Ever Completely Lose It? (was "Every Completely Loose It")

[gotstripers]

I'm a 9.5 and admittedly the season is young, but I shot an 84 this past weekend down on the Cape, but today at the range I couldn't get a wedge in the air to save my life.  I flushed a bucket of 9 irons and the same for the driver and then went to work on my wedges and couldn't get one in ten to fly.  They were all skidding right low and it didn't matter what I did, I couldn't figure out what I was doing, I finally decided to leave before I put too many bad thoughts in my head.  I've had this happen before on occassion and never really figured out just exactly what I was doing, seemed to always be ablet to walk away and get back in the groove; today was my worst case x 10 .....so frustrating.  I almost walked in to get the pro and put down some cash for a quick lesson.

By the way, new to the site, from Mass, just joined the Harmon Club locally to hopefully work on my short game, ironic isn't it:).  Played most of my golf around Plymouth MA.

[Crusher47]

Happens to me a lot as well.  I'm trying very hard to control it though.

Welcome to the site!  I used to live in RI and played in Rehoboth & Swansea Mass all the time!

[bplewis24]

Welcome to the forum and the Best Grammar Thread ;-)

And yes, this happens to me a lot.  You need to do a couple things:

1) identify where on the club you are striking the ball.  From your explanation I can't tell if you're hitting hosel rockets or just hitting it really thin off the toe or something.

2) See if you aren't shifting your weight forward/clearing your hips.

Sometimes we take shorter swings with our wedges which can promote us to get lazy with the lower body and just swing with all arms.  When this happens to me, and I don't clear my hips, I end up bringing the club through the impact zone with the face open and the hosel contacting the ball.  That may be your problem as well.

[SoundandFury]

Yup. Most often when I'm tired (too many balls at the range or working out too hard before hitting balls), and most noticeably with wedges. Like bplewis24 said, look where you're making contact on the club. I'm the same, get tired and bring the clubhead in wide open and smack it off the hosel. The hard part then is packing it in and coming back another day.

[dave s]

I've been known to scream "Have you EVER swung a golf club before in your LIFE?" during a round when the wheels come off.  Same thing--blading wedges, rolling hybrids, snap-hooking tee balls ... with a 6-iron!

If a real swing doesn't return quickly, half swings with a 7i off short tees at the range usually gets the tempo, rhythm and solid ball striking back.  Thankfully, I don't have to resort to that too often anymore.

dave

[iceman777]

Was having the same problem big time , cured it by doing 2 things : 1. focused on keeping my right leg steady on the backswing , almost to the point of looking at my right leg , to stop swaying , 2. thought of seeing my left elbow coming tight and across my chest on the downswing , to avoid having the club pass too far outside at the ball , thus hitting it with the heel .

[Mac62]

Same thing happened to me last week on the range during a pre-round warmup.  Started off with a wedge, hitting decent shots.  Went up to the 8-iron and couldn't get a ball in the air to save my life - spraying grounders and line drives all over the range.  I stepped back, re-evaluated my swing, went through everything in slow motion several times mentally checking off all my swing thoughts, same result.  Dropped back down to the wedge, and now couldn't get any shots off the deck with it.  Tee time was approaching, so I hit a few shots with the driver (which were all okay) and headed to the first tee, dreading my first iron shot on the course.  Strangely enough, the problem didn't re-appear once I was out on the course.  Go figure.

[dak4n6]

If you are really at the point where you can't get any balls into the air, I can't think of anything else (besides packing it in) other than back off and hit little 20 yd punch shots until you feel what good contact feels like, and then build back up from there.

[Kieran123]

Place two tees in the ground with just enough room for your clubhead to pass through. Place ball between tees. Hit ball. Repeat for 30 minutes.

Remove tees, hit ball. Shanks gone.

[dak4n6]

Ah yes, I had forgotten that drill, although I would also add a folded towel about 4" behind the ball to encourage a hands-ahead downward strike and discourage flipping.

[gotstripers]

Hit the range with just a wedge yesterday and hit 80+ pure, straight and not a hint of the previous day's worm burners.  I think purging my head of all negatives, trusting I know how to hit a wedge, along with solid basics insured the balls would fly.  Peeking has always been a problem for me, except on the greens, so I think that, along with a lazy upper may have caused all my issues the previous day.  Not a big matt fan either, other than the green left on the club is telling at times.

[dak4n6]

Originally Posted by gotstripers

Hit the range with just a wedge yesterday and hit 80+ pure, straight and not a hint of the previous day's worm burners.  I think purging my head of all negatives, trusting I know how to hit a wedge, along with solid basics insured the balls would fly.  Peeking has always been a problem for me, except on the greens, so I think that, along with a lazy upper may have caused all my issues the previous day.  Not a big matt fan either, other than the green left on the club is telling at times.

Weird game ain't it?