Recovering Groove Mid-play?

[RefrigeratorRunning]

I *know* before I begin my backswing if it's going to be a good hit or not, and when I'm feeling good it doesn't matter how I'm standing or where the ball is or what club I use, I'll always make great contact and it will go where it should. The problem is sometimes I'll walk up to the ball and not have that *feel*, and when I lose it, I generally play like garbage until I have a couple good hits and settle back in. How should I try to recover that feel when I'm playing? I could easily see this being largely driven by tension building in my back/shoulders/arms when I start having trouble but I don't have a good cue for fixing this.

As an example of how volatile it gets, here's my scorecard when I last reran 9 at Crandon, I had 5 pars and 5 double pars.

Hole | PAR | SCORE 1 | SCORE 2
-----|-----|---------|---------
 10  |  5  |    8    |    8
 11  |  4  |    8    |    6
 12  |  3  |    6    |    3
 13  |  4  |    6    |    5
 14  |  5  |   10    |   10
 15  |  4  |    4    |    5
 16  |  4  |    4    |    5
 17  |  3  |    3    |    3
 18  |  5  |    7    |   10

 

[Vinsk]

I get that ‘feeling’ prior to shanking. It’s a virus. I just hit and hope. Just have to wait for the virus to clear. If the viral load is large, there’s no chance I’m not hitting a shank. 

[saevel25]

Ok, so it looks like you average what, 14-18 over par per 18 holes, and maybe get hot for a low 80 round once in a while. 

Here is the thing. Your average is your average. You're going to shoot most of your rounds with in a certain bin of that. That is assuming you do not practice in a way that actually improves your game. Most golfers practice, but it's not really practice. You can go to the range, hit 100 balls, and by the 50th ball you are in a groove. When on the course do you ever get to this 50 shots in a row to get into a groove? 

So, I am going to be straight with you. Odds are, the blow up holes are 100% just what your game is now. It isn't some sort of mental game glitch. Golf is a physical game. We can't think our way to a low round. 

The get ya, what you are getting might be some impending doom from past experience. I get it, when my short game was horrendous. Believe me, my short game isn't great now, but I have confidence in it.  I've stood over short game shots knowing some sort of bad outcome will happen. Good practice, improving my skill, now I go up to those shots with a tool kit that allows me to succeed more often than not.

The best way to fix this is to actually fix your swing so it produces better results. 

There is no easy fix here. Golf is hard, and getting better takes a lot of effort. 

 

[billchao]

I played pretty well today (net -4) and really well two weeks ago (net -7) with a mediocre round (net +5) in between. I hit some really good shots in the bad round and some bad shots in the good rounds. There's no way to hit every shot well and how you want it. That's a pipe dream.

As far as mentally staying in the game, you need to just learn to do it. Keep grinding. Stay in the moment, don't let poor shots derail you. I've scored well in rounds where I really wasn't feeling the swing. Those rounds don't feel great at the time because I felt kind of lost on the course, but if your goal is to score well, you need to keep at it.

Learn to manage your expectations. You're making the occasional par, but you're making double bogey or worse far more often. You're more likely to double bogey than you are to par a hole. Accept that par is not a standard that you should be playing to at your current ability and if you happen to make it, then it's a bonus. Work to eliminate those high numbers.

[Janine05]

I played 9 holes this evening at the municipal.  It has 5 par 4's and 4 par 3's.  For the first time I got under 60 with 58.  I nearly had a par, my best was 2 over on a par 4.

Janine

[RefrigeratorRunning]

On 8/4/2024 at 4:52 PM, billchao said:

I played pretty well today (net -4) and really well two weeks ago (net -7) with a mediocre round (net +5) in between. I hit some really good shots in the bad round and some bad shots in the good rounds. There's no way to hit every shot well and how you want it. That's a pipe dream.

As far as mentally staying in the game, you need to just learn to do it. Keep grinding. Stay in the moment, don't let poor shots derail you. I've scored well in rounds where I really wasn't feeling the swing. Those rounds don't feel great at the time because I felt kind of lost on the course, but if your goal is to score well, you need to keep at it.

Learn to manage your expectations. You're making the occasional par, but you're making double bogey or worse far more often. You're more likely to double bogey than you are to par a hole. Accept that par is not a standard that you should be playing to at your current ability and if you happen to make it, then it's a bonus. Work to eliminate those high numbers.

That's fair, I guess I have my expectations set from other sports and games where a small number of big things done right takes you to a competitive level very quickly, and I guess these are the things I'm looking for with golf.

Sprinting, rowing, and powerlifting all have a basic premise of "push instead of pull, don't leak energy, and eat/sleep like a baby". With golf I really want to find the same sort of thing - a few intuitive principles that I can fine tune later.

Right now I'm very confident in my backswing, and I know that keeping loose and "whippy" is critical, but I have effectively 0 intuition for my downswing that I can lean into when I lose my groove. I *think* the engagement pattern is similar to what would happen if you tried to toss a sandbag, and I can certainly generate a ton of power using that, but it's not optimal. Is there some kind of smarter guiding principle I should be using there?

[billchao]

26 minutes ago, RefrigeratorRunning said:

Is there some kind of smarter guiding principle I should be using there?

If there was such a thing in golf and I knew what that was, I'd be a wealthy man. There are some general principles to scoring well, but in terms of how you personally are supposed to execute the mechanics of the various motions required to navigate a golf course, that's kind of based solely on how you swing the club and what your misses are.

[woodzie264]

On 8/4/2024 at 4:52 PM, billchao said:

Learn to manage your expectations. You're making the occasional par, but you're making double bogey or worse far more often. You're more likely to double bogey than you are to par a hole. Accept that par is not a standard that you should be playing to at your current ability and if you happen to make it, then it's a bonus. Work to eliminate those high numbers.

@RefrigeratorRunning, Bill has a great point here.  If you bogey every hole, you shoot a 90.  Play smart. At your stage, don’t make Par your goal for every hole, don’t go for every GIR, and don’t go for riskier shots which increase the likelihood of getting wet or going OB.  If it’s a longer par 3 guarded by bunkers, lay up and chip on so as to reduce the likelihood of double or triple.

Even if you successfully play the top 5 HCP holes for double bogey and the rest for bogey, you shoot a 95. I get that just because you play for bogey on every hole doesn’t mean you’ll achieve it, but the idea is to play shots that will reduce the likelihood of a big number.  You’d be surprised at the score you’d achieve if you simply advanced the ball with a 150yd with each tee and fairway shot, chipped on and two-putted.  It’s more just course management: looking at your realistic club distances (not just the best 7i you flushed that one time last month) and shot zone mapping (LSW).  

Now all of those recommendations obviously aren’t the long term strategy as you improve your game and swing mechanics (we know GIR is king - LSW), but like Bill said, learning how to score with the game you currently have will always be a skill to hone and will help eliminate bigger numbers.  

 

[klineka]

10 hours ago, RefrigeratorRunning said:

With golf I really want to find the same sort of thing - a few intuitive principles that I can fine tune later.

There is.

Hit the ball as far as you safely can (safely meaning avoiding penalty stroke hazards)

Aim for the center of the green

Have good speed control on the greens

 

If you can do those 3 things consistently you're going to be better than most golfers you'll see.

[Vinsk]

10 hours ago, RefrigeratorRunning said:

Is there some kind of smarter guiding principle I should be using there?

If what you’re doing feels remotely comfortable and/or powerful then you’re doing several things wrong. 😂