Try a change of scenery....riiiight

Well, stuck in a major rut of shooting 81/82, several suggested that I needed to get away from the home course. I agreed. So today I went to another local course and played the men's tees (figured I wouldn't make it any harder than necessary). Long story short....I shot 85. Couldn't get used to green speed, wasn't hitting it great either, four double bogeys. Just a bad day on the course. Love this game!

I feel ya. I used to be down to around a 12, almost never shooting in the 90s and below 85 more than not. I'm back up around a 15 now and a bad day is into the 90s, and I haven't broken 86 in like 6 months. I played a different course to try to break it up, a much easier one in fact, and still shot an 89...

Play the other course a few times, and you'll learn its secrets.

Keep playing, you'll work thru it!!

Maybe a better approach would be take a week or so off from the game completely. Come back next week with a new mindset and hit some on the range!

Well, went back to the home course and played early because of severe heat. The good news? I shot 79. Tried desperately to give the round away down the stretch (bogeyed 14-17). The heat was getting to me somewhat but I got up the gumption to make par on the last hole, knowing I needed to make par to shoot my score. I hooked one drive into a pond at 17 and I caught a bad break off a not so straight drive on the sixth hole that led to a double bogey. But the rest of it was fairly decent and I really didn't have a great putting day. But I'm pleased to shoot in the seventies again. Hopefully I can keep the momentum going but the heat is going to keep me from the course for a few days.

Are you really a 6 handicap or are you lower now and just haven't updated it here?

Reason I ask is because handicap is an indication of your playing potential, not your average score. According to the USGA, you will play to your handicap less than 25% of the time. So, if you're playing a par 72 course, I would think that low 80's would be pretty close to normal for you with some mid-high 70's thrown in every six or seven rounds?

I was thinking the same thing. I'm a similar cap to the OP and although I'm certainly not thrilled with an 81, I wouldn't call it a rut, I'd call it somewhere around average.

I am a six. I was a five. And I'm shooting my handicap less than 10% of the time. You can check my scores below but you'll see that I avg around 81 or 82. My frustration is I'm not improving and I feel like I'm regressing. Know I can play better, just not getting it done.

Let me tell you, that feeling never ends. No matter how well you play, you will never be satisfied and always think you can play better. I could shoot even and find something negative about the round to dwell on for the next week. It's just how a golfers' mind works.

As I'm sure you know, the better you get, the more difficult it is to improve as well. It's easier to go from a 10 handicap to a 2 than it is a 2 to a 0. The thing to keep in mind is that the average male amateur's score is right at around 100. So the fact that you're shooting around 80 means you'd spank the average golfer. Also, improvement in golf is a funny thing. You'll have regressions at times and then out of know where you'll shoot your best score ever. Unfortunately improvement isn't as measurable as it is in other sports because a string of lower scores can seemingly come out of nowhere. What are you struggling with right now?

Yeah, I can always find a negative, even in a good round. But for me, simply having a score with a 7 as the first digit is a good day. 75 or better is a great day. 76-79 is all good. I feel like there's a five stroke difference between 79 and 80. Don't know why, just the way my mind works. If you told me that I was going to go out and shoot in the 70's every round, I'd be tickled. And I guess that's my motivation, to constantly fight for that goal. But when you don't reach your realistic goal very often it becomes frustrating. You can click on my scorecards below and check my stats. I've hashed this out with other message board members before and it comes down to the whole game. Driving (more fairways), iron play (more greens), short game (more up and downs) and putting. It's never just one thing. I screw up in all those categories at least a little bit every round. The postive I take away from today is it reminded me that I can play this game. And even with a four-hole stretch on the back where I was faltering a little bit, I still shot in the 70's. I think the round I played the other day at another course where I scored poorly motivated me to really focus and I got off to a good start today which is not usually my M.O.

Can't wait to get back out there!

^That's exactly how I think!

I was going to start up a new thread this morning, but this one is exactly what I wanted to talk about. My point is that we should play a difficult golf course every now and then - one that is really too hard for us. What that will do is expose the weaknesses in our game that we can get away with on easier courses or courses we're familiar with. A difficult course makes us stop fooling ourself.

I played on one yesterday, one I can count on to give me a good thumping, turned in an OK score, but looking over my round I found that by shoring up just two things, easily done, I could go back and turn in a good score, and play much better on my usual courses.