Playing So Bad….just Want to Quit!

[hunterdog]

I’ve been playing golf for more than 50 years with a few breaks for Army and school. Essentially, I have always played golf. I have decided to begin the work slow down and prepare for retirement and play more golf. Last winter I practiced putting on indoor mat, trained with the Stack system, and took indoor lessons on an indoor simulator. Started the Spring playing okay. I have taken lessons at least twice a month this summer and actually practice. My game however has just gotten worse. I’ve gone from a 4.5 to a 7.5 and it’s trending to a much higher number. It’s at the point where unless I can be okay with shooting mid to high 80s and be a legit double number handicap player, I think I might have to quit! I’m in good shape, work out, stretch, but after a long and very frustrating season, the reality of the state of my game is settling in. I should also mention that in a couple of months I will need to decide what to do with my membership at my club, private and quite nice - tough to spend that money and hate playing.

Has anyone else gone through this and what happened? Did you quit? Work through it? Or did you become content with a lesser game?

[iacas]

Hire someone else? If you’ve done the online thing… I mean… I get notes about people shooting their best scores ever pretty frequently.

Rage against the dying of the light.

[boogielicious]

@hunterdog,

Don't quit. Figure out what the issue areas are and change your practice over the winter to improve on them. If you don’t have a good instructor, get one. I’d suggest Evolvr if you don’t have a good one in your area.

I haven’t played this summer because of injury. You will miss it.

[GolfLug]

Reminds me of what someone told me "Don't punish golf because you suck". 

Yes, have been through it. Came back from an injury few years ago and everything was different. Dropped eight shots, couldn't keep the ball in play for more than two holes, etc. 

What do you do? Fight. Lean on a good coach. Find another one. Go at it like you have nothing to lose instead of nursing despair. Mine helped me get it all back and then some.

I will also tell you I also don't live or die with my index anymore. I was on a heater this summer, now I'm regressing like it's winter already. Haha. Stick around. 

[dennyjones]

9 hours ago, boogielicious said:

You will miss it.

+1  

Of course, you can spend your time on other things in your life.   You can take up a new hobby or sport.  You can spend more time with your family.   You can travel and watch the sunset in a national park.  You can quit and just be thankful you are healthy enough to do the things in your life that give you joy.

If you quit, you will always wonder "what if".  

Take @boogielicious's advice.   Find a different instructor who will help you find the enjoyment that you first felt when you dropped your handicap to single digits. 

Good luck.

[Vinsk]

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19K likes, 781 comments - bryan_hew86 on August 29, 2024: "After all the...

@hunterdog…Something for you.

[Carl3]

I quit mid summer once after seeing a video of myself. I couldn't believe that I did that in public.🤣 The next Spring I was back at it. I am now a much better golfer than I was at the time. I can still shudder when seeing a video of myself, but it isn't quite as dreadful. I also can get bored come August every year, but find a second wind in the Fall when it is cooler, less crowded and I know that I will be soon stuck indoors and longing to play once again.

Take a break. 

[hunterdog]

I have decided to try to play through it. I will put some older clubs into the bag and try to swing away! Winter will be here soon enough!

[iacas]

14 minutes ago, hunterdog said:

I have decided to try to play through it. I will put some older clubs into the bag and try to swing away! Winter will be here soon enough!

Do you practice through the winter?

You're really not even likely that far from Erie… I have a number of students who make the trip every 3-6 months.

[TN94z]

12 hours ago, hunterdog said:

I have decided to try to play through it. I will put some older clubs into the bag and try to swing away! Winter will be here soon enough!

Good choice. I have been through the same as well. I think the biggest thing that helped me was just remembering that it is just a game. We do not do this as a profession, so going through these tough spells is just golf for an amateur. I figured out where I needed the most help, hammered those areas and it got better. Just remember how good you used to play. You know you can do it. You have just gotten in a funk. You have the ability to work yourself out of it.

[Ty_Webb]

I would say hang in there. I do get where you're coming from. My history follows if you're interested (or if you're not, it's still here, but you don't have to read it 🙂 )

I started playing in 1990 (14 years old). I got steadily better every year and reached about a 5 handicap when I was 18 (this is on the old CONGU system in the UK, which lags changes in ability much more than the WHS system). I took a year off between school and university to see how good I could get. I finished that year off a 6 handicap. That wasn't the best, but I did funnily enough get a lot better over the period. Then went to university, got into the golf team there and my first year we won the British Universities. That's a year long thing. 6 universities in a round robin that you play home and away, then the top team goes through to knockout. I think about 5 rounds of knockout. Got down to 2 by the time I finished university, then started work and got down to scratch a year later. 1998 summer I played some of my best golf. Broke the course record at my club (and shot 98 for 27 holes in a two round event - last 9 not so good). Then in about 2000 I got a hiccup in my driver swing. I'd get very stuck and hit these high blocky cuts out right. Couldn't release it. I went from +0.5 to 1.9 (up 2.4 shots) in 27 rounds. The way the system worked is your handicap goes up 0.1 if you shoot worse than 1 over your handicap, so 24 out of 27 rounds were worse than that and 3 of them were at my handicap or 1 over it. It was awful. I pretty much stopped hitting woods. Just used irons everywhere. My irons were still decent so I could still get a reasonable round going from time to time, but try as I might I couldn't get to grips with it. Then I got chip yips too - that was fun. My handicap ended up about 2.4 I think. Then I moved to the US in 2007 and didn't really play a whole lot for the next year or so. 

Then I started playing a bit more once I'd got to grips with how to get out to play from living in NYC. Sort of stumbled along playing around a 2-4 handicap level for a few years and moved out to Long Island when my son was born. I found a local pro who was well thought of and he was quite technical, which worked for me - I am technically minded. I've been working with him for about 7 years or so and my current handicap is +0.3. I think I have one score in the past 12 months that wasn't a tournament score and I've played maybe 20 rounds this year (10 of which were in one week in April and 6 of those were only playing every other shot). I'm pretty much rusty every time I play, but I've put some pretty good scores together this year, including a 72 on Bethpage Black in a tournament - I was quite pleased with that. 

Long story short - there is a path out of this. There was for me and I'm sure there will be for you. You might need to find a new coach or try something new somehow, but don't give up. The game is worth it.