The Next Shot After Finding Trouble

A poor shot does not always ruin the hole.

Quite often, it is what comes next that does the real damage.

You miss the fairway, find the rough, catch a tree or end up somewhere you would rather not be.

Annoying, yes.

But still only one shot.

The problem is that the next one can start to feel as though it has to put everything right.

That is usually when things get expensive.

The first mistake is already gone

Once you get to the ball, there is not much point replaying the shot that put you there.

Most of us still do it.

You stand over the next one thinking about what should have happened rather than what is actually in front of you.

That rarely helps.

The hole has changed.

So what looked like the obvious shot from the tee may not be the obvious one now.

This is where pride creeps in

There is something about an awkward position that makes golfers suddenly feel very inventive.

A gap through the trees looks wider than it probably is.

A shot you would normally think twice about starts looking quite reasonable.

And because you are still annoyed with yourself, it is easy to talk yourself into it.

That is usually pride doing a bit too much of the thinking.

We have all done it.

Sometimes it comes off.

That is probably why we keep trying.

Boring can be useful

There are days when the best shot does not look very clever.

It might only move the ball back somewhere playable.

It might leave you further from the green than you hoped.

It might feel as though you have achieved very little.

But if the hole starts looking normal again afterwards, that is not a bad result.

Golf does not always reward the interesting choice.

One bad shot does not mean a bad hole

This is easy to forget.

You can hit a poor tee shot and still walk off with a score you can live with.

What tends to turn the hole into a mess is adding another mistake because the first one annoyed you.

Then another because the second one did.

Before long, the scorecard has become involved in something it never asked for.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is stop the sequence.

The next shot does not need to impress anyone

There is no extra mark for making the recovery look brave.

Nobody is handing out prizes for finding the smallest gap between two branches.

If the shot gets you back into the hole, it has probably done enough.

That can feel dull in the moment.

Five minutes later, when you are playing from somewhere normal again, it usually feels rather better.

Experience should help here

Not because older golfers suddenly become sensible.

That would be pushing it.

But after enough years of making the same mistake, most of us eventually recognise it a little earlier.

You start to notice the moments when you are about to make one bad shot more expensive than it needs to be.

That does not mean you always make the right choice.

It just means you are a bit more likely to spot the danger before the card does.

Sometimes that is all recovery needs to be

Sometimes getting out with no further damage is enough.

If the awkward lie is wet rough rather than trees or another difficult spot, A Simple Way To Play From Wet Rough looks at that in more detail.

A poor shot is annoying.

Two poor decisions in a row are usually worse.

That is really the point.

If you want fewer of those awkward second shots in the first place, Why Fairways Matter More Than They Used To follows naturally from here.