Worst round in a very long time.

[Sherlockian]

Today, I played the worst round of golf since I was probably 12 years old. In the past few months I have dropped my handicap below 20 and broke 90. Since I broke 90, I have played several rounds in the hi 80s, which I have been very happy with. Well today was terrible, I was +6 teeing off on the third hole. Every shot went right and had maybe 80% distance, if I wasn't thinning them. I have no idea what is wrong, my swing feels exactly the same. I had hit around 40 balls on the range with no problems. I ended up quitting after 4 putting the 8th hole(par 5) for a +4. The only issues that I had on the round(other than my errant shots) was a 5 some ahead that took approx. 20 minutes for each hole(more on the par 5s). I am thinking that the shanks could have been corrected, but I let myself get worked up over the 5 some. Does this ever happen to anyone else? What do you do?

[mposter]

I could have posted the exact same thing. I let myself get bothered by too many things out of my control. A 5-some. A golfer who takes 6 practice swings and hits it 60 yards. Getting matched up with a twosome who play once a year. If you find the mental magic I would love to know.

I shot 85 - 83 - 102 - 77 in four consecutive weeks! The 102 was a day that I was looking forward to all week. I played a great course, arrived an hour early to putt, chip and hit a small bucket. I was ready - and even stripped a 1st tee ball over the fairway bunker (middle of fairway) that requires a 230 carry. And then every swing was off. I tried every fix I could think of (try and hit a draw, a fade, a three quater swing, a half swing, etc) and I couldn't pull out of it. Eventually I gave into the golf gods and just tried to enjoy the day with my dad.

Here is to hoping the next round is a great one!

[jambalaya]

I had a similar round yesterday. The foursome ahead of us was very slow, had numerous opportunities to let us play through, the course was completely open ahead of them. One guy had a Sky Caddie I think and they were taking all kinds of time to choose a club and look over their shots. One guy was so slow and deliberate it just made you want to go up and kick him in the ass literally. I think for some people it is just a matter of pride not to let anyone play through.

Anyway, I could not hit an iron to same my life. I felt like I was on the virge of shanking all day. Lots of weak shots. I kept the driver in the fairway for the most part but felt like I had to take an abbreviated swing to have control. I had quite a number of drives that started left and faded back into the fairway which is not my usually trajectory. I knew I was bringing the club too far inside at the start and coming over the top but couldn't straighten it out. I finally figured it out later that day at home when I picked up my short practice club and rehearsed my swing. The first part of my backswing was arms only, very little shoulder turn. When I got the club back as far as I usually go I just stopped my shoulder turn with my hands stuck behind me. That is not what I had been doing the previous two weeks when I was hitting the ball well.

[og512]

omg! this must have the weekend for slow golfers.

i am going to spare the detail because it is pretty similar to you guys, but i suffered the agongy of playing behind a 4-some that hit 50-70 yard worm-burners all day.

[Dub]

I can relate.

I shot big numbers all round today. My driving was fine...no complaints. Hooked & pulled too many iron shots and simply stunk it up with my chipping game.....quite frankly can't remember ever chipping so dang bad. Putting was hot and cold....when I read the speed the stroke was on....otherwise I was running them past the hole too far. Admittedly the greens were really slick and fast today....and I was generally on the right line...just speed was off.

On the bright side, I thouroughly enjoyed the guys I played with today....looking forward golfing with Todd (from thesandtrap.com) some more this week.

[Todd]

I can relate.

Believe me, I enjoyed it immensely as well. Gonna hit the friving range, and both practice greens tomorrow to see if I can get my short game and putting to a respectable level. See you Thursday for another 18! Todd

[JetFan1983]

Really great post because I would imagine this happens a lot all over the world. I was having the greatest round of my very young golf career (5 months in). This was with my dad and my best friend two weeks ago. I had finished Ben Hogan's Five Lessons about a month prior to this and I had been practicing Ben's teachings vigorously. His advice was just starting to take hold in my game. On the front nine, I shot a 41 and was never striking the ball so good. That's when it got ugly.

We show up to the tenth tee and there are two other groups there waiting to tee off. You could see down the fairway another group. I looked even farther down at the green and could see yet another group putting! Ugh, talk about learning how awful it can be on a public course! From then on for the rest of the round, there was probably about a five minute wait between each of my shots. The cold weather really started to cool me off, I thought too much about my shots, and then really started to shank it. It was awful. I ended up shooting a 56 on the back nine to finish with a 97. I've never been more disappointed to break 100.

I know I'm new to golf and that I shouldn't forget how hard this game is to become consistent at. I've never broken 90 before, and I really think I would have on that day had the course not been completely log jammed on the back nine. Oh well. At least now I know what can happen to my game if the wait becomes unbearable. The next time this happens (and I'm 100% it will), I will just have to be able to find the strength to enjoy the atmosphere, the course, and the company of my golf group.

Oh yea, the sick thing is....This was a Tuesday!! Not even a weekend! How awful is that!? I guess everyone had to same great idea to take off work and take advantage of that day's great October weather before it got really cold here!

[Guest]

I have experienced the same mental factors that affected my game badly. As an example i broke 80 on a monday with a 79 round and when i came back on wednesday my regular caddie was not around so i have to go with a new caddie.

I was so affected by the new caddies different approach to my game on the course that sometimes he annoys me when he blames me for putting misses and kept on bubbling how should i stroked it. He just kept on expressing actions that im really not used to with my regular caddie the result was a 102 round and i paid 1,500 on the bet i lost with my golf buddies.

I knew it was a mistake to be affected by outside factors beside just playing my game ive been trying to correct this flaw in my game and man its really hard to maintain a fixed calm mental state of mind during the whole round i did recover from my bad round when i hit 80 on friday with my regular caddie again.

[extremeld]

what i would say to op is this

your set up etc will be almost identical to when you were playing well - its a built in thing like shaving, brushing your teeth and shaking hands - you probably perform identical actions without any concious thought.

the logical answer is rythmn (developing an effective warm up usually takes care of this), of course this is always compromised after you get anxious so a bad start is likely to affect your swing - you need to develop a drill that makes it easy to recover your ideal tempo.

[Grndslmhttr3]

I once shot a 75 over nine holes if it makes you guys feel any better. Too bad it wasn't too long ago either.