Hitting a wall

[Doctorfro]

Look at my scores below and you will find this crazy score disbursement. How can I get over the 81-82 rut? It happens in all sorts of ways so you can't say, "work on your putting" or "Work on the driver". It's a mental thing I think. I'm lost.

[CarlSpackler]

Play smart and play with heart. The scorecard will take care of itself.

[CarlSpackler]

Play smart and play with heart. The scorecard will take care of itself.

After posting this, I thought it may sound condescending which was not my intent. You might try using pre-round visualization where you play a perfect round in your mind. Sit back, relax and play a perfect round at your course in your mind. Doing this, you may not hit every green, but you can picture chipping it in or close and one putting for par. You can even have a wayward drive or two that you recover from and save par. This prepares your brain for playing an awesome round. I did this last year and I think it can help players at all levels.

[WUTiger]

I'm speaking to you as a former caddie, not a golf pro (note my HDCP).

I took a look at your last eight rounds (one at 75, others in 80s). On tee shots you average 4.8 fairways hit per round, and 9.2 missed. And, you have an even mix of L rough and R rough when you're not in the short grass - spraying your drives.

Not sure what that means. Possibly a change in tee shot strategy? If you worked on primarily drawing or fading your tee shots, could you "take half the course away," hit more fairways per round, and maybe pick up a couple of strokes?

Just a suggestion. Remember, this is Romeo talking - not Roy McAvoy.

[double_j]

Try mixing up your game a bit since you're primarily playing one course (I'm the same way). See if you can use different clubs off the tee, etc. to refresh the way that you're looking at the holes. If you're anything like me, you're probably pulling a club for the next shot out of your bag before you even get to the ball so it's not really surprising that your rounds turn into carbon copies of one another.

For an even more drastic approach, don't worry about score for one round and limit yourself to a couple of clubs or ditch the driver for the day, etc. Anything to give yourself a new perspective on how to play the course. Either you'll learn a new way to play a hole or you'll appreciate having the full arsenal at your disposal the next time out.

[rebby]

I just checked your online stats and the biggest difference between my stats and your stats is, not surprisingly, fairways, greens and scrambling.

Looking at your last 10 rounds, you hit only ~41% of your greens (roughly 7/round). That means that you need to get U/D 11 times a round. Even with a high conversion rate, you're already a few over par on those 11 holes. Unfortunately, your conversion rate is only ~30%, so you're already 7 or 8 over.

Conversely, when you hit the fairway (only ~36% of the time, roughly 5/14) you hit ~57% of your greens (10+/round). This leaves you with 3 fewer times that you need to get up and down, on average, per round! The only difference is that you came at the greens from the short stuff.

Here is some simple match to put 3 more GIRs into perspective...

• 1.86 putts/GIR = 5.56/round (on those 3 holes), since you hit the green, that's 1/2 stroke UNDER par for those 3 holes.
• 1.58 putts/missed GIR = 4.74/round (on those 3 holes) + 3 chips (since you missed the green) = 7.74/round, that's 1.74 strokes OVER par

Thus, using your personal statistics, those 3 GIRs cost you 2.25 strokes over the course of your round, EVERY round. By hitting only 3 more greens, you went from an average of 80.2 to an average of 77.95!

Of course, the above makes the assumption that you hit every fairway. Let's be honest, that's not realistic. However, in my experience, hitting more fairways will mean hitting more greens. When you're ball is in a better position off the tee, even if it's not in the fairway, you WILL hit more greens. More GIRs == lower scores. Additionally you're missed greens aren't going to be as bad which will lead to a higher scrambling conversion rate as a nice side benefit.

So, easy cookie cutter answer really, hit more fairways and hit more greens. You're stats provide the proof. If you do these 2 things, and only these 2 things, your scores will improve.

Additionally (and perhaps more importantly), I'd work on your chipping. A scrambling rate of only 30% puts you on par with the average 14 capper. It's costing you strokes. The average 4.5 capper gets U/D roughly 60% of the time (this is a realistic goal for you). Again, figuring for your current rate of 7 GIRs/round, that's 3.3 strokes per round! 80.2 - 3.3 = 76.9!

Hit more fairways and greens AND improve your chipping and I bet that you'll shave ~5 strokes off of your average.

[Doctorfro]

I appreciate everyone's input and insight. You make some very valid points. Fairways and greens generally produce lower scores for me. I think one of the statistics that I have is that if I hit 50% of greens I shoot 80 or lower 98% of the time. And I'm not sure why my U/D percentage is so low because when I'm out there I am usually confident that I can get up and down and I seem to make alot of good recoveries but I guess those misses just add up. As far as off the tee and hitting fairways, I play a fairly wide open track. I can get away with being aggressive with a driver but it does jump up and bite me when I'm simply not hitting the ball well. I used to go back to teeing off with the Three Metal when things got bad but I haven't done that in a while. I do use the three on several par fours at our course where driver gains you no advantage. And I probably do need go back to playing different tee boxes and getting out to play some different courses. This summer hasn't been conducive to doing that so far. But when I look at it from a broad perspective, it seems like all it would take is to have one less penalty stroke (which usually converts to two lost strokes when you hit OB) and one more made putt to be shooting 79 or 78. Any score with a 7 as the first digit would make me a happy camper.

[rebby]

I missed the penalties. Not sure how. That just adds even more fuel to my fire about fairways and greens. Hit the ball on the short stuff! It's going to save you a lot of strokes.

[TourSpoon]

I am looking at your last 10 rounds and I can't see a bad day yet. I see it as positive as you are playing at a certain level with your worst rounds being 82. You are developing some serious consistency and are that close to moving to 5 and under. Like you said, you are looking at making another fairway, green, putt, eliminating a penalty shot, etc. and are just a hair away...

[Chillmoon91]

review your swing I suppose

[Doctorfro]

review your swing I suppose

I saw my instructor this past weekend and made a slight swing change. On my last round, two of my last three approaches were hit so flush that I airmailed the greens and ended up in bad places (made double and single bogeys). So no matter how I swing or what's going on I seem to finish in the same place. It's going to change. It has to.

[NI4NI]

Perhaps a change of scenery would be a positive spark. A fresh look at some different courses could force you out of your "funk". A few of the better players at my primary course try to get at least two rounds in at different local courses each month to stay more focused (their opinion)

[GolfBear]

Perhaps a change of scenery would be a positive spark. A fresh look at some different courses could force you out of your "funk". A few of the better players at my primary course try to get at least two rounds in at different local courses each month to stay more focused (their opinion)

This could be a big part of it. Sometimes playing the same course repeatedly can almost force you into a funk. The only thing I noticed from your score sheets was that your putts made from 7-10 feet is around 33%. Perhaps really focusing in on putts of that distance would help push you over the top. Two more birdes a round would go a LONG way towards getting you over the top!

[Doctorfro]

What's funny is, if I could go a round with: one more fairway, two more greens, two more made putts, one extra up and down and no penalty strokes....I'd shoot even par!! Sounds easy. I'm ready!

[TourSpoon]

Doc, you are ready...you have lowered your ceiling to 82...on a bad day (last 11 rounds). One more in each category gets you closer to even par. If you can post a couple of 77s or better you will be playing to a 4. That's a significant improvement and you have to appreciate the consistency it takes to get there.

[Doctorfro]

Doc, you are ready...you have lowered your ceiling to 82...on a bad day (last 11 rounds). One more in each category gets you closer to even par. If you can post a couple of 77s or better you will be playing to a 4. That's a significant improvement and you have to appreciate the consistency it takes to get there.

This is true. And frankly, I'm very confident that the next time out, something good is going to happen.

[Doctorfro]

UPDATE: Wasn't planning on playing today but my son asked if we could go out. With only 15 minutes to get ready and get to the course (had one opening) wasn't much warmup time. Well, long story short....I shot 81. I'll post round later tonight but I had no birdies, no double bogeys, one penalty stroke (hazard) and one three putt. Fairways and greens were once again very scarce. 8 straight rounds of 81 or 82. Consistent? Yes. Insane? I'm out of my mind!! Playing somewhere else this week.

[enis750]

guess i should have posted my question in the part of the forum, as you seem to be getting more asnwers
anyways.......

dude i am in the same boat sorta
my index is now 5.3 and i cant get any lower, but i am having trouble getting past the 78/79 score
no matter the tees, or the course, 78/79 all day long

except i dont have detailed stats to learn from
gonna start keeping more stats to find out

but i think REBBY has it nailed
more fwy's, more GIR's and im home free

i have baby 2 due any day now
i have 6 tee times booked this week
im gonna make the best of it

this is a great post dude, thanks for sharing