From rubbish to less rubbish to glimpses of perfection?

[MiniBlueDragon]

When I started playing golf a couple of years ago I was rubbish as you'd expect.

I then progressed and learned and practiced and became less rubbish (but still really bad!)

Over this year I've progressed much much faster than I expected to.

I'm now at the point where I seem to play one of the best shots I've ever played, directly followed by one of the worst.

Take yesterday for example; I was trying out a local club's course to see if I wanted to join. I stood on the tee of the fourth hole and took a look at it - 171y Par 3 with a gravel pathway all along the right and the green completely hidden by a 6ft high bank with trees on the top of it (bank for some reason isn't shown on the plan view but it runs along the red line trees and around the left of the green):

I decided that the best option was to run the ball parallel left along the pathway and draw it around the trees onto the green with my default push-draw. I tee'd up with my 5i and hit a nice smooth tee shot and the ball flew exactly along the line I wanted, ending in a lovely soft draw around the trees, disappearing behind the bank right in the middle of the green. When I approached the green I couldn't see my ball but then found it laying a few inches from the pathway at the back; 180y from the tee. Everything about the shot was perfect. Everything.

Unfortunately the pathway it landed next to slopes down at about a 45 degree angle toward the green. I grabbed my 58 wedge and played a nice gentle chip to land on the green and fall to the hole... And bladed it past.

Then I putted from 20ft and holed it.

I feel like it's progress in the right direction going from all shots being ok to a mix of perfect and abysmal but would really like to hear if anyone else has gone through similar and whether it is actually improvement?

[carpediem4300]

always

I hit the most perfect drive the otherday, OOB on the wrong fairway, but it carried the OOB and left me a simple PW in, flubbed it 50 yards into the sandtrap on the same fairway i was pitching from,

a decent PW there and I was on for an eagle (Par 5 of course)

just on of those things i guess, the good shots tend to make me concentrate less and expect the next one to just be good

[Spyder]

I think everyone that is not on TV or touring has this happen to them. Honestly, even the guys that are on Tour have this happen to them - just not as often.

Most of us will have our game flip-flop most of our lives. Your drives and approach shots will be dead on and your chipping and/or putting will leave you. The next day, week, or month though it will be the opposite. I'm in the Driving/Irons are awesome - putting is terrible phase right now myself. Last week I was on a 505 Par-5 for example. Drove the ball to a narrow fairway about 315 out as I was lucky enough to hit a down-slope on the fly and caught good release/roll (very uncommon with my drive flight). Next shot was going up a 30 ft sloped incline to a green where the back-side was blind as it sloped back toward a bunker. I landed a high flight/soft landing 3i shot to the left side of the fringe with 30 ft of green between my ball and the hole. I bladed it off the green, down the slope and into a bunker. I got out of the bunker 10ft from the cup and proceeded to 2 putt. What should have been an easy lay-up birdie or Par at the very worst turned bogie. Had to drown my sorrows after that hole lol

[The Tin Man]

The beauty of this game is that it's not like riding a bicycle.........well it is.....when we were first learning.  I can never replicate the first time I actually peddled freely on my own. It's a moment lost in time.

Golf allows us to to re-live our early moments of Kookdom again and again. . The joy of making my first birdie, then another, and another, then 10 putting!  Back to falling off the bicycle!  The best part is the pros do it to!   On TV in front of millions.

[mdl]

It's all relative.  Next year the awesome smooth (then) 6i that finishes where your shot this weekend finished wil be a disappointing just okay shot off the green.  Then maybe a chip that does anything but go in or leave you with a gimme for par will feel almost as bad as the bladed chip does now.  Golf is cruel, and as our expectations change it continues to feel just as cruel even though ALL of our shots might now be better than what used to be our really solid ones.

[MiniBlueDragon]

Yeah I guess I'm trying to be to logical about it all.

I feel like I've improved tenfold over the last year but my mind tends to ignore that and try to find the logical/statistical perspective, e.g. "If I were to score each of my shots in the past I'd score every shot as a 3/5 score so over 4 shots I'd average 3/5. Now though my better shots are a 50/50 mix of perfect 5/5 bad 1/5 shots so over 4 shots I average 3/5. I therefore haven't improved."

I guess I need to figure out specifically where I'm lacking and work on those areas twice as much as the rest of my game but make sure the rest still gets practice too.

[The Tin Man]

It's a very easy, relaxing game as long as we don't care about scoring high. Lowest score wins? Who thought of that!