching one player in particular hit one shot taught me a valuable lesson that I can honestly say I never thought of before. This player hit his tee shot on a ~440 yard par 4 into the rough, I went over to see the lie and it was terrible. Hardly could see the ball, I had to point it out to him. It was Friday and he was in contention to make the cut. I was thinking that this would be a tough shot for anyone. As I prepare to watch him stand there and deliberate with his caddie about club selection and wind and the best way to hit this shot, he grabs a shorter iron and just hacks it out to the middle of the fairway (advancing the ball 40-50 yards). The whole process took about 10 seconds. Why stand there and take time to deliberate over this extremely tough lie? How am I going to get it to the pin which is 160 yards away? This ends up hurting your mental outlook on your round. He knew that it wasn't very likely that shot would make it all the way and that there was probably a greater chance of a mishit. He just moved on. Got up and down for par from 100 yards out. And ended up finishing up -9 for the tournament. Lesson learned, if the shot has a low likelihood of succeeding, don't hit it. Also, don't spend time worrying about it. Take your time on the next one.
  2. Speedy

    Speedy
    Newmarket, NH

    110% agree with you bud...  Much rather lose a stroke playing it safe than losing 3-5 strokes trying to be a hero... 

    I went to a tournament on Saturday to watch my friend play in the Northeast Invitational.   He was on the 9th hole and same scenario, his drive ended up in deep rough.  He had to clear a tree AND water to reach the green.  At first it looks like he was going for it and then backed away and thought about it..    Instead of being a macho or a hero, he played it safe and took the bogey.    Ended up tying for 3rd but had he went for it, who knows what would've happened.  It's not worth it....  

    Looking forward to playing TPC RH with ya! :)

  3. Bomber3

    Bomber3
    Lake St Louis, MO

    Military

    That's a lesson I learned a long time ago.  Now it's just get it back to the fairway, hit a good approach shot and make no worse than bogey.  I have several friends though that always end up killing their rounds because they "know" they can hit the miracle shot.  The problem is, they can't and they don't!  It's way easier to recover from a bogey than it is to recover from a double, triple or quad!

  4. Carl T

    Carl T
    Little Rock, AR

    When I am in the rough the first thing I ask myself can I hit the green 7 out of 10 times from this lie. If the answer is NO then just get the ball back into play on the fairway that will give you a good angle to try to get up and down. If the answer is YES then go for it.

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