Last week, I watched a student of mine hit a perfect drive down the middle, stick his approach to 12 feet, then three-putt for bogey. He looked at me like the golf gods had personally wronged him. But here’s the thing: this wasn’t bad luck. It’s a pattern I see every single week on the course.
You know the feeling. You’re standing over a makeable par putt, feeling confident, then somehow walk away shaking your head at another bogey. It’s maddening because you did everything right to get there. The drive found the fairway, the approach was solid but your scorecard tells a different story.
After teaching for more than two decades, I’ve identified the real culprits behind these momentum-killing bogeys. They’re not swing flaws or equipment issues. They’re mental mistakes that turn routine pars into round-wrecking disasters.
The approach shot that sets you up to fail
Most golfers think just hitting the green equals success. Wrong. Where you hit the green determines everything that follows. And, by the way, let go of your “greens in regulation” ego. The PGA Tour average for GIRs is 12 per round. If you hit seven or eight in 18 holes, you are doing very, very well.
I see players aim straight at pins tucked behind bunkers or cut close to water hazards. They’re so focused on getting close that they overlook the massive downside risk. Miss by three feet in the wrong direction and you’re chipping from sand or worse.
Smart golfers aim for the fat part of the green. Always and forever. That 35-footer from the center beats a buried lie in the bunker every single time. Your ego wants you to attack every pin but your scorecard rewards patience.
Here’s a thought that changed everything for one of my students during a playing lesson: I told him to pick the safest spot on every green and aim there, regardless of pin position.
His greens-in-regulation stats for that round stayed the same but those round-destroying three-putts disappeared completely and he dropped four strokes off what he shot the previous day using this strategy.
The putting mistake that kills momentum
You’ve got 15 feet for par. The line looks clear, the speed feels right, but you leave it two feet short. Now you’re standing over a knee-knocker that should be automatic, except your confidence just took a hit.
This is where most golfers compound their mistakes. They get tentative over the short one, worried about missing again. The stroke gets careful and mechanical instead of smooth and confident.
The solution isn’t a better putting technique. It’s a better strategy on that first putt. I teach students to putt every par attempt like they’re trying to make it, but with enough speed that a miss rolls 12 to 18 inches past the hole. This eliminates those dreaded two-footers that turn into yip-inducing nightmares.
The mental trap that creates bogey streaks
In my 20 years of teaching golf, I’ve noticed something fascinating:Â most golfers putt worse after missing a short one than they do normally. It’s not their stroke that changed; it’s their mindset.
Say you miss a three-footer on the eighth hole. Suddenly, every putt on the back nine feels harder. My theory is that your brain starts protecting disappointment by expecting misses. This creates tentative strokes that actually cause the misses you’re trying to avoid.
The fix is simple but not easy. Treat every putt like it’s your first of the round. I tell students to develop a pre-putt routine that resets their confidence completely. Take your practice strokes, visualize the ball going in, then commit fully to the stroke.
The honest truth about par saves
Converting pars isn’t about perfect execution. It’s about avoiding the big mistake that turns a manageable situation into a disaster.
Play to the safe side of greens. Give yourself uphill putts when possible. Never leave a par putt short. These aren’t revolutionary concepts but they work because they eliminate the errors that create bogeys.
Start implementing this approach in your next round. Your scorecard will thank you and those frustrating bogeys will start turning into the pars you deserve.
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