Help getting over the hump!!

chris0228 · March 29, 2010

I am getting to the point where the game / my swing is getting the best of me. I have shot in the 70's twice and mostly score in the 82-86 range, but could easily be in the 70's every time with a slight increase in consistency. I need some help/thoughts on what others have done when they get to this point: I have every shot I need to be a single digit handicapper. My problem is, my misses are huge. I'll go from 290 right down the middle, PW to 10 feet, Birdie......to pull hook 6 Iron for a double bogie on the next hole. Was playing with the guys Saturday and went par, birdie, birdie, double, and was inconsistent throughout the rest of the match. When I am playing by myself and hit a bad shot, Ill drop another ball down and 99% of the time will hit the shot I wanted to hit.

I know that it's not an easy question, and if this could easily be answered we'd all be on the tour. I just know that I am capable of hitting the shots I want to hit. Now how do I translate that to more consistent play. The obvious answers are more practice/range time, a more consistent swing thought, etc.. Just curious to see what those of you have done to help get over this hump. Thanks!!!

**saevel25** · March 29, 2010

Man i can simpathize, i am the same. I drive the ball 300+, have wedge in my hand 70% of the time.

The issue i think you have, if you pull hook a 6-iron, is tempo. You get to quick. You got enought power to sacrifice 10 yards on the drives and 5 yards on the irons to get the accuracy down.

99% you hit the ball you want to hit. here is why, you are thinking to much. After you miss, all the desire to make the shot perfect is gone, you already missed it, so you have no pressure to make the 2nd shot because it means nothing, you are still going to pick up that 2nd ball and play the first one. Never ever do this, you are training your self to have this mental breakdown. You need to accept that you messed up and go play the next ball. There was an article on putting, showing that people make a 2nd putt more than the first because the pressure is off them now. You got to train your self to play golf with out the pressure of wanting to be perfect. My best round of golf i ever shot was 2 over, and i hit about 70% of the greens. I only figured out how well i could shoot when i was on the 18th green, i wasn't keeping score at all. I didn't care, i was jsut playing golf. Of course that PW to the 18th green and that 7 foot birdie putt, i knew what i was going to shoot there, thanks to my dad telling me.

The point is, just forget about how perfect the shot has to be. Forget about the pressure, this is a golf shot. It sounds like your good enough that you have played the shot 100+ times before, your body and mind knows the shot. Just trust that fact and it will go well. You might be 15 feet not 10 feet to the pin, so what.. 15 feet is one hell of a shot.

I played 9 holes last week, i duck hooked my drives on 4 out of the 9 holes, i shot 4 over. Why, because i didnt' care i duck hooked it once i did it. there was nothing i coudl do about it. I got to the next shot and put my bad miss on the green. Getting from 12-15 to single digit is usually putting, short game, and the mental side of the game. It sounds to me yours is all mental.

chris0228 · March 29, 2010

Man i can simpathize, i am the same. I drive the ball 300+, have wedge in my hand 70% of the time.

Great stuff. Yeah, had a pretty good idea that it was a mental thing. That fits my personality to a T (no pun intended). On the range when I don't have any pressure, I am so much more consistent. On the course, I overthink all too much. Thanks for the words of wisdom, I appreciate it!!

**jaragon126** · March 29, 2010

Great post,
I sometimes think my obsessive habit of keeping too many stats might be what kills me, but if I don't keep the stats then how will I know what parts of my game need work?

Should I continue to keep stats so I can analyze what parts need work (fairways, greens in regulation, putts, chip/pitch/bunkers & saves), or just play golf & do nothing but record my scores on each hole?

I used to play alot better than I have been in the last few years, but I don't know if that's because of the obsessive stat tracking, the new irons, or because I stopped taking lessons from my favorite instructor.

**Gioguy21** · March 30, 2010

keep the stats but don't think about them till after the hole is over with. walk to your ball with a clear mind and a positive image of what you expect of it...you'd be surprised how often it can actually happen

**jaragon126** · March 30, 2010

Played 9 holes after work last night, first round of the season.

Par on the first hole, then went double bogey, double bogey. Ended up finishing the rest of the round with 2 more bogeys, so not COMPLETELY horrible since I know my short game still needs work.

I decided I'm just going to keep track of Fairways, GIR, and putts. No more chip/pitch/bunkers & saves ... too many numbers to think about.

I think my alignment is off, I hit lots of balls pretty good with nice soft fades & draws. But everything seemed to land to the right ... maybe I'm lined up incorrectly.

**saevel25** · March 30, 2010

Keeping stats is alright to do. But don't get to carried away with it. To me the most imporant stats are these.

Greens in Regulations, for me i like to get about 60% or more
Number of Putts, i like to average less than 2.0 per hole
Scrambling

Believe me, my handicap ranges from a 3 to a 14, it dependant on those things.

Driving accuracy is over rated, unless you play on a course has tight golf holes. My driving accuracy last year was probably 20-30%, my handicap was about a 10. My best days came when i can manage less than 2.0 putts per hole, and hit 60%+ of my GIR.

For most golfers, average length of putts isn't imporant, we are not that good to help that out, unless you do some serious ball striking practice.

**mdl** · March 30, 2010

I'm at about this point myself. I almost broke 80 for the first time yesterday. Shot 81 with a penalty (OB drive), and still only missed breaking 80 cause I choked with bogey, double on 16 and 17. Knew where I was on 17 and got all worked up and skulled my 6i approach, hopped it about 100 yards down the fairway. I'm with the advice above to specifically try to sacrifice distance to learn to control tempo and increase consistency. I get it worst on the drives, where I'll just overswing. If I relax and literally try to hit it 200 yards, suddenly it comes out pretty straight and goes 250+ instead of the 270-300 I can hit when I'm on with a more powerful swing.

I have an easier time with this with irons. I'm capable of hitting my 9i 140+, but on the course I've finally learned to play it as a 130-135 club, and swing accordingly, and it's WAY more consistently on the green, closer to where I want it that way.

**CarlSpackler** · March 30, 2010

My guess is you are pressuring yourself to score causing tension. When you drop the second ball, you are swinging tension free, and *BAM!*. I would suggest reading Zen Golf.

**jaragon126** · March 30, 2010

Ya mdl if I just swing my driver nice & easy not worrying about distance, it usually ends up much better than if I was trying to kill it. It's weird that it's so difficult to get yourself to swing the driver easy, rather than trying to cut the dogleg corner, or get up on top of the hill in the middle of the fairway, or clear the pond from the tee box.

I tried getting yardages from my lessons at GolfTec recently, because I felt like my distances were off ... but that was a complete nightmare. Now it's all pretty much a guess for me. I know my 7i goes about 145 so I just count about 10 yards up & down for each club as a guess. Would be nice to really get distances dialed in, but I don't know of any driving ranges here that use real golf balls rather than those janky range balls that don't fly true. Pretty hard to sneak out on an empty course now too cause the weather is good and the courses are full.

My stats:
GIR = 38%
Fairways = 44%
Putts per hole = 2.03

If I could get my GIR to 60% saevel25, that would be a HUGE improvement. I see that on the PGA tour, the leaders are at like just over 75% for GIR & Fairways. I'm WAY OFF!

**saevel25** · March 30, 2010

"Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-lagunga"

Well there is a big different between tempo and over swinging... When you loose your synch between the parts of the swing, that is overswinging. Nick Price has one of the fastest tempo's, and i believe greg norman did as well, His driver would bounce off his back. just making the distinction between the two.

yeah its all mental for you. It will just take practice to get that calm on every shot. I would start with never taking another second ball again, even on putts. Just don't do it, its a bad habit.

**saevel25** · March 30, 2010

Well my goal is 60%+, but i am usually around 45-50%... I think my best round of golf i had, i was probably 15 out of 18 greens, i shot two over par. The issue was i didn't play a round of golf all year, just came home and played a round with my dad. So my putting and chipping were no good at all. But man were the driver and irons on fire. What helped was playing Racquetball.

**Pat007** · March 30, 2010

Great post,

jesus....i'm a golf pro, and can tell you that no pro, myself included, keeps this many stats. Clear your headspace man. One swing thought...no more

**jaragon126** · March 30, 2010

Thanks for the info Pat007, so you don't keep any stats at all?

I was thinking maybe to just keep Fairways, GIR, and putts from now on. Still too much?

**kpaulhus** · March 30, 2010

If you 2 putt for Par....thats a GIR. Dont even think about it on the course. Just go back afterwords and look at your putts.

**osean79** · March 31, 2010

At this point, you've got the arsenal of weapons to shoot under 80, but you lack the mental game.
You are shooting your best game ever, and a couple of mental lapses later you are finishing with a 11-12 over par again.
I too am all too familiar with the above picture, and I think I've learned to get over the hump by a positive attitude and avoiding the danger zones.

I believe the biggest favor you can do for yourself on the course is, first know your game and know the course you will be playing. Honestly, I play better on courses that I know back to front. Avoid the little traps that each hole offers and you will save alot of strokes. From a mental point, I tell myself that we can't par every hole out there... I really can't since I am bound to get bogeys and birdies here and there. Knowing this, I don't kill myself over a bad drive or approach, but tell myself to make the best choices to save par or at worse bogey. Key point is eliminating double bogeys and worse.

A good way to avoid the blow up holes is to leave your ego behind when you go up to the tee box. That's where it begins. Choose the shot that effectively eliminates the bad spots for you. I avoid all bunkers off the tee, since that's my weakness, choosing to play the 3 wood or hybrid quite often to avoid bunkers or bad spots in the rough. I'd rather hit a longer iron from the short grass.

**saevel25** · March 31, 2010

100% correct.. I think i was 2 over par once and there was this dogleg right that was drivable for me. straight ahead, should have took a long iron out. But i tried to play a big push cut into the green to try to get eagle. I hooked it into the water. Luckily i made a 8 footer for par. But i should have just hit a long iron and try to hole the iron from the fairway, probably a better chance of doing that then going for the green in one.

If your style is aggressive, then play aggressive, just be smart about it. For me personally, i am a pin seaker, because i have confidence i can get up and down a good % of the time. I love playing like that, nothing more boring to me than middle fairway, middle green, two putt. To do so i try to play shot making golf, curve the ball. Even if the hole is a straight away, i will try a power fade or big sweeping draw, instead of my tradition 5 yard draw that is my natural shot shape.

You can make golf fun, and it will help you get rid of alot of pressure. It will help you concentrate on the shot at hand if you make mini games out of each shot. Now don't do this when playing for a tourniment or serious money, you need to go all out there. But in a league or recreation golfing, make it fun.

My rules,
If the Par 5 is tight driving, 3 wood and lay up. If its not, then let it rip.
Unless you are good at pitch shots, i would try to hit a tee shot that left you will a full iron shot on each approach. If that means on a 340 par 4 you hit a 3 wood or 3-iron, then do it.

chris0228 · March 31, 2010

Here's is another problem I have though: some of you say to loose the pressure and play more types of "shots" to have more fun. I have a ton of fun everytime I pick up a club, but I am also very competitive and very hard on myself when I have a mental lapse or hit an off shot, because I KNOW I have it in me to hit the shot I wanted to hit. So I'm basically answering my own question here, all mental right. So how does someone who is as competitive as myself play without pressure? I play with my brother and good friends all the time. It also gets into my head when someone hits a great shot, or when my bro, who has a ton of natural talent and never taken a lesson in his life, steps up and nails an 8 iron to 4 feet. I think I just need to view it as a 'who cares' type of scoring game. Problem is, everyone I play with is pretty hard core about keeping score, scoring well, etc. etc. Play my own game, yeah I know!! Thanks for the help guys!!

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Help getting over the hump!!

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