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]

BryanHew | Travel Diary (@bryan_hew86) • Instagram reel

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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.

[saevel25]

On 9/14/2024 at 5:33 AM, hunterdog said:

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?

Yes, I'v been down near a 3 handicap, and now much higher. I think my swing is in a better spot than it was then. Just not scoring well. I had a 9 hole round where I had 6 pars, and 3 double bogies. I am trying to get it back down. 

Also, if you were working on your swing, it could cause you could struggle on the course. Swing changes take time, and it can disrupt consistency enough to shoot higher scores. 

Finally, did you ever keep stats of what is causing you to shoot higher? Hitting more shots OB, into hazards? Missing more putts? Messed up short game. Just thinking, if it is a short game or putting issue that you could get that looked at that. That sort of stuff is low hanging fruit. 

 

[NZ Golfer]

Yes, I'm going through one of my worst slumps in Golfing form, namely short game 100yds and in wedges etc...

real rocks and diamonds play

I can't recall ever being as bad in stages of a round as I have become with the wedges over 650 rounds of GOLF recorded(easy another 150-200 practice rounds)  ... today's comp perfect example ... played MON 18holes at another course started solid but short game woes hurt later in round.... Tuesday out for 30min chipping practice + putting then out for 9-holes playing 2balls sometimes dropping another for a extra chip..

Today's Comp at my local 30min warm-up 

First hole, 510-yard PAR 5. I dropped my second shot onto the green with the Hybrid 240 yards out. A stunning, perfect shot left me with a 15-foot putt for an easy second putt birdie ,gutted just missed eagle putt(would have been my first ever on Hole #1)

Onto the tough 2nd PAR4 another cracking tee-off 3wood this time right Fairway...130yrds out 50deg wedge ..sliced off the RH side of green(correct distance) ...58deg wedge FAT (some how a perfect feeling swing doesn't take much divot but pops up the ball to very short distance flight????) ... another 58 chip nice but touch long esp on our fast hard links greens just off green 20ft+.. putt decent but comes up left the next in ...So that's a 6 ....

ended up 19+ over (my course 9 HC)

Many of my holes, much like the 2nd brilliant drives woeful rest ...

another -PAR5- the 11th 2nd shot rolled up and just over the back of the green 220yds out brilliant long hybrid ..so 2 shots I go 490+ yrds !!! then from just 8-yrds it took me another 4x shots !!! two duffed chips I somehow hardly take a divot but the ball just pops up and drops back down yard in front !!!!!!! how the How the hell does that even happen??

I'm the player that gets all the praise for my long game but is failing badly least 50% time 100yds in ...

And the worst part NOV last year in a comp I was 2 under teeing up on the 16th ...all parts of the game were solid ...I had never been this bad ....very much YIPS mental issues with the wedges as I can head to the driving range and hit 10-20x brilliant chips/lobs/pitches .. 

Going to see local coach hopefully can sort me out... 2-3hrs per week of wedge work isn't fixing the issues even though I can feel pretty confident and going off video slow-mo looks fine ... my swing feels great etc ...

 

Edited September 25 by NZ Golfer

[hunterdog]

An update: I haven’t totally quit, yet. I did stop seeing the golf instructor and started trying to figure it out on my own. I am beginning to see some flashes of improvement and am driving and putting pretty good. I think my biggest problem is casting the club - I’m not sure. I was going to set up net in my unheated garage for winter practice but I’m concerned about further ingraining a bad move. Indoor sims around here charge about $50 per hour, maybe I’ll go that route a couple of times a month. Anyway, I haven’t quit yet.

[iacas]

@hunterdog, find a good instructor. It's well worth the time and frustration.

Or at least… https://thesandtrap.com/forums/forum/13-member-swings/.

[3jacker]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

@hunterdog, find a good instructor. It's well worth the time and frustration.

Or at least… https://thesandtrap.com/forums/forum/13-member-swings/.

This.  Don't try to figure it out on your own.

It's a path to madness and despair.  Stay off YouTube instruction vids (unless it's your instructor who created it).

[gbogey]

On 9/17/2024 at 8:53 PM, 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!

Just realize that you're not alone. I worked my way out of a slump only to have an injury in August. Since coming back my game has deteriorated right back into the slump - inconsistent contact and loss of distance. I'm finishing up a competitive match play tournament and assuming I lose, which is likely given recent play, I intend to take two months off from tracking scores just to work on my game even though I live in a year round golf location. Sometimes you have to take a break and reset.