I Was +1 After 9 And Finished With An 8-Over-Par 79 (11 Handicap). Is That A Great Round Or Did I Choke?

In life, things are rarely black and white. Interpretations on the same thing vary wildly across the board and uniformity of opinion is a rarity, especially in a golfing context. I found myself pondering this phenomenon after my most recent round.

Let me set the scene. I was sitting on the clubhouse terrace at Worplesdon Golf Club after shooting a 79 from the back tees, with my playing partners commending me for such a good round of golf.

I was appreciative of their praise and enthusiasm, and part of me was delighted, but I couldn’t help shake the feeling that I’d let myself down on the back nine and wasted a golden opportunity to shoot my best ever round.

I was genuinely conflicted. To some, it would have been an open-and-shut case. With a handicap index of 11.4, how could breaking 80 and recording 41 Stableford points be anything other than a roaring success? I can certainly see those arguments.

So much comes into the discussion: your normal standard of play, your play on that particular day, the conditions, the challenge of the back nine, typical front-nine versus back-nine scoring, fatigue, past experiences on certain holes, variations in pressure and expectation from one nine to the other, luck and so on.

Perhaps the most pertinent question is whether you define success based on your normal level or how you’re playing on a particular day. I think it’s probably a mixture of both.

When you have a handicap with two digits in it (not including the decimal point), you’re not going to play brilliantly for 18 holes. But should you play better than average on the back nine if you’ve played so well on the front nine? Yes, you probably should, because you’re in a great rhythm and confidence should be high.

I won’t bore you with details of my front nine, but it featured two bogeys, one birdie and six pars. I played so well, barely missed a shot and didn’t hole many putts, which is normally my strength. My driving was as good as it’s ever been. Since my friend pointed out I was hooding the big stick and aiming into the left trees on almost every hole, I’ve been in the zone off the tee.

I will, however, give a brief hole-by-hole from the back nine to help you make your mind up. Please, leave me a comment and let me know if I’m a decent golfer or a massive choker.

Back-nine decline

Hole 10, par 3: Pushed tee shot, good chip to 5ft, missed putt = bogey

Hole 11, par 5: Crunched drive, 7-wood to the right greenside rough, average chip, raced first putt, decent return = par

Hole 12, par 5: Pushed drive into heather on tough driving hole, clipped tree on recovery shot, 7-wood into bunker, ball over green after sand wedge bounced, good chip, tap in = bogey

Hole 13, par 3: forced to play a 5-iron owing to broken 6-iron, pulled tee shot into heather under a tree, duffed chip into bunker from tough lie, great bunker shot, 8-footer holed = bogey

Hole 14, par 4: great drive on SI1, a 470-yarder, horrible second pushed into trees, third snagged up short of green, tidy pitch to five feet, lip out = double

Hole 15, par 5: crunched drive, pulled 7-iron, average chip, two putts = par

Hole 16, par 3: again needed my 6-iron, pushed 5-iron into sand, good bunker shot, missed putt = bogey

Hole 17, par 4: good drive but slightly pushed into bunker, lay up, wedge onto green, two putts = bogey

Hole 18, par 4: decent drive but slightly pushed into heather, cracking 5-iron to green, two putts = par

Even though it has three par 5s, I’ve traditionally found the back nine at Worplesdon pretty tricky, especially the stretch from 11 to 14. I rarely make par on 11, sometimes make a mess of 12, generally bogey 13 and often struggle on 14.

However, this time I was in the middle of the fairway, even though I had 200 yards to the flag. I was nervous over my second, because it was so firm around the green, there are trees on both sides and I knew this was probably the last chance of a real disaster shot. Cue horrific push 50 yards right into the trees. That was a choke.

I also felt I’d choked on 15, because I had a 7-iron into a par-5 green and walked off with par. However, I didn’t hit a bad shot and just turned it over. It was very similar to the shot I’d hit on the par-5 6th, which I also parred. Interestingly, I wasn’t disappointed about that.

On 16, I had the wrong club, and we all know how difficult it is to commit when that’s the case. My drive on 17 wasn’t bad, I just missed in the wrong place, and I made a very good par up 18 to break 80.

There’s no question there’s more pressure on the back nine if you have a good score going, because you’re that much closer to a historic round every hole. In my experience, that tends to override the fact I’m playing really well.

Not an isolated incident

Something very similar happened to me the day before. I was playing at Centurion with Jonathan Smart, a Masters-winning caddie and one of the founders of Caddy Clubhouse, to see if having a bagman could help me put together a better score.

I was +3 after 13 holes, which included a triple-bogey on the 3rd, and playing so well. Walking off the 13th green, I said I’d be happy with an eight-over round. Jonathan admitted afterwards he thought that was a perplexing thing to communicate.

Over the next three holes, I went double-bogey, bogey, double-bogey, the latter when I was in the middle of the fairway with 130 yards to the hole. I did rally with a par-par finish, but by that point the prospect of my best ever score had disappeared, so it felt like there was no pressure again. It’s interesting I was then able to play the final two holes in level.

At Worpleson, I can’t help but feel my mind stopped me shooting my best ever round of golf. There were some mitigating factors – I normally play the back nine worse, I didn’t have a 6-iron (which I would have used on both par 3s) and I got a bit unlucky – but I wasn’t anywhere near as good as on the front nine.

Was that because I’m a low-mid handicapper, so a drop off is inevitable after a run of good holes, or because I started thinking too much about how well I was playing and what score I could shoot if I kept it going?

There are elements of both, but if I’m being honest, I think I choked away my chance of a 75 or 76. All the par 5s were reachable and I hit good drives on all the long holes bar one. As I was lying in bed that night, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a massive wasted opportunity.

Did I crumble? No. Did I hit any shocking shots? Only one. But, in my heart of hearts, would I say I let the pressure get to me? I think I would.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below