Why can't I adjust faster?

[Slim 11]

Kind of a rant, rather than a real question but...

I was playing with my brother-in-law the other day at a local par 3 course (a few holes you can pull driver, yada yada). On the front I was playing okay...not great, a little less than average, but okay.

On the back we sped things up a little (dropped the twosome we picked up on the front...real bad golfers) because we were on a bit of a time limit.

All of a sudden I start toeing shots and hitting big slices. I hacked up 3 holes in a row with penalty strokes, duffs, etc. Then struggled through 4 more. Then ob'd a hybrid on 17. WTF?!

While I was re-teeing on 17 I thought, "you know, my left hand feels weak"
I even said something to the b-i-l. I adjusted my grip and plopped my shot on the green. Then parred the 235 yard closing par 3. (BTW, kudos to the brother-in-law for going par-par-birdie, with birdie putts each time, to close out and beat me by like 5 strokes).

I can't understand why it took me 8 holes to make an adjustment. Anybody else just try to play through, thinking they just hit a flier here or there? Maybe I am not tuned enough to my swing to feel the mistakes soon enough.

[RandomRaiderTTU]

If you are like me, I don't start looking for the problem until I've come to the full conclusion that there is a problem.

If i've been playing decent and hit a bad shot, I normally chalk it up to just having a bad shot. If they follow in succession for a few holes, that's when I start trying to pick up on what I might be doing wrong.

I think if you questioned yourself on every single bad shot, you'd spend an entire round going nuts trying to find and fix what was going wrong.

You can look at it your way, or you can also look at it this way: You got it figured out before you left the course. If you didn't get it fixed on the course, you *could* have gone home thinking your swing was WAY off and been at the range all week trying to get it back.

[Slim 11]

You make a good point. At least I left the course feeling like the problem was diagnosed.

I'm thinking I probably would have made the adjustment quicker on a regular course because I would have been hitting more driver or woods and the problem would have been more noticeable. With the irons it just seemed like a bit of a push. Hybrid and up really came out as a slice.

[putput]

I am no were close to your HC but… I notice myself some times thinking more of the messed up shot I had made then ways to correct it, or why it happened in the first place. I too get very caught up on a bad shot and I let it carry on to the next hole… then the next and so on. I remind myself every time I make a really bad shot to take another swing from exactly the same spot and just picture what I did wrong and try not to do it again on the next shot.

Hope this helps.

[MPforthewin]

Well, it is probably actually good that you dont automatically think something is wrong when you hit an errant shot. Indecision is a confidence killer, and confidence is your most powerful weapon on a golf course. I dont try to asses a problem on the course unless I am in a dire situation where I have to, but generally you will mess yourself up more trying to diagnose on the course. If you are spraying it, go to a comfort club like a 3 wood or hybrid then fix your problem on the range.

[Slim 11]

I hear ya about bagging a trouble club and hitting what's comfortable. The problem was that I was pushing (fading...slicing) every club. Some just showed up more than others.