Where Are Most Strokes Lost In Golf?

Strokes are lost everywhere by golfers as bad shots do not discriminate. The only way to eliminate lost strokes is being able to identify them. Find the problem, fix the problem. If your answer to “where are the most strokes lost in golf?” has anything to do with needing new clubs, you’re dead wrong.

Okay maybe not dead wrong if your clubs are from two decades ago. But, if your clubs are clean, modern, and unbroken, it’s not the clubs fault. It’s poor game decisions and course management.

Losing golf strokes off the tee

You can lose strokes off the tee in two ways. The first is by selecting the wrong club, like a driver when an iron is the best play. The other is by hitting a shot so poorly it’s impossible to score well on the hole.

For the first piece of this, sacrificing distance for position is a tradeoff that pays off, but the reward is not always seen until after the hole. Don’t give in because of the need for immediate gratification. The second isn’t always avoidable, but costs you strokes left and right. Make sure your misses aren’t bad misses.

Penalty strokes are a double negative

A 15-handicap golfer takes about 4 penalty strokes per round. As part of those penalty strokes, they need to play shots over, resetting to the distance or position that gave them trouble the first go around.

If you’re a 15-handicap and able to cut penalty strokes in half to 2, you could in theory be eliminating a few more shots from your total tally.

Since many penalty strokes are due to mental errors or miscalculations, better focus could clean them up and prevent losing strokes you don’t need to.

Knowing the rules

Casual water, plugged ball, proper relief in staked areas. Knowing these rules can help you recover and stop yourself from losing a hole entirely. Two rules that are either lesser known or underutilized are stroke and distance and taking an unplayable.

Stroke and distance

The stroke and distance rule is an alternative to hitting a provisional when a ball may be lost. The full details are broken down in rule 18.1, but here’s the gist of it. Figure out where your ball was lost. Take relief at that distance on the edge of the fairway. Don’t rely on hitting a good shot from the previous location, especially off the tee.

If re-hit and make the same mistake, you toss two strokes away. Using this rule ensures you only throw one away.

Unplayable

When your ball is in such a terrible spot your only play is to hack at it and hope for the best, you might want to take an unplayable. Yes, this costs you a penalty stroke. But the theory is that the penalty you take will be less than the number of strokes you would take blindly swinging and praying.

Hitting above the hole

Over shooting your target on the green leads to difficult putts. An easy way to throw strokes away is leaving yourself tough putts you didn’t need to. Keep the ball below the hole as a series of uphill putts is more desirable than downhill putts.

Losing golf strokes by bad club selection

If you have the wrong distance, you can sail greens or come up short. Take the time to confirm how far you have. What’s that saying in construction? Measure twice, cut once? Stick to the same mantra on the course.

Also, don’t be the person that hits 9 when they meant to hit 7. It’s about as foolish as it gets when it comes to wasting shots.

Playing too aggressively

Look at any overzealous golfer and ask them where are most strokes lost in golf. They might not have a great answer, but you have one for them. When you take shots you're not capable of, you are all but guaranteeing wasted shots. By playing within your limits, you avoid losing strokes in foolish fashion.

Conclusion

As you can see many times most strokes are lost in golf because of a poor decision or a misjudged shot which can cause a bad result. Make sure you analyse the situation and use the right club for a situation you're in. This will help you lower the risk and improve your scores.