3 Dirty Ways to Mess With Your Opponent’s Head
- Updated: March 21, 2022
Match play is a beautiful thing. It completely changes the game from playing against the golf course to playing against someone else who is playing against the golf course with you.
Your triple will only cost you one hole, and it could even win the hole if your opponent is bad enough.
Maybe best of all, in this one-on-one format, all bets are off when it comes to getting under your opponent’s skin.
All the great match play players in history have been masters at gamesmanship and getting in their opponents’ heads. Here are 3 ways you can too:
1. Only compliment bad shots
If your opponent just drained a 20 footer or stuck one from 220 out, ignore it. You didn’t see it and you don’t care about it.
But make certain you have the compliment cued up for that next bad shot.
When they send one sailing into the trees give them a “good one there” or a classic “golf shot!”
The key is to make sure there is no sarcastic tone that goes with it. Keep deadly serious and keep walking like they just striped one.
This will most likely anger them, causing subsequent mistakes and you to win the hole with a double.
2. “Should I hit another one?”
If your matches are anything like ours, there will be several shots that are questionably close to some white stakes.
If we were in a Tour event and had spotters, it would make life a lot easier. But since we don’t, we need to make the call from wherever you hit the shot if a provisional is in order.
When your opponent hits a dicey one, it is very important you keep a close eye on their ball.
Think it went out? Tell them it’s fine. They’ll walk up there, find it 20 yards out of bounds, and you’ll send them on their lonely way back to the tee box, which ideally has a group waiting on it for added pressure.
Conversely, if you know it’s in for sure, urge them to hit a provisional. This could work for you in multiple ways.
If they stripe one, then get up there and find the first one in play, but in a terrible position, they may be flustered.
They could also hit 3 more balls way out of bounds, setting them up for an “out of balls” DQ in a couple of holes. A win-win situation stemming from a heads-up play on your part.
3. “I think I see a ball there”
Nobody wants to lose a ball in any circumstance, but that one-stroke penalty or re tee could cost you the hole. So chances are, on any of the aforementioned dicey shots there will be a search for the golf ball in question.
And the searches rarely happen alone. Unless you’re searching for your ball on the opposite side of the fairway, you’ll be helping them look for theirs.
This is where you can really apply some gamesmanship.
While you’re looking, make sure you call them over for at least 4 or 5 false alarms. Keep calling out balls that could be theirs but aren’t, sending them on an emotional roller coaster of epic proportions.
If you aren’t finding any balls, take a few out of your bag and throw them down.
By the time your opponent drops and takes a stroke, they’ll be so mentally drained they may concede your 110-yard wedge shot just to get the hole over with.
Two Inches Short is a place where amateur golfers can unapologetically be themselves. It’s where we can all relate to the greatest game ever played at a level we can all understand.
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“Making triple bogey from the middle of the fairway isn’t just about skill, it’s a lifestyle.”
