Question...What do you do when....

[robrey85]

Originally Posted by antnee94

I'm sure everyone has gone through this, but I have gone through 5 rounds (a little over a month now) where my game is absolutely awful.

I'm an 11 handicap that has been trending down the last several season and have not been able to break 90. I go through a stretch of holes where it all comes back and string a few pars or put a birdie up but the rest has been terrible.

Last year I battled my driver with a two way miss and no consistency. It was either perfect down the middle or wide right or left. This year, that is the only part of my game that I trust. I committed to playing a fade, setting up right, aiming left, and hitting close to 60% of my fairways so far (which is good for me). My only miss is trying to get a little extra out of my driver in which I tend to dip my shoulder and hit high on the club face. That's the easy fix for me.

My irons have been either great or awful. I have no one miss. It's thin, it's fat. This was the best part of my game and it's turned into my worst.

Last my wedge play is like my iron play right now.

I tried taking a week off. I tried banging balls at the range with a purpose and practicing. Unfortunately, I'm at the point I can't take my range game to the golf course. I do so well there and then the next round is awful.

What have some of you better golfers done when you hit a stretch like this. I have always been a golfer to come out of the gates in April and May strong...except this year.

Maybe it's your putting? I didn't see you mention anything about that. If you're putting is awful like mine is on occasion, you might have 40+ putts when if you had 32 putts, that's 8+ strokes off your score which could be the problem. There are times when I know I should be breaking 100 and I don't because when I look at my putting, I have 42 putts. It's a huge thing imho.

[BugDude]

When I get in a ball striking slump, I do one of two things:

1)  Take 2 weeks off.

2)  Play several rounds in a row with irons only.

Anything other than ball striking, I just press on through.

[inthecup]

Golf, every day is different.

My funk is usually tempo related which leads to a big swing.  My road to recovery is short swings on the range.  9 to 3, it seems I have to convince myself that s short swing will still send the ball far.  I have now taken to warming up starting with that swing.  It gets the blood flowing and get my groove heading in the right direction.  I think the thing that is the hardest to get and maintain is confidence.

A great quote is "Confidence, when you have it you think you will never lose it and when you lose it you think you will never get it back."

[saevel25]

you'd be surprised how your swing can go south. For me its like watching your suspension go on your car. It slowly deteriorates, and before you know it, you that bump and BANG your riding bad.

Same thing with the swing, you think it feels the same, but slowly something changes over time, and now its completely different than what it was before. Unless your constantly having some outside eyes look at your swing, or video to keep yourself aligned, the swing can go down hill.

[antnee94]

My last three rounds have been much better. I'm not where I want to be but I played a big boy course (Bethpage Red) and shot 90. I was so hot and tired by 16 and walking up the mountains that I had no stamina and really have away a 86/87 for a 90. But this was the 1st day my irons came back to me. Now on this day I forgot how to pitch and chip taking a few 2 fors on a holes that I should have been on and off in par or bogey at worst.

The next two rounds I went to my feel good course (Eisenhower Blue). While I shot an 85 and 87, I really should be 4 strokes lower in both those rounds to really know my game is back. But again the iron play came back and was as crisp as it's been in years. I actually started making such pure and solid contact I flew a few greens from my normal yardages because of wind and warmth in NY. Up until the last 3 rounds it's been in 50s and windy. So I feel like I'm there. Shockingly life gets in the way of my golf game and I have still not had a chance to get to the range for a practice session.

Tropical Storm Andrea and the remnants of it in NY stopped me from playing this morning and yard work stopped me from a practice session. I looked at my log book and have not been to the range in this whole time of the slump. Last year I was playing once a week and practicing once. Time constraints stopped me from doing that this year. I feel like I am now on the way to getting out of it because I'm hitting the irons crisp again. Before they were fat and thin. Not that flying greens are a good thing but I know if I hit it solid like I've been I'll be back in the low to mid 80s with hopefully another 4-5 rounds in the high 70s.

My goal this year was to drop my handicap from an 11 to a 9. Unfortunately after 14 rounds its up to a 12.

Thank you to everyone for the advice. I'm ready for tomorrow and the rest of the season...I hope.

[nighthawk31]

Na well, let me tune into this with my kind of story and the salvation of my frustration.

I am totally with you, what you describe was pretty much my game as well, from temporary genius to erratic duffer, all possible and more certainly unpredictable.

I could come off being 2 under on my homecourse after 6 and ending the front nine easily 5 over. Once I made 13 consecutive pars, couple of up and downs when I finally let myself down to come in with a 90. I couldn't really say where it came from, but all of a sudden - a good score at sight - I failed miserably.

For my case the solution is two fold: once, make sure I throw away all expectation of the outcome, be it a shot or a score already on the first tee - I managed to this better over time, the better I am with it, the easier it gets for me to come up and down after a missed green, I am still not making every shot I like but it's getting better and better, but scoring progress is low sometimes.

A couple of weeks after I went off, I had the best round of my life so far, 2 under after 18 and it felt like nothing at all, just walk and hit, walk and hit, walk and putt. I was adding the scores afterwards and was totally freaked out in extacy. Next round I said to myself, don't expect and you'll be fine with a 73 - got me? had a 76 finally, but slipped back into the expectation of the outcome, being only concerned that I need to make good shots in order to achieve this. Round after round later, I tried harder to let go and failed time after time.

What helped me was the combination of trust in my mechanics, they will work once i get out of my own way, I remarked I was trying alot to steer the ball in order to make good shots.

Another big part is the awareness what the body is doing and the joy of swinging, you could say, Fred shoemaker - I need to give him credits here - brought back the joy of the game for it's own sake, not for the scores to me.

Dont get me wrong, I am still not in the 70s again, but getting closer the more I get out of my mental dialogue helps me tremendously to let go and just swing and the outcomes are astonishing.

If don't do anything at all besides swinging, that when I have the most gently draw on all clubs and bunch of backspin from 6 iron down. before i was trying harder and harder to hit a afade or a draw, I couldn't even do it. Furthermore I don't care at all what the curvature is, it will find the dancefloor more or less automatically or at least be playable.

Get into your self and find out whats important to you about golf. Is it scoring low only?

Cheers

Frank

[clutchshot]

Was having the problem of not being able to take my range to the course earlier this year. Feeling better now and shooting low, think you just have to be confident on the course like you are on the range.

[tomvk77]

Just back from a range session. Hmmm long time ago i hit them so crisp. Gotta feel good going into the Club championships tomorrow.

Greens are firm and stimp 10.

weather should be good also sun not to warm and a little breeze.

let's go low ....