Ever have one of those days?

[kvothe]

So, I went out to my golf course today thinking good thoughts and hoping to play a half way decent round. I start at 10 because the front 9 is backed up. Get to the tee and bomb one 270 in the rough, here's where things start to go all wrong.

take out my wedge and end up over shooting the green by about 15 yards hitting the street behind the hole and bouncing against an older ladies house across the street. She walks out and STEALS my ball and goes back inside. That in itself pissed me off but i decide to brush it off. Get to the next hole and again bomb a drive 300 yards into the rough. I overshoot the green again and walk away with a double on a par 4.

At this point im thinking surely ill pull it together, this just has to be working off the rust. No, my round continues to deteriorate to the point where i can't even hit a decent drive. I'm shanking balls left, right, I just cant control my clubs anymore.Got done with the back 9, and decided in the interest of not breaking my clubs I would just go home.

Now I'm not the greatest golfer ever, I've just been playing hardcore for the past 3 months, but this just seems ridiculous. I mean to lose my swing in the middle of a round??? Has anyone ever had this happen to them before?

kvothe

[Bourbon and Coke]

I think this is the advantage of having a strong pre-shot routine. It clears the previous shots from your mind and let's you focus on the shot at hand.

But yes, I've played many rounds where I've just had to go "What the ****?"

[MrSandman]

Every golfer has had one of those days. don't get frustrated, you might set a personal best tomorrow.

when you get better, you will still have one of those days. the difference will be your ability to turn one of those days into a respectable scoring day.

[meenman]

I'm a glutton for punishment so I will always finish out the round. But when this happens to my wife I rip up her scorecard and make her just work on shots she normally wouldnt - she will often tee off with irons and actually try to chip (instead of using her chipper) for the rest of the round.

[CPHoya]

when you get better, you will still have one of those days. the difference will be your ability to turn one of those days into a respectable scoring day.

Totally agree. I played 9 today and I swear I would've been more accurate putting with a garden hose than I was with my stroke, but I started to grind over some putts and eventually holed a 12 foot birdie and another 9 foot birdie to get it back to +3.

But anyway, yeah, everyone has those days. For instance: on the first hole, a good friend of mine hit a rake with his approach shot from the fairway, which was no more than 3 yards right of the green, and the ball caromed out of bounds. He dropped properly and bladed his pitch across the green and into a greenside bunker. He hit that bunker shot back over the green, out of bounds. He got on from that drop and 2-putted for an opening NINE. He's a 4 handicap. That's our wonderful game. Play again soon, you'll be fine. Your swing isn't gone.

[GaijinGolfer]

We all have our good days and our bad days. The best you can do is put it out of your mind and move foreward.

[Dent]

I shanked all my chips today, and my hands were so sweaty the grip slipped on every shot.

[kvothe]

Its good to know I'm not alone. I think it was so frustrating at the time because it felt to me at least I was really starting to turn a corner. inching closer to that 100 mark. In this instance it just felt like 2 steps fowards, 10 steps back.

Guess this just means back to the range tomorrow to see if I can't fix what i broke today.

kvothe

[GaijinGolfer]

Its good to know I'm not alone. I think it was so frustrating at the time because it felt to me at least I was really starting to turn a corner. inching closer to that 100 mark. In this instance it just felt like 2 steps fowards, 10 steps back.

It will come with time. Since I started playing again 2 weeks ago, Ive been practicing every day and Ive just now gotten to the point where my full swing is pretty decent.

Last Sunday I played 9 holes and every full swing shot was a push to the right. Ive finally gotten that pretty much worked out of my swing (I realized that I wasnt doing a full shoulder turn and I wasnt rotating my hips through the ball enough). Its a continuous process. You just gotta stick with it and be patient.

[ks8829]

Everyday is different for my golf swing so I learned to adjust during the round of golf. That mean you need to know what causes certain shots. For example, I tend to hook my drives so I know that I need to adjust by watching my take away and make sure I am making a full turn and not getting lazy.

I have also found that during a round where I don't really care about my score, I have experiment with my swing and found a better swing that I try to duplicate and see if it will be my new consistent golf swing.

But, I have had rounds where everything is not working and I loose my focus and I try really hard to bring it back, so If I double boogie a hole I want to birdie/par the next hole to come back. The Pros have a name for this I heard one of the announcer on TV call it a name, maybe its called the comeback hole?

[Harry Longshanks]

But, I have had rounds where everything is not working and I loose my focus and I try really hard to bring it back, so If I double boogie a hole I want to birdie/par the next hole to come back. The Pros have a name for this I heard one of the announcer on TV call it a name, maybe its called the comeback hole?

I think "Bounce-Back" hole may be the term you are looking for.

Of course, the inverse is a FUAB.

[GaijinGolfer]

But, I have had rounds where everything is not working and I loose my focus and I try really hard to bring it back, so If I double boogie a hole I want to birdie/par the next hole to come back. The Pros have a name for this I heard one of the announcer on TV call it a name, maybe its called the comeback hole?

You shouldnt think like that. You should take it 1 shot at a time. If you are all worried about making birdie or par to make up for a bogey on a previous hole, its just going to mess you up.

[davechen]

I had a day like that today. My tee shots were all over the place. Pulled left or sliced right, nowhere near the fairway. I chipped and putted pretty well, so I ended up with a 45, which is decent for me. Frustrating as hell, though.

[Garthmo]

I played a round a couplw of weks ago where through 18 holes I only hit 3 irons correctly. The rest of them went straight right an into the bush or into the ruff. Then the next round everything went back to normal. Sometimes your bio rythms are just way off and nothing works for ya. Now how can you stop those "bad" rounds? I dont know....

[mrgilmore]

Your practice swings are always good. Yeah? You always feel comfortable with your practice swings.

Its all about mimicking your practice swing.

[GaijinGolfer]

Sometimes your bio rythms are just way off and nothing works for ya. Now how can you stop those "bad" rounds? I dont know....

Thats just part of the craziness of golf.

[lordhamster]

Your practice swings are always good. Yeah? You always feel comfortable with your practice swings.

Amen, this season I've started taking a practice swing or two before I hit my irons. That has dramatically helped me. Because if the practice swing hits the ground etc, I change my setup till I'm hitting the perfect practice. Now my iron shots rarely go wrong directionwise. Even if I skull the ball or hit too fat, I'm at least going in the direction I wanted to go, not shanking it into the woods like before.

But yeah, I've had those days... many, many, many of them.

[MRW]

I always make sure I finish the round. I usually shoot around 100-105/round but last weekend the front nine was a 68. Nothing that was working the previous weekend worked now and even my driver (my most consistent club this year) went to crap. When we made the turn I decided to mentally start over and shot a 52 on the back side, not great but closer to what I would expect. If I would've stopped after only 9 holes it would have been bothering me until I could play another round instead of being confident I'd worked out the kinks.