Many golfers struggle to recover during a round of golf when they have a bad hole or two, and this can lead to the worst round of your life. What they don’t realize is that good golf can be achieved even with a bad hole or two. John Huh proved this recently when he started a tournament with a 44 on the first nine, finished that round with a 77 and ended up battling for the tournament lead towards the end.

There are a few ways you can play better golf even when you have a bad hole and it is all about learning to play golf one stroke at a time. Most look at it as an 18 hole round, but really it is two 9 hole sets, three 6 hole sets, or six 3 hole sets. Breaking down the course can really help you play better golf, even with one bad hole.

It is easiest to start by breaking it down into three hole sets. Then, set a goal for each set of three holes and aim for that goal. For example, if you start the course with three holes that add up to 13 strokes for par (a par 5 and two par 4 holes), then you might set your goal at 12 for this set of holes. This all depends on your skill level.

Now, if you set your goal at par and you want to shoot 13 on these three holes, and then you take a 6 on the first hole, you still have 7 strokes to work with for the next two holes. There is no need to panic even if you take an 8 on the first hole. You can adjust your goal for the next set of three holes if you don’t achieve your goal for your first set of three holes.

This strategy helps golfers to learn how to concentrate on one shot at a time instead of looking at the entire round at once. This is just one strategy to help you play golf one stroke at a time. The rest has quite a bit to do with the mental side of the game. It can be hard to find the right thoughts in your head, but this will help you during a round that isn’t going exactly as planned.

Many golfers have one bad hole and think they blew their entire round, but this simply isn’t true. I know someone particularly that thinks if the first three holes don’t go as planned it just isn’t his day. This causes him to stop caring so much about how he plays and he usually throws up a ridiculous number that isn’t even close to his potential.

Golf takes patience and you have to know that your holes will come. Even professional golfers have bad holes, but it is the sum of the entire round that matters. I usually break 80 and a bad round for me is 85 or worse, but I have my bad holes, too. Just the other day I took a 10 on a hole I usually par or birdie and still managed to shoot 81. Sure, it wasn’t my best round ever, but it could have been so much worse.

The point here is you cannot give up just because you have one bad hole. If you continue to fight back, you can shoot a decent score and really learn something about your golf game. What is the point in giving up anyway? It could be your day for a hole in one, your first eagle or a string of birdies in a row.

Golf if a fickle game and yes you will have your good days and your bad days, but you cannot allow one hole or one shot to get you down. Usually when a player throws a tantrum over one or two missed shots it leads to negative self-talk and more bad shots. You can avoid all of this just by understanding you cannot change the past, but you can go hit a great shot for your next shot.

Many of the best golfers hit horrible shots from time to time and some actually hit really bad shots every single round. However, they understand that one great shot can make up for a couple bad shots in a hurry. So what if you have a bad hole. You might turn around and have the best hole of your life on the next one.

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