Ahead of the 2026 Evian Championship, Nelly Korda described a particular challenge posed by the course: You can hit very good shots and still end up in completely wrong or difficult spots. That’s why patience is key this week.
This statement highlights a fundamental problem in golf. A shot can be executed well from a technical standpoint and still lead to an unfavorable outcome. Conversely, a poor shot can sometimes turn out well.
Therefore, those who look only at the result often draw the wrong conclusions.
A golf course consists of more than just the fairway, rough, and green
From a strategic standpoint, a golf course consists of many different zones. Some areas make the next shot easy. Others make the rest of the hole more challenging, even though the ball may be only a few meters away.
For example, a ball can:
- are on the fairway but have a poor angle to the green,
- land on the green but end up on the wrong side of a steep slope,
- be just off the green, but be virtually unplayable due to rough, bunkers, or the contours of the course,
- ended up in a difficult situation after a good shot resulted in an unfavorable bounce.
The quality of a shot is therefore not determined solely by whether the ball landed on the fairway or the green. The situation that arises next is also a decisive factor.
That is exactly what makes some golf courses so challenging. Small differences in direction, distance, flight path, or ball bounce can have very different consequences.
The quality of a shot, the decision, and the result are not the same thing
After taking a swing, golfers should evaluate three things separately:
Was that a good decision?
Was a target chosen that was appropriate for the game situation, your own spread, and the potential damage?
Was the shot executed as planned?
Did the ball take off in the intended direction, and was the contact roughly in line with your usual swing quality?
What was the result?
Where is the ball, and what are the options for the next shot?
These three assessments can lead to different results.
A player can choose a good target area, execute the shot properly, and still end up in a difficult situation due to a hard or uneven bounce. In this case, the result was poor, but the decision and execution may have been correct.
Similarly, a player might choose a shot that’s too aggressive, hit the ball poorly, and still end up on the green by sheer luck. A good result doesn’t automatically make the decision a good one.
Why golfers often misinterpret their scores
Many golfers evaluate their decisions in retrospect, based on the outcome.
If the ball is in a good spot, the shot was right. If it’s in a bad spot, something went wrong.
This form of evaluation quickly leads to flawed learning processes. Sound decisions are discarded simply because a single outcome was unfavorable. At the same time, risky decisions are endorsed if they happen to work by chance.
Therefore, it is not only the result that matters for long-term development. What is crucial is the quality of the process leading up to the swing.
These include:
- to accurately assess the situation,
- identify potential risks,
- take one’s own dispersion into account,
- select an appropriate target zone,
- take into account the possibility of failure,
- Accept the decision and carry it out consistently.
At the Strategy Lab, we refer to this approach as “decision quality.” It helps golfers evaluate a decision regardless of whether the specific outcome was good or bad.
Patience doesn’t mean playing passively
When Nelly Korda talks about patience in this context, she doesn’t mean playing without ambition or playing defensively by nature.
Patience means not reacting emotionally to every unfavorable outcome right away.
After a good shot that lands in a bad spot, a new playing situation arises. This must be reevaluated. The player should not try to immediately correct the unfortunate outcome with an especially aggressive next shot.
This is exactly where chains of errors often begin:
A good shot ends badly.
The player is frustrated with the result.
The next shot is planned too aggressively.
The risk increases.
A difficult situation leads to a major mistake.
Patience breaks this cycle. It allows you to accept the outcome and make the next decision based on the current situation.
A good decision does not guarantee a specific outcome
Even the best strategy can’t prevent a ball from bouncing awkwardly, disappearing into the rough, or coming to rest in a tricky spot on the green.
A strategy is not meant to rule out every bad outcome. It is meant to ensure that the potential consequences of a normal error remain as manageable as possible.
To this end, golfers work not only with a precise target point, but also with target zones and safety margins. When choosing a target, they should consider where the ball might land after a good shot, a normal miss, and a slightly bigger mistake.
Nevertheless, golf remains a game of uncertainty. Good decisions increase the likelihood of a playable next shot. They do not guarantee it.
The crucial question after the blow
After an unfavorable result, it’s therefore best not to ask right away:
What did I do wrong?
It is more helpful to ask three separate questions:
Was my decision before the shot a good one?
Did I execute the shot roughly as planned?
What does this new situation require of me now?
This separation protects against hasty technical corrections and emotional follow-up decisions.
A well-executed shot can end badly. That’s part of golf. What matters is whether the player can accept the result, reassess the situation, and plan the next shot without letting emotions get the better of them.
That is precisely where strategic patience comes into play.
Monnard Widmer Coaching Insight
A good shot doesn’t guarantee a good position. Accept it, reassess, and avoid chains of errors.
