A double bogey isn’t just a term you hear announcers mention on TV, it’s a reality of the game for every golfer, from weekend warriors to tour professionals. While seeing a '7' on your card for a par 5 can feel deflating, understanding what a double bogey is, why it happens, and how to start avoiding it is a massive step toward playing smarter, more consistent golf. This guide will break down this common scoring term and give you a straightforward, actionable game plan to keep those big numbers off your scorecard for good.
In the simplest terms, a double bogey is a score of two strokes over par on a single hole. It's that simple. Golf scoring is based on the 'par' for each hole, which is the expected number of strokes a highly skilled golfer should take to complete it.
Your goal is always to shoot par or better, but sometimes, the hole just doesn't go according to plan. That’s where terms like bogey, double bogey, and even the dreaded triple bogey come into play.
To make this crystal clear, let's look at how a double bogey would appear on each type of hole you'll encounter on the course:
You’ll often see these scores represented on a scorecard by a double square drawn around the number itself. If your friend marks your 6 on a par 4 with two squares, smile, nod, and know it’s just feedback for your next hole.
A double bogey is part of golf's unique scoring language. Putting it in context with other common scoring terms helps make sense of it all. Here’s a quick-_reference guide moving from best to worst:
For most amateur golfers, bogeys are friends and double bogeys are the enemy. The entire goal of getting better at golf is to turn more of those "doubles" into "bogeys" and those "bogeys" into "pars."
A double bogey rarely comes from one single bad swing. More often, it's the result of a chain reaction - a series of small mistakes, bad decisions, or a single major blunder that puts you in a tough spot. Understanding these root causes is the first step in creating a plan to prevent them.
This is the fastest and most punishing way to rack up a double bogey. A penalty stroke is a shot added to your score for breaking a rule, most commonly for hitting your ball into a hazard.
Penalty strokes feel like getting a flat tire before you've even left the driveway. They put you immediately on your back foot and make saving par almost impossible.
Sometimes, the trouble comes from the six inches between your ears. Poor course management - making a bad decision about which club to use or where to aim - is a sneaky culprit. This could be:
Choosing the wrong strategy forces you to execute a perfect shot. When that perfect shot doesn't happen, the penalties add up fast.
You did everything right! You piped a drive down the middle and hit a beautiful iron shot onto the giant green of a par 4. You're feeling great. But you’re 50 feet from the hole.
Your first putt screams past the hole, leaving you 10 feet back. You get tense, miss the 10-footer, and then miss the 3-foot tap-in out of frustration. All of a sudden:
Putt 1 + Putt 2 + Putt 3 + Putt 4 = 4 putts.
Your drive and your iron shot mean nothing now. You just walked off the green with a 6 - a double bogey - without ever finding any "real" trouble.
This is the most relatable and painful path to a double bogey. It’s when one mistake leads to another, then another, creating an avalanche of strokes.
Imagine this scenario on a par 4:
Your decent tee shot turned into a card-wrecker because you let one minor mistake trigger a series of poorer decisions and emotional swings. This is the definition of letting a hole get away from you.
Just knowing what a double bogey is won't help you play better. You need a strategy - a set of go-to moves that give you the best chance to avoid those big numbers, even when you don’t have your "A-game." Here are four simple but powerful principles.
The goal off the tee is not to hit it as far as humanly possible. The goal is to start the hole from the fairway. Before you pull your driver, stop and assess the risk. If there's out-of-bounds left and a lake right, ask yourself, "Is the driver really worth it?" Often, a hybrid or a long iron will leave you just 20 yards shorter but removes almost all risk of a penalty stroke. A boring fairway shot is infinitely better than a re-tee.
This is the antidote to the snowball effect. When you find your ball in a bad spot - deep in the trees, a terrible lie in the rough, a fried-egg in the bunker - your first thought should be damage control, not heroics. Forget the green. The smart play is to get the ball back into a good position, even if it means hitting it sideways back to the fairway. Punching out and giving yourself a clearthird shot will almost always lead to a bogey. Trying the "hero" shot through a 2-foot gap in the trees often leads to a double, triple, or worse.
On the putting green, change your objective on long putts. Anything outside of about 20 feet is not a putt you should be trying to "make." It's a putt you should be trying to get close. Your goal is simply to roll it into a 3-foot circle around the hole, leaving yourself a stress-free tap-in. This mindset immediately takes the pressure off and makes three-putting much less likely.
Many double bogeys happen because of clumsy shots inside 100 yards. Flubbed chips and ugly pitch shots add strokes just as fast as a penalty. Dedicate a portion of your practice time to these shorter "feel" shots. If you can become reliable with a pitching wedge, a gap wedge, and a simple greenside chip, you’ll have the tools to recover from a mediocre approach shot and routinely save your pars and bogeys.
A double bogey is simply a score of two over par on a hole, but its effect on your confidence and your scorecard can feel much bigger. By understanding that these big scores are usually caused by correctable issues like penalties, poor decisions, and compounding errors, you can put a clear, simple game plan in place to avoid them.
When you're out on the course, knowing the smart play in those tricky situations is half the battle. This is where modern tools can completely change the game for amateur players. With Caddie AI, you can get instant, expert-level advice on course strategy right when you need it. By describing the hole or even snapping a quick photo of a challenging lie, our on-demand coach can give you a simple recommendation on club choice and shot strategy, turning a potential double bogey situation into a clear-headed decision. Our goal is to take the guesswork out of the game, so you can play with more confidence and enjoy an afternoon with fewer double squares on your card.
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