WTF, I hate this game, I love this game...I need help, advice, a psychoanalyst.

Just got off the range. I hit around 200 balls, shanked probably 10% of them. 50% of my 58 and 53 degree wedges flew on a sour,boomerangish, right destined path. OK, now I got that $hite out, a little backstory. I'm 33, I've been playing on and off for about 23 years. I am beyond frustrated with this game. After only playing around 6 years I had half of my rounds in the 70s and once shot 6 under on 9 holes but had to quit due to darkness. Anyway a lot of low 80s, some 70's and even a few triple digit rounds later...I want to throw my clubs in a lake, jump in drag them back out and let them melt in some meth lab explosion in the hills of Tennessee.

In my life I have had around 6 or 7 lessons, studied the game, devoted hours, and now even have a membership at a practice facility where I devote at least 10 hours a week to working on my game. I've played in one competetive tournament 86-81, yuck. Illusions of grandure from an never was athlete.

My swing matches my build well, it's a little too upright sometimes but with my 6'2" 235 lb frame, I can occasionaly put one out there 370, Im not bragging because I will tell you my PW only goes about 125 on a hard swing. I have a high ball flight, irons that are antiques, a phobia of playing, and an addiction to hitting bucket after bucket of completely random shots, and now have realized I couldn't be any more streaky. I am a human coin flip, sometimes its good, half the time it's trash. My typical round will have 10 holes or so at or below par, and the other holes...10 over or worse. I can work the ball, somedays I hit shots that give me so much confidence; a hole in one, countless eagles, countless 10s. I obviously have a brain that gets in the way but I don't know what to do about it. I once had the best round of my life, every GIR plus every par 5 in 2...45 putts, YES an 82 that should have been a 62. But my putting is usually around average, 30 putts or so.

The biggest thing I don't understand is one day I can smash drives out of sight, and the next day I'm struggling to get over 250, one shot I can flag a lob wedge from 50 yards and then shank 10 in a row, backwards and to the right...backwards and to the right. I really want to be a scratch or plus golfer. I have the time invested but something that should have clicked years ago hasn't. Today, 23 years after my first swing...around a million shots I would guestimate...it's as if I had never swung a club before. But I know tomorrow, I'll be smashing it and capable of shooting a 65 only to double bogey the last 5 holes for a 78. Dr. Bob Rotella and Sean Foley couldn't straighten out my brain or swing path. Anybody feel free to rip in to my self degrading, woe as me arse, but constructive critisism and advice from the wiser of you would be much appreciated. THANK YOU.

To be completely honest with you, I stopped reading here.

I can understand why you wouldn't believe it. When I played  div 2 college basketball I saw a guy 5' 10" jump from a foot inside the free throw and dunk over two of my teammates...my point being their are athletes out there who are explosive. I could always jump through the roof but I couldn't shoot for crap. I have a Bang Golf, Mellow Yellow Driver. xx-stiff Crazy shaft, by occasionally I mean once about every 5 rounds, of course not on the fly. 2 months ago I played a 520 par 5 with 150 in for an approach, do the math. I'm a big guy who could bench 405 when I was in the military 5 years ago and touch my head to the rim. On my good days I would average 325, on bad days 250. I've always hit it harder than anybody I know. When I got a driver at Dicks they got my speed at 124 mph. My instructor got my at 120. My wrists hurt so bad from so much practice that last time I got on a launch monitor I could only get 115. What you don't get is tour guys, gary woodland, tiger in his prime, alvero queros??, they can go 400 in ideal conditions. It's all about club head speed, technique, and equipment.. period, it's not magic.

I may be wrong...but I'm fairly certain that swing speed won't net you 370...downhill...with the wind at your back...but I may be wrong...

@ iacas. started off near the chipping green, on a downhill/sidehill lie ball below my feet, trying at a target 60 yds away. Was working on setting up with the slant of the hill, Hit 3 good ones then Started shanking everything right with a 53, 48, and 58. Put 75 % low and right. Then I cursed my clubs and walked to the range. Hit 9 irons hi, short, and to the right. Would hit one out of 3 good within 5 yards of the target. Tenedency was a weak slap to the right. Practiced with my trusty 53 at 50 yd target. Pulls and shanks. Almost broke my club over my knee. Switched to driver, hit it really hi, but with a nice fade when I was trying to hit it straight. I always struggle with set up, I change it everytime I practice, probably at least a 15 degree  variance in my wrist set...which sets toe up and toe down extremes. I have never found a comfortable takeaway. Played a round in my head, guestimating the yardage of my favorite course, I do that everytime I practice, shot a 10 over, which would probably be 20 over in reality. After that, changed my right hand grip to super weak, which straightens me out but causes my backswing to feel very mechanical. Finnally ripped a drive around 300 fly that flew half way up the net, all the others were barely there on the roll. It felt just like I was holding a moving object in my hand and I had no feel. Every shot was a guess. I know my tendency is a little over the top and too upright...this happens when things just feel completely out of sync, and I feel this need to swing harder to live up to my standards of distance and feel.

On my good days of practice, every drive is super long with the occasional hook, It makes a low boom sound, today that was a lot of clack sounds even on dead center hits... I hit my pw about 125 with a draw tendency and 3i 210 fly. It's as if a swing thought works for me for about 3 days then my swing crashes completely, to where I quit and don't want to even look at my clubs...then I take a day off, go back and hit mediocre for a day, then 3 more days of good swing then crash. Its over and over again for a year and a half of dedicated practice and rare play. A plateu of a cycle on my full swing. The things that have worked for me are letting the face of the club face go wide open on the takeaway, when I time it right for a good release this is the best feeling at contact I can have, but the timing inevitable falls apart and slaps to the right happen, along with bad hooks. Swinging around in a flatter plane sometimes works but this seriously hinders my distance and also causes me to hit poor 100 and in shots. Then I try to release and get my right hand over my left as hard as possible, when I did that, I thought I had found the "secret" for a week but today it totally fell apart and I hit worse than I have since I started practicing. I think I need to take a month off the full swing as I have stopped and stretched my wrists out from painful stiffness at least 10 times while typing this. ANother thing my setup is a mystery, I think it's overlooked even by the instructors I have seen, my newest is a top 100 in golf digest, its funny how one thing works for a minute then it doesn't, if I could ever get my set up and my takeaway consistent, I know I would be set and then I could focus on a shaky short game and get to scratch.

When I took lessons a year ago, the main thing that I have cured since is  early release, and to work on getting a forward shaft lean at impact, also getting flatter to where my neck is visible from behind at the top.

I swear its like a 12" schlong, no guys want to believe that people actually own one but they do.

and i do mean own, because you usually have to pay property taxes on it when its that big.

iacas nailed this on the head

You got that far huh?

NO that's awesome iacas, you are right and dead on. I always feel like I can do things my own way. My instructor informed me the other day I was aiming 30 yards right of the target, from 170 away. And made me put clubs down as allignments, I have done that once since. I don't have much access to video wo paying for it. I am waiting on a miracle, I really think that one day it will click and those bad swings will have worked their way out of my system. I have a stretch of 9 or 10 holes where I play out of my head, then it goes awful. I just need more consistency so I will try to follow your advice.

I was hitting touch "half shots" going at a 50 yard target with my 58 sw. I never take a practice swing, on the range or course. I am the most impatient person ever so that is very contradictive to the sport of golf. I know this is the only thing  I can do well into my 60's; So I know I need to change my perspective. Practice makes perminent and I guess I'm ingraining an inconsistent swing. Can you give me some good advice for set up and takeaway...I read Hogan's 5 fundamentals etc...and I tried that, it felt so constrictive I couldn't do it at all. I read a book by Sam Sneed and that was a little more my speed. I would have to argue that feel is an actual thing. I have seen videos of my swing, and I look like a completely different golfer in each one.

thanks again

Frustration will always be a big part of the game, and experienced even by top-class touring pros.  Mainly, all of us spend a great deal of time frustrating at our failures to repeat what we did last week, or better yet, just yesterday.  No matter how good you are, you will never be able to repeat what you did twice, let alone do it week-in and out.

I always take "signing" as an example ----- no human being can repeat his/her own signature exactly the same way that was done before --- even though it requires only the smallest of movement.  You can only imagine the time you need to build consistency in the golf swing, which asks for a lot of movements and good tempo/timing.

However, with lot of repetitions ----- they can be a positive improvement.  All top players may have different swings and techniques to strike the ball, but one thing that they do the same ---- they practice a lot, in order to memorize those movements and be able to do them under tournament pressures.

Regardless of talents, I am certain that all great players achieved consistencies through practice sessions with strict routines --- until the swing become their second natures.  I agreed that you need to change your perspective and start developing routines for practice sessions.  With lots of experience over the years, you frustration should not be too difficult to get rid of.

Any suggestions? I did a quick search but couldn't find anything useful (unless you've a spare $13k +)

I've got a camera but it only does 30fps, and it's blurry. Like it's got images showing at once.

Go to the top of this page, type "camera" in the search field, and you will be rewarded with lots of threads with good info. You can prob get something good in the $150-300 range.