So good one day, so bad the next..Why?

[kris]

Early in the Morning I am so excited waiting to tee off!! I love golf!!! Halfway through, I have never hated something so much in my life. I vow to never swing a club again. I go home fuming mad. By that night I am thinking about golf, the next day I am excited waiting to tee off. I love golf!!! For me its a vicious cycle!!

haha i used to be like this. chomping at the bit to get out onto the course, play the first few holes pretty well, get excited- maybe even overconfident, then screw up the back royally and get mad at myself afterwards wondering why my front is 10 strokes better than the back. i've been trying to relax a bit and shift to my carefree attitude that i have to most everything else, but it's so damn difficult! haha. i'm not sure i have the mental capacity to play golf well.

[jamo]

One day you timed everything right, the next day you didn't.

[Golfing Dad]

Early in the Morning I am so excited waiting to tee off!! I love golf!!! Halfway through, I have never hated something so much in my life. I vow to never swing a club again. I go home fuming mad. By that night I am thinking about golf, the next day I am excited waiting to tee off. I love golf!!! For me its a vicious cycle!!

That is funny. The day I had my good game I couldn't wait to get out there. Then I had this bad game and it was so embarassing.

[GolfBear]

haha i used to be like this. chomping at the bit to get out onto the course, play the first few holes pretty well, get excited- maybe even overconfident, then screw up the back royally and get mad at myself afterwards wondering why my front is 10 strokes better than the back. i've been trying to relax a bit and shift to my carefree attitude that i have to most everything else, but it's so damn difficult! haha. i'm not sure i have the mental capacity to play golf well.

Here's something that might help you, try playing your round in 3 hole chunks. Rather than obsess about what happened on the last hole or the last two play as if each round is only three holes. If you're 3,4 or 5 over for one group you might be even par for the next etc

Also, play with this thought in your head. The most important shot in your life is the one you're about to hit. Not the last one, not 2 holes ago. Right here, right now.

[James_Black]

Tiger shot +7 at adare on monday.
Shot -3 the next day.

Even the pro's aren't that consistent.

[CarlSpackler]

haha i used to be like this. chomping at the bit to get out onto the course, play the first few holes pretty well, get excited- maybe even overconfident, then screw up the back royally and get mad at myself afterwards wondering why my front is 10 strokes better than the back. i've been trying to relax a bit and shift to my carefree attitude that i have to most everything else, but it's so damn difficult! haha. i'm not sure i have the mental capacity to play golf well.

I try to keep my emotions in check no matter what. Every drive, iron, wedge, pitch, chip, and putt equals 1 stroke regardless of what has happened to that point. I just focus on steady breathing, picking a reasonable target, and making a good stroke.

[kafka01]

The only way to prevent it is to stop playing golf. It's just the nature of the game!

No its not - its understanding what you do right when you have good shots and what you do wrong when you hit it bad. And by that i mean, detailed understanding - but most people just play the guessing game, and sometimes they get it together - most of the time they dont.

[kafka01]

Go look at a past leaderboard, PGA, LPGA, any leaderboard. You'll see rounds of 68 followed by 78 and such ranges of disparity are not uncommon. Then you have Dustin Johnson who went from high 60s to low 80s in one day, although he had alot of pressure to deal with. This is the nature of the beast.

Such disparity is under Tournament pressure, with a lot of money and prestige on the line. The body will react a lot different in these situation and cant be compared to the regular golfer. Unless he is gambling for a lot of money on the course (if he breaks sweat over it he shouldnt have done it in the first place and probably got suckered in), there is nothing that can recreate that kind of situation for a regular golfer. If you watch Tour pros on their home courses in casual rounds you wont find a big disparity at all - just a lot of red numbers....

[Shanks A Million]

Such disparity is under Tournament pressure, with a lot of money and prestige on the line. The body will react a lot different in these situation and cant be compared to the regular golfer. Unless he is gambling for a lot of money on the course (if he breaks sweat over it he shouldnt have done it in the first place and probably got suckered in), there is nothing that can recreate that kind of situation for a regular golfer. If you watch Tour pros on their home courses in casual rounds you wont find a big disparity at all - just a lot of red numbers....

Alas, though, is not the hierarchy of needs wholly unpredictable. The perception changes the level of emotion. Allow me to demonstrate:

Two men walk into a bar... Seriously. One is a veteran of combat, he's seen people die, he's killed. He's fairly old, his kids are grown and have kids of their own. The other is a young man, born and raised in privilege, never known suffering or horror a day in his life. He's also trying to get his wife pregnant. Custom pulls out a gun and robs the place. The two guys above both are faced with the same situation, but they react differently. The young man pees his pants and cries, the older man grabs the gun and beats the robber senseless. Two men, one situation, different reaction. Similarly, the hierarchy changes with perception. Making a thousand dollars in an hour to most of us would be really cool. To Bill Gates, it's slow. Goals are goals, no matter how large or small. You ever seen someone throw a computer monitor because they couldn't pass level 4 on Ultimate Toaster Challenge? It's all relative. The stresses remain unchanged. Really, body rhythms and our level of arousal likely have a lot more to do with it than anything. One good tip, and you may be back in the game. Did it really affect your swing that much? No, but it's working for you right there and then, and it boosts your confidence. That's more important than you may think.

[Bullitt5339]

I have chalked up my inconsistancies as being a mediocre to poor student of the game.

I play more than I practice, because I just like being out on the course and get bored at the range or on the putting green. I deal with the poor scores and huge swings in my score because I know that I don't practice enough to get really good at the game. Some days things work, the next day nothing works, and I'm fine with that as long as I know what I'm doing wrong and work on fixing it. But without a lot of range time, you can't truly fix things, you just find the band-aid that works for a couple rounds, and I'll shoot in the 80's. Typically I'm a low 90's golfer, and while I'm sort of OK with that, I have made a concious effort lately to practice more and play less.

[kris]

Here's something that might help you, try playing your round in 3 hole chunks. Rather than obsess about what happened on the last hole or the last two play as if each round is only three holes. If you're 3,4 or 5 over for one group you might be even par for the next etc

I try to keep my emotions in check no matter what. Every drive, iron, wedge, pitch, chip, and putt equals 1 stroke regardless of what has happened to that point. I just focus on steady breathing, picking a reasonable target, and making a good stroke.

thanks for the advice guys. i feel that losing focus like this is my biggest problem. hopefully i can work it out.

[Jay28]

As far as I can tell it happens to everyone, including professionals.  I guess the trick is to make your good days better and your bad days better.  

I am working on making my bad days of ball striking acceptable, rather than sould destroying, lol.

[p1n9183]

I´m a consistent player. Almost scratch and if i see the scores i posted over the years theres some scores that don´t correlate to the previous one. Like shooting 69, 83, 70 on consecutive days, same course, same conditions. 
Even, in the same round shooting 34 in the front and 44 in the back. Or exactly the opposite. It´s just golf, enjoy the ride.