Taking my game to the course

I've been told by a friend that I can't seem to play golf with grass under my feet, and I'm starting to think there's a lot of truth to that statement. When I'm at the range, if you give me a bucket of 100 balls, I can say with confidence that I'd be able to make decent enough contact with all 100 to at least set them well on their way to their intended distances, with my wedges up to my woods. I'm not saying there won't be slices and hooks, but it has been a fair while since I've seen a real banana ball at the range, or a dribbler.

Meanwhile, on the course, if you gave me 100 shots to play, I would probably completely mis-hit around 15, banana slice/hook 25, make decent enough contact with 50-55 ("get the job done" contact), and hit about 5-10 shots I'd feel real nice about. When I say mis-hits on the course, this can be anything from completely shanking something, topping something 25 yards in front of me off the tee, catching it so thin it never gets above 5 yards off the ground, etc.

I am (as I'm sure most people are) a better golfer on the range than on the course, but it's the sheer disparity between my game at the range and on the course that gets me. It seems that there's no marked improvement on the course regardless of how well I'm getting on at the range. It seems I take one step forward on the range just to take ten back on the course. I've been playing a fair bit over summer, anywhere from 36 holes a week at the peak, to 9-18 of late, so it's not like I'm only out playing once in a blue moon.

So uh, my question after that wall of text is: how in the world do I sort my game out on the course, and make it more like my game on the range? It's getting pretty depressing.

I had a similar issue, the problem was I hit the mat before the ball. If you do this on the mat your club recovers enough to still hit a decent shot, if you do this on grass, it isn't as easy to recover. Take notice of your divots, if your divots are before the ball you might have the same problem I did.

I read the book "Impact Zone" which covers this problem, and suggests the the target for impact should be determined by the line drawn from the butt of your club when your backswing is at its top position to the ground. Where the line touches the ground should then be where you target to make contact with the club. It's taken some time to get used to looking at a point in front of the ball, but since I started practicing that, my divots are for the first time in front of the ball and not behind.

practice on grass, not mats... mats mask your mis hits ALOT. you could hit a few inches behind the ball on a mat and still get a good shot out of it.

A definite possibility, and something I'll look into, but this wouldn't account for being horrific off the tee as well. At the range if I'm hitting irons I'll mostly hit from the mats, but will hit some off the stock rubber ~1/8" tees they have. At the range (to my uneducated eye) it looks like it has pretty super-imposable ballflight with the shots I hit off the mats. Meanwhile on the course, I hit some absolutely shocking tee shots, using roughly the same tee height, so the ground wouldn't really come into play without me being very aware of taking a lot of turf. With woods, I have grown so out of favour with hitting my woods off the deck (I thin them a ridiculous amount, can't find the bottom of my swing at all) that I only really use them for tee shots now, and again can't seem to find any semblance of consistency.

For now I'll look into the book you recommended, thanks for the suggestion. It's getting real cold over here now, so I'll have a lot of reading time~

If I had the option to, believe me, I would. Public grass ranges are not as prevalent in the UK as they are in the US, so we typically have to make do with mats. I was aware of the fact that if you hit it fat, the club would skid into the back of the ball, but my bad shots on the course aren't really fat at all, I'd say on the course I actually top or shank the ball more than anything on a complete mis-hit. If I was hitting it that fat on the range, surely I'd be tearing up a lot of turf on the course and losing enough distance on my shots to make me stop and think about why it's happening, whereas it seems I'm just all over the place. It's like I forget how to play golf when I'm on the course, and I just can't get it back together.

It sounds like when your on the course you might be either thinking too much or over-swinging.

I stopped going to the range and instead would just play a real round. After a few months im much better without ever hitting the range.

Common problems are overswinging on the course (feeling more desperate to hit farther), feeling tense and locking your muscles during an actual game, and

This. I had that issue myself for a while too. I would hit fat but the very thick mats at the range I usually visit would mask it. On the course I would hit everything fat and wonder why. If you hit off mats, you have to train yourself to feel the difference between good impact and fat impact.

Well, I'm an anxious wreck when off the course, so my brain going into overdrive when in a pressure situation (no matter how seemingly minimal) wouldn't surprise me one bit.

I'm not really a distance guy at all. I'm the "take an extra club" guy, I don't try to outdrive anyone or anything. If I'm left with a certain yardage, I'll take the club I feel most comfortable taking, not try to prove to myself how manly I am by demolishing a lower club. I think I may be subconsciously swinging harder though, because I tend to thin a lot of shots on the course, which I'm guessing would be caused by trying to over-do it? I really don't tend to hit shots fat on the course (not that I'm saying I make perfect contact at the range).

I think my anxiety really doesn't help, and that I just need to calm down. I think it directly affects my tempo. Anxiety -> Adrenaline -> Speedy Gonzalez meets The Hulk. My dad refuses to hit his woods on the course right now, because he can't seem to do anything with them. I tell him he needs to try to use them, because once he's over the threshold and has hit a couple good shots, he'll realise there's nothing to it. I think I need to apply the same ideology to my tempo when I get nervous.

One thing you could try is to do your club grip, practice swing, aiming, and everything behind the ball so that when you walk up to the ball you just execute your swing without having to think about all that. I've read that after taking your practice swing and you should try to walk up to the ball and take your swing within 12 seconds to avoid your brain getting in the way of your swing.

I stopped going to the range about a year ago and my game improved immensely even though I was probably playing less excluding the range time, to this day Im afraid to hit off mats, if you have a flip at impact it doesnt really show on mats thats where most people get caught out and are punished on the course.

Flips show on mats
The fat shots dont show as much, a fat shot you may only lose like 10 yards but if you're honest with yourself it shouldnt be that big of a problem
I think the most important thing to do is warm up and hit the ball the same way the whole day
if you start trying to fix things on the course that's when you start duffing, going ob etc etc

Nah not particularly, fat shots are probably disguised the most but you can hit decent shots with a poor impact position on mats in comparison to grass, honestly quit the range

Well, my routine is typically to think of what shot I want to play as I walk up to my ball, only changing my mind if I see something when stood over my ball that I didn't see before. Standing behind my ball, I take a limbering up swing, take a practice swing then address my ball. This is where things creep into my head like indecision, and positive swing thoughts get overwhelmed by "oh god don't do this". I guess I spend a fair amount of time over the ball after I address, but I just don't feel comfortable taking my shot any faster, I feel like I'll just end up flailing and hitting something godawful.

Well, if I had access to a grass range I'd use that, but with my handicap I'm still at the stage where I need to hit a ton of balls. Your handicap may allow you luxuries such as not having to practice =P

do you worry if you're gonna fat or thin the ball at all?
if you do that'll just disappear with playing more.
make sure you're swinging easy and just swing the same way the whole day
I dunno i try to spend little time at address because my lower back muscles start to get tight by the end of the day if i do that

I would take my 'game to the range'. What do I mean by that? Have fun, mix it up, bring in real game-type situations.

I don't know your typical range practice routine, but this is what I do. Stretch, then warm up with a 6-iron or 4-iron (ala - Tom Watson), then hit 8-irons, wedges, & woods, usually about 5-10 balls with each. After I get warmed up, then I'll mix it up. I get bored fast, so I start picking out specific targets to hit. I'll try to hit a draw to the 150yd bulls-eye, fade to 160yds, knock-down, etc. I'll do it till I get it right and then try to hit the same shot again. If I'm hitting things good, I'll keep switching shots. My confidence soars with each shot I hit that matches what I was trying to do.

Also, with the last half of the bucket I'll do some 'visualization' drills. I pick a course I know very well and hit tee and approach shots as if I'm playing that course in my mind, pre-shot routine and all. I'll visualize the fairway and the type of shot I'm trying to hit. If my drive is good, then I'll play what I might have left to the pin, ie - 7-iron 160yds. If it's in the rough, I'll try to hit a knock-down or recovery shot as I might get off the fairway. I'll picture the green with the flag position and try to hit where I might on game day. If I miss the 'green', I'll throw in a 1/2 wedge or bump-and-run chip to a specific distance.

The key is to mix it up so you don't get stuck in a routine, you don't hit shot after shot with the same club on the course. By turning part of your range session into what you see on-course, you thereby turn your on-course game more like your range session. You won't get nervous or feel as much anxiety, since you've already faced those shots / situations thousands of times.

With my irons, I worry I'm going to come waaaay out-to-in and hit a big banana shot, which can either result in a big banana slice as predicted or a massive pull-hook as I feebly try to overcompensate on the fly. As I said in my first post, I'd say 60% of shots I hit on the course are "playable advances" (coining buzzwords), i.e. get me the intended distance of the shot up the hole, but with a bunch of weak slices and a few hooks. With my woods, I worry I'm just going to miss-hit the ball completely, never mind hooks or slices.

I'm pretty sure both of these things are just causing me to tense up and get way too rigid, and like I said before, pre-existing anxiety + golf anxiety = epinephrine spikes like crazy.

When I'm at the range, I'll rarely get really serious and work on one club, or anything like that. Typically, I take up my whole bag, and warm up by hitting 5 balls with my 56*, then hit 5 balls with every other club until I get to my driver. At that point, I think about if there's anything specific I felt I needed to work on, then like you said, make a game of it. If I felt my short irons were lacking, I'll play target golf and aim for the signs or flagsticks (I don't know about ranges in the US, or even good ranges in the UK, but my range has longer grass than most deep rough I've seen and so trying to work out anything other than landing distances is futile).

Once I feel more comfortable with those shots, I generally just mess around with the rest of my bag, either picking out targets and going for them or having a friendly "closest to the pin" contest with whoever I'm there with. I definitely like your idea of 'visualization golf', I think it'd definitely give a little more structure to my range sessions without making it feel like work at all. I mean, currently all I can muster up with my woods is "try to hit it straight" -> "you hit it straight, woo", so it'll hopefully make it seem like there's a point to what I'm doing without feeling like a grind. Thanks for the suggestions so far, I'm definitely going to concentrate on maintaining tempo when out on the course, and I'll be trying out this new range routine.

WHen was your last lesson?
thats a weird thing to worry about its usually far or thin...
i'd just keep practicing, find a range to goto and play al ot
it'll come. i was a 20ish at the start of the season and i'm at where i am now but i also put in like 50-100 rounds.
And it just sort of clicks when you figure out every aspect of your swing.
Like i just had shanks 2 days ago and realized what it was now i'll never get it from that again

I was a 12 handicap at that time, I remember flushing the ball on mats then going to the course and hitting 2 inches behind each ball, I almost quit it was truly gut wrenching, putting alot of time into range practice and getting nothing out of it, theress no grass range near me either so I just recorded my swing, worked on it and now just stick to grass