Eliminate Disc Golf Bogies
Pro Disc Golfers Make the Same Mistakes as Us
Nobody who plays disc golf likes to bogey. Period. I do not care if you are Paul McBeth or Random Joe, watching your score tick higher than you would like is never a good feeling. This blog hopes to address three reasons you may be bogeying on the disc golf course and how to avoid them. The three factors leading to your disc golf bogies may be: bad luck, mental errors, and bad execution. Unfortunately it will be hard for us to control our luck (sometimes it goes our way!), but we can strive to eliminate the mental errors and bad execution plaguing our scorecards with bogey after bogey.
Bad Luck
As stated in the introduction, bad luck is the one of three factors contributing to higher scores that we are not able to affect with mental training or field work. That is not to say more practice and better execution will not make you better overall, as you will be finding yourself in less situations requiring luck to execute.
On the subject of luck however there are two things we need to remember: to not get frustrated with bad luck and not ride too high on good luck. When we confuse bad luck for poor execution we begin to doubt our disc golf abilities, which can snowball and lead to even more mistakes, even if you executed the first shot perfectly and just got an unlucky bounce.
Mental Errors
Mental errors in disc golf take the form of many shapes and sizes, and all are equally destructive to our scorecards. Sometimes we know we are making a mental errors before we begin our walk up, which can compound and lead to bad execution.
One of the biggest mental errors I make is running deep circle 2 putts I know I have no business running, and then compounding it with a three putt by missing a testy come back putt from circle 1. I know many of us intermediate players struggle with this mental mistake as well. We overestimate our abilities, and cost ourselves a stroke in the process.
Take time and count how many mental errors you make per round and next time you play disc golf you will find yourself recognizing yourself making the same mistakes. I know it sounds elementary but do this and you will see a significant stroke reduction in your average round.
Bad Execution
Bad execution in disc golf is heartbreaking. You have minimal wind and 250 feet of air and grass between you and the basket. No trees, no mandos, and no crying children. You wrap your fingers around your Star Roc3, walk up, let it rip, and watch in horror as your disc flys 60 feet right of your target.
Normally you can hit this shot every time, but not this time... why? Well there can be a few factors leading to bad execution, and by now you already know most of them. Dropped lead shoulder, throwing with the nose straight up, pulling off target, etc...
The remedy to bad execution is another cliché, but it is to GRIND and PRACTICE. All problems execution related can be remedied by disc golf field work and putting practice. Get out there, chunk discs, and perfect all phases of the many ways to throw a disc golf disc.
Conclusion
Next time you play a round of disc golf keep track of every shot you deem either poorly executed, you made a mental error, or got unlucky. Use this as a barometer to direct your focus for improvement.
If you find yourself making many mental errors then calculate new strategies and lines on those holes and maintain a high level of execution. If you find yourself not executing the lines you want to hit it is time to get into the field and get more familiar with your disc golf discs. Get out there, grab your discs, and get rid of these 3 disc golf errors and make less bogies!
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