Struggling With Volatility

[WagonWheel]

Interested to hear from those who have gone through something similar.

I'm currently around a 9 handicap and have logged 50 rounds so far this year. My issue isn't really my handicap itself, it's the amount of score variation. Looking back through the year, I've had scores ranging from 73 to 95, with everything in between. Within the last week alone I went: 92 - 74 - 80 - 89 - 93.

I appreciate there is always a variance to scoring and that is fine but I seem to have the issue of being capable of a mid to low 70's round and then the next day adding 20 shots onto that.

Others I know around my handicap, they seem to live in the low-mid 80s and occasionally shoot high 70s. In contrast, I seem to have a very high ceiling and a very low floor. My goal is to get to 5 but I feel a million miles away from that at the moment.

I have had periods of lessons where I have got better but that baseline level never seems to have improved and the only sort of logical conclusion I can come to is because my fundamental ball striking and clubface control is not good enough. Over the years I've been through the usual cycle of swing thoughts and feels. Something works for a few rounds and then it disappears. This latest episode involved a "looser arms, smoother swing" feel which coincided with some good golf before scores drifted back upwards this week.

The more I look at my scoring record, the more I wonder whether the answer is much simpler. Perhaps score volatility is ultimately just a reflection of strike and clubface variability. If strike and face control vary significantly from day to day, then perhaps 74 one week and 93 the next shouldn't be surprising.

So my questions are:

Has anyone else experienced this sort of variance?
Did you eventually become more consistent, and if so, how?
Was it primarily technical, mental, course management, practice-related, or something else?
Did you manage to raise your floor, or are some golfers simply naturally more volatile than others?

Interested to hear from anyone who has gone from being a "74 or 94" golfer to someone who lives in the 70s and low 80s.

Edited June 14 by WagonWheel

[Ty_Webb]

I've shot 91-74 on the same day before. Couple of years ago played a two round tournament on Bethpage Black. I shot 72 in the first round and 90 in the second. First round I played very well. Second round I played okay, but had about 5 shots that hit the lips of bunkers and bounced down into them. A couple of those wound up in footprints - I was unamused - and I failed to get them out. Anyway - lots of bunkers and my bunker play isn't great and then add a couple of footprints and me getting pretty tired and it added up to a lot. 

Only you can really tell though what's causing the variance. It might be that your swing is very timing dependent and when it's timed well you play well and when it's not then it goes all over the place. In that case, some lessons and working on your swing could be the key. If it's more that you tend to feel like you hit it fairly consistently, but you have days where the shots come off and days where they don't, then that's more likely a course management issue. If that's what you need to work on, then you could read Lowest Score Wins and build a plan of attack based on that. 

Rest assured though that a pretty big range from high to low is fairly common. Even PGA Tour players often have 18-20 shot spreads from best to worst rounds in a season. It's a common affliction among golfers.

[WagonWheel]

8 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

I've shot 91-74 on the same day before. Couple of years ago played a two round tournament on Bethpage Black. I shot 72 in the first round and 90 in the second. First round I played very well. Second round I played okay, but had about 5 shots that hit the lips of bunkers and bounced down into them. A couple of those wound up in footprints - I was unamused - and I failed to get them out. Anyway - lots of bunkers and my bunker play isn't great and then add a couple of footprints and me getting pretty tired and it added up to a lot. 

Only you can really tell though what's causing the variance. It might be that your swing is very timing dependent and when it's timed well you play well and when it's not then it goes all over the place. In that case, some lessons and working on your swing could be the key. If it's more that you tend to feel like you hit it fairly consistently, but you have days where the shots come off and days where they don't, then that's more likely a course management issue. If that's what you need to work on, then you could read Lowest Score Wins and build a plan of attack based on that. 

Rest assured though that a pretty big range from high to low is fairly common. Even PGA Tour players often have 18-20 shot spreads from best to worst rounds in a season. It's a common affliction among golfers.

Thanks, interesting to read. The swing is definitely very timing dependent. I hit it consistently I guess but consistently bad.

 

 

[saevel25]

3 hours ago, Ty_Webb said:

I've shot 91-74 on the same day before. Couple of years ago played a two round tournament on Bethpage Black. I shot 72 in the first round and 90 in the second. First round I played very well. Second round I played okay, but had about 5 shots that hit the lips of bunkers and bounced down into them. A couple of those wound up in footprints - I was unamused - and I failed to get them out. Anyway - lots of bunkers and my bunker play isn't great and then add a couple of footprints and me getting pretty tired and it added up to a lot. 

Depends on how short you were coming up on these shots. A bit more wind? Also, maybe you were swinging at 2-3 mph slower the next day. 

I think the biggest thing is not adjusting. Like making assuming your stock shot is not enough and taking 1 club up. Not sure what type of adjustments you were making in your decision making. 

[Ty_Webb]

40 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Depends on how short you were coming up on these shots. A bit more wind? Also, maybe you were swinging at 2-3 mph slower the next day. 

I think the biggest thing is not adjusting. Like making assuming your stock shot is not enough and taking 1 club up. Not sure what type of adjustments you were making in your decision making. 

They weren't necessarily short - I don't remember the exact specifics of all of it, but some of them were missing a little left or right or both. Day 1 they were landing on the edge and kicking on, where day 2 they were just missing and kicking down into the bunkers and did it a lot. I think all told I actually went into bunkers on 8 holes. Some of them were not good shots.

Like a few examples, on 8, the pin was in the back. I hit it solidly, but pulled it and it went long, over the bunker into long grass. I had the ball in sandy earth with long grass around it and about a foot below my feet. That next shot I tried to do what I could but it went into the bunker in front of me. Into a footprint. That one I dug out of the footprint, but still in the bunker. Got that one out of the bunker, but into the fringe grass in front of me. Chipped that one on a bit hard and two putts later made a 7.

Another was on 14. The flag was on the little finger of green front left. I tried to play a little past it and a little right. Shoved it maybe 10 yards right of where I wanted to and the carry over the bunker gets longer the further right you go and that one hit the grass between the green and the bunker and came back down into the sand, left it in there and didn't get up and down on the next one. I think carrywise it carried about as far as I was planning on it doing so.

Another was on 6, leaked my drive a little right into the fairway bunker. Hit a nearly good shot from there that went a little left and a little short and kicked into the bunker front left. That was a strike thing and just a hard shot. Did similar on 18. Drive in the right bunker, slightly heavy second that hit the bank between green and bunker again and kicked back into the sand. I think the tiredness manifested more as not squaring the face up so well and less as slowing down.

[xrayvizhen]

I always say to people when asked, "I can, and have, shot anywhere between 74 and 104, sometimes on the same day." Not that I can play 36 holes anymore, but I once shot 37 on the front nine and 52 on the back and in just the past three weeks my scores, on the same course, were 77 - 96 - 79. The 77 was on a day when the temperature was in the high 90's, The 96 was on a day when the weather was perfect. Go figure! Among amateur golfers, I don't think it's that unusual to be inconsistent. That's why we do something else to make a living. Sometimes the swing just......goes away. Then it comes back. It's a maddening game.