Do You Have Certain Points Where You Always Fall Apart?
Many golfers have trouble closing out rounds. They allow the pressure to get to them and implode during the last holes.
When you’ve had a rough finish, it can impact your confidence going into the next round, similar situations, or following tournaments. Let’s set the scene.
You are breezing through a round. All phases of your game are clicking, and you are on pace to shoot your lowest score. On the 17th hole, your tee shot lands in a water hazard, requiring you to take a penalty stroke.
The next shot you hit is offline, and eventually, you double-bogey. The final hole starts better, but a three-putt forces you to double-bogey again.
The next competitive round you play, the same thing happens. You couldn’t shake the thoughts of how you faltered in the last tournament.
The memories of failing to close out pop up in your mind as you approach the final holes. You start to expect falling apart at the end of the round. It feels like a negative Deja Vu moment.
Those “Here we go again thoughts” trigger negative feelings like fear and anxiety, causing you to lose confidence in your ability to hit effective shots. Golf is as much a mental game as it is physical. Without confidence, the challenges during a round become exponentially more difficult.
To stay confident throughout a round, you must tune out the past instead of reliving it. If you make mistakes on consecutive holes, you can still rebound on the next hole.
If you imploded the previous day, you can still shoot your best score today. With a “here-and-now” mindset and approach, where you are only focused on the current shot, you can learn to maintain confidence despite unfavorable past results.
At the 2024 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Rory McIlroy struggled to close out back-to-back rounds. During the second round, McIlroy was cruising at seven under through 16 holes before triple-bogeying the 17th hole.
In Round 3, McIlroy started strong, carding six birdies over 14 holes. However, on the 18th hole, McIlroy’s tee shot landed in the water. McIlroy finished the hole with a double-bogey that dropped him to T13 heading into the final round.
Despite the setback, McIlroy kept a big-picture perspective to keep himself positive, focused, and confident heading into the final round.
McIlroy: “Playing the last two holes in two over for two days in a row is not ideal. Cost myself obviously a few shots there. The leaders weren’t getting away, which was nice, and I was making a little bit of a charge. Just one mistake, that drive on 18, and with it playing so much into the wind. Depending on what the leaders do, I can still go into tomorrow feeling like I have half a chance.”
As McIlroy demonstrates, you can only win or shoot a low score if you give yourself a chance. That entails letting go of the past, focusing on your accomplishments and positive aspects of your play, and prioritizing confidence rather than highlighting mistakes.
The key to staying confident is to move onward after each hole. Think of golf as reading a book. Each hole is a new chapter. No matter what happened during the last hole, you must turn the page and refocus on what is happening next to perform optimally.
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