Hot topic: Why do we make such stupid blunders?

Van de Velde at Carnoustie

Golf can be a cruel game. It produces highs and lows – not only in scoring but emotionally, too. Just when you think you’ve cracked it – the game jumps up and bites you in the backside and sends you home riddled with ‘if-only’ regrets.

And I’m speaking from personal experience.

Following a winter of not-so-much discontent but inconsistency, I wanted to get off to a flying start and chip away at my handicap back into the single figures I’d enjoyed 30 years ago. With a little more time to play, years of experience behind me and the equipment – balls, irons and drivers – so much improved, it didn’t seem a tall order.

And after nine holes of the year’s first medal on Saturday – and despite an opening bogey - I’d played solidly with seven pars, and a birdie. My 11 handicap was looking tasty and all kinds of ‘what-ifs’ were drifting in an out of my consciousness.

Three poor chips and a three-putt later I’d dropped four shots with three holes to play and started to panic. A double and triple bogey followed and an excellent round had metamorphosised into mediocrity.

Psychologist Jos Vanstiphout

Out in level par, back in an ambulance!

At 16, instead of taking my punishment when semi-blocked by a tree I’d tried to hit a career fade and finished up in a hazard. At 18, a little voice inside has said ‘go for it!’ and I’d attempted to play a long iron from a downhill lie over water. …you guessed it.

But my question is: What makes golfers make stupid, rash decisions after playing so tidily? Why take risks when level-headedness is called for? If someone out there has the secret I want to know it – in fact, we all do.

Bob Warters - crazy decisions

It may not have helped my cause (and maybe it bruised me subconsciously) to have listened to Radio Five’s Adrian Chiles’ top ten sporting blunders on the way to the course – with No8 identified as Jean Van de Velde’s aberration at the 72nd hole off the 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie.

Perhaps I should have heeded the warning.

When it comes to pro golfers having mental coaches like Jos Vanstephout (Ernie Els), Bob Rotella (Darren Clarke) or Jay Brunza (Tiger Woods) I’ve always been a sceptic. It merely seemed like a slap on the wrist, wrapped up in a £50,000 invoice.

But perhaps there’s more to it – and if so I’d have paid for it handsomely – well at least a tenner - on the back nine at the weekend. The experience has merely left me, bitter and frustrated -until the next time.

If anyone out there has a quick fix to avoid making crazy mistakes with a good card going I want to hear it.

Tell us on the forum if you have a secret to mental success on the golf course that you’re prepared to share. Let us know, too if you’ve been screwed by psychology!