My year just got made!!

I like to look at the positives.  Overall you are fairly consistent down the center with most shots 20 yards or less off center.  On most fairways that should be in play.  Sure, you had some very short duds, but also if you look there is a good cluster in the 110-125 yard range.  Sure, we would all like to be longer, but knowing your typical shot is more important than trying to hit the 7-Iron 175 Yards.  Just take more club for longer shots and do not worry about it.  Your distances may increase as you improve over time so do not get caught up on that now.

Day 552, May 7, 2024 Played nine holes with @NatalieB with irons only from her tees. Didn't really finish out any holes, just hit the irons and approaches and some chips.

What has gone downhill? Have you been practicing properly, filming your swing, working on exactly what he suggested without straying? My thoughts are that your results/outcomes from a lesson a year ago probably aren't all that relevant anymore.  And carry distance is far more important than total distance. Total distance is going to vary significantly based on course conditions.

One thing that has helped me tremendously is to spray the club face with foot powder when I am on the range. Seeing ball impact can be quite helpful if you are hitting shots all over the place. It's not the cure all, but a good little thing to do on the range. The other thing, and I will forget to do it, is the pre-shot routine. Find me a spot a foot or so from the ball in-line with my target, take my stance, take the swing.  Sometimes you take a BS practice swing with no thought. Make it deliberate.  As far as swing thoughts. I have 3 check-points. First is set-up, Second is my take away, Third is my downswing. I cant explain what I think I just know in my mind. Its a feeling that I have that feels right and experience has shown that if I follow those 3 thoughts more than likely the outcome will be what I was looking for. Now, thinking about the feeling and executing it properly is a whole different thing, that;s why I practice, I used to be over a 20 handicap, I am down to a 15.1 in about a year.  I feel like its good progress. the goal is a 10 by the end of the year. If I make it great, if not, hey at least Im not in Gaza. LOL

I usually shy away from giving advice on a golf swing since so many here are more qualified than I am.  You might try the following:  Create a "MySwing" page on this  site and you will get a lot of good advice Filter all of the advice and try to only focus on one or two things at a time.  Unfortunately it is very hard, if not impossible, to constantly change different things at the same time.  Figure out what is the most important thing to work on at this moment in your golf swing and focus on that until you have it engrained, then move on the the next change. Remember, we all have both good & bad shots.  The difference between the pros and us hackers is the ratio of good to bad shots. Understand that a bad swing can occasionally look like a great result and a good swing can occasionally have a bad result.  The key is to focus on one thing and work to get that as consistent as possible.  Ideally that will gradually increase the number of good shots vs bad shots.    Do not forget to have fun.