What do you do when everything goes wrong?

A little background. Up until late last year, I might have played 15 rounds in my lifetime (38 years old). For the past year, I have been playing/practicing 3-6 days a week with the exception of 8 weeks for a knee operation. My best round is an 86 and my average score is currently around 95. My putting average on the last 20 rounds is 2.0 with a low of 1.68. FIR is 36.5%. GIR is 24.2%. I am happy with where I am, for the time I have been playing.

I have worked with an instructor on my short game in the past. Recently, I have been concentrating on feeling the pressure on my right index finger. Since concentrating on this, when I strike it well, it's better than ever, but I also have more fat shots and my misses are long, fat, or offline either way.

The last two times out, I have felt like I am lost. Address hasn't felt right. The putts aren't dropping. Breaks aren't being read correctly. Balls are being lost. The scrambling is tiring. Did I mention the missed putts? Oh yeah, and hitting it fat. My confidence is waning.

It's tough to make it fun because I have issues with comptitiveness, and I am not meeting my expectations.

Please help! I want this to continue to be fun! How have you gotten out of a slump in the past?

When things aren't going your way on the course.. remember there is still the next hole ... if you feel like you have done so bad there is no point in continuing, simply start practicing... hit 2 or 3 balls off the tee and try to make par ... if there is someone behind you.. just be happy your alive and able

relax and have fun with golf. I have been enjoying golf for 24 years and you will reach different levels of skills.

I enjoy practicing putting and the short game around the green for lower scores.

Please refer to name

this is me to the tee,ive also been having a slump recently,and lost my swing.i have many old videos of my swing and refrenced them to how i have ben swinging lately.and let me tell you the diffrences are major and i now know what has been hindering me so now i can work on these things.if you can i would suggest trying the same.but thaats if you have your old swing recorded.i think putting and the short game are better when youre having fun and greatly diminishes when your not having fun.at least this is how i feel.hope it helps.

When everything goes wrong I simply relax and remind myself that I play golf for fun, so theres no reason to get mad about it.
If you take this game too seriously, it will beat you every time.
My advice is to lose your expectations and just do your best. You game will progress over time, you just need to stay patient and remember to have fun.

Drink!!

I just played the worst round of my life... Drove horribly, and hit 1 honest fairway(the other caught a lucky bounce). Hit it thin, hit it fat.. When I did make a good swing I had great results, but they were few and fair between.. Missed a birdie put, 3 par putts, and didn't make a single par for the round!

On the upside I did put a few right at the pin(gimmies), and on the 17th I sunk a 65 footer to make a bogey..

Honestly, about the 12th I almost gave it up, had I not been playing with a friend I would have thrown in the towel...

Playing a scramble tomorrow, and now I almost don't feel like even going..

Everyone has times when nothing goes right. That's part of the game. Take this time to learn to have fun and learn as much as possible from the misses.... especially around the greens. Learn what your tendencies are when you miss putts. Do you read too much break, not enough, or is the speed not right for the amount of break you are playing? It's when you are playing your worst that you learn to get the ball into the hole and score anyway. This is also when you learn course management. You have to learn to play your misses or play around them. Instead of hitting driver, hit the 3 wood or iron off the tee. Instead of hitting a full 8 iron to a green, go ahead and hit a small 6 iron to learn feel. There is so much to be learned when things aren't going well. Take it in stride so when you do get your game back, you have grown as a player.

I think what was already said makes a lot of sense, just have fun.

And, I dunno bout you guys, but when I am playing a string of lousy rounds, it seems something always breaks and I end up playing a string of good ones.

Besides, even in the lousiest of rounds, there must of been one shot that you pured 2 inches from the cup, or a driver that turned behind the very tallest leaf on a tree and cut a nasty dog leg into a wedge shot, or that one chip that bounced and broke just right...well you get my idea. Gotta be one thing you can smile about! I'd spend time thinking bout that.

Something about your mechanics has changed. You are doing something you didn't do even recently and it is messing everything up. Go through your checklist of key positions and make sure you're getting there. Mine are stance/address, grip, hip/shoulder angle and release + follow through position and also tempo. If any one of these isn't functioning a good chance a flaw will emerge and I fix it. Luckily when 1 is failing I've learned to identify the type of error that emerges. And luckily they don't fail often.

So true, and thanks for bringing that up! Seem that no matter how bad we play we always make that one shot that makes the round for us. I'm glad I stuck it out tonight, had I not, I wouldn't have sunk that 65 foot putt and I'd reeaaally be down on myself right now!

If it might inspire :

I have a little notebook in which I write down the three best shots (if I get to three) of my round, even when I play a lousy round, and trust me, at my level, those are frequent. Read in one of Bob Rotella's books that you have to remember your good shots and forget the bad ones. So I write down the hole, the club I used, the swing I used, the distance I covered and/or the distance left to the cup, everything that will allow me to visualize afterwards ... Then sometimes I flip through its pages and smile back while sipping my Duvel... Aaah, good times... G.

That is so true. When my swing goes south, it usually is one of the basic fundamentals has changed without me even knowing. For me, it is usually the position of the ball. Even though it feels same, the ball seems to creep ever so slightly to the right--leading to fades and slices when my usual shot shape is a slight draw.

Other things I noticed when my swing disappears is when I don't turn my shoulder or slide my hips rather than turning my hips or when I don't have an athletic posture during address. Now I keep a list of things that typically goes wrong with my swing written down on a flash card in my bag. I refer to it whenever my swing starts to go wrong. It brings my swing back much quicker than it used to when I had no idea what was happening.

Heh, this is actually a pretty cool idea. I think I might just adopt this next time I'm out, good round or bad~

The best thing IMO is to relax. I started out double-triple last night. We were stuck behind a high school girls golf match that was excruciatingly slow. Waiting 10-15 minutes on every hole will kill my game, however, I just went with it. I started whistling little tunes and used the opportunity to take long slow breaths. I ended up shooting 42 with birdie-par-bogey-par(almost birdie)-bogey-par-par.

I like this answer. Clubbing up 2 or 3 and hitting the right distance is a whole other skill you need to practice at the range, but if my feel's gone for the day, I've found that clubbing up just 1 club and then taking a like 90% or 95% swing but trying to hit it EASY works for me sometimes.

Of course, sometimes my problem was that I was just being tight, so that'll actually lead to purer shots with more than average distance, and I'll bomb an iron over the green, but hey, that's golf... And I know everyone's said it, but it really does help me to force myself to stop, calm down, and remember that I should just feel lucky to have the time to be outside walking in the park on a beautiful day! Also, with the comptetiveness thing, I've found I play better if one of my buddies keeps score and I purposefully don't keep my total in my head. As a single, I've had a couple rounds where I put away the score card and just concentrated on trying to hit one good shot per hole. Not usually magical turnaround there or anything, but, for example, if it's getting off the tee that's really the worst that day, then if you're not keeping score anymore, you lose the (bad) motivation to try to make a low-percentage shot out from the trees or whatever that's the only chance at par. Just take the easiest shot you have back out the fairway and see if you can make your good shot for the whole the next iron. If you shank that, then you get another chance to make your pitch or chip the good shot of the whole. For me at least, when I'm doing that, a pitch, even sitting four on a par four, inside 5 feet or so can make the whole still feel fun on a horrible day.

when i know my round is in the toilet i switch to 'lets have fun mode'...
if i have enough balls in my bag i will try the most ridiculous hero shots...
take the craziest routes to the hole... bomb over all the water when laying up is a sure par... cut doglegs by hammering it over trees... trying to get in and out of trouble... basically trying to 'showoff' for whoever im playing with

Thank you for the advice everyone!

Nayfac-Sound advice for certain. Perspective certainly helps with regard to being happy on course. The key for me with this statement is "you have done so bad there is no point in continuing". It's funny actually. I was at this point last week. When I was at this point and took your advice, I I hit the ball rolled the putt decently. When I tried to concentrate on grip, target, alignment etc, it broke down...I would like to find the source of that breakdown. It sure seems to be a between the ears issue.

ks8829 I also enjoy the practicing but I am not certain that I am practicing the right things, sometimes. I have taken lessons, and get it with the instructor there, but seem to forget a lot of it. I think I might try to take a lesson every month or so next year, and focus on practice tecniques.

Titleist, there is probably something to losing my expectations. Does anyone have advice with regards to how to lose my expectations without hurting confidence?

Focusing on progress over time will certainly help. It's easy to overlook this in today's society, with such immediate gratification. I suppose this is one of the things that attracts me to this sport.

threedolphins, I definitely get your idea-the shot that keeps me coming back is, well, keeping me coming back! The more we play, the more of these memories we have to draw from as well! I also understand your point that the rounds might be cyclical, with ups and downs and understand that I can reflect on the good moments during the bad rounds to keep my spirits up. I also recognize that I shoot better when I am in a good mood. After thinking about it, probably overt-thinking it, it's amazing to me how much of a mind game golf is.

Carl,

Patience is something that I have, unless there is disregard for pace of play, or course condition (dragging feet on the greens, littering etc). I'll try the breathing to help me relax. I know that I need to try something! When I am frustrated it's difficult for me to get back in the game.

lol, there are times I do that even when the round is going well...I still have some things to learn about course management!