mental game and to much noise.

[Nytar]

there are drills for about everything in the swing and every shot in golf. but one part I have issues with from time to time is a flood of thoughts as I start my back swing and/or as I start the down. I am the type of player that gets to the ball visualizes the shot and its quiet from there letting my body do what those drills taught it to do. but when that noise comes in.... I cant hit a thing almost. I can go back to the 9/pw but even then I am not as clean and pure of a hit as I normally am. and it ALL snowballs from there.

for example. went to a course about 15 miles from here. 1st time getting a chance on a course this year but have been practicing for last several weeks out here on the farm. my swing was working the better then it was over 15 years ago when I stopped before hand. I was really looking forward to this day.

1st hole: Tee up, its 316 to center of green, par 4. sounds simple... about 75-80 yards out it peaks and is about level with my head, then drops from there about the 260ish yard there is a gully with a heavily weeded swampy water way. this is I would guess 60ft lower then the tee area. and the green is tucked into surrounding woods. I COULD if I catch a perfect drive just carry the gully considering being that far above target area. but Im not gonna be stupid not on the opening hole. so I pull out my 3w and gonna take an easy swing and lay it up. I tee up take a few warm up swing. all is good as I start to see the swing and the shot. my head clears, I start my back swing... "make sure its 7-1 oclock it has to draw" no problems its one thought... half way through back swing "start hips, pull handle into my groove, lag and strike" my head is clear but the echos from those thoughts are there. I start on the down and the big flood happens, "connected, arm position, swing plane, weight shift, hips then shoulder, (15 other things)" .... "@#$%^ just let me make contact at this point!" SWOOSH! ultra thin hit and it goes out 20 yards and I am in the rough between tee and fairway.......

2nd shot: its a landslide from there.....

by the time I am done takes me something like 4 swings to get to the water which takes 3 swings (2 balls into the water) to get over..... 11 on the first hole.......

2nd through 14 holes are much of the same

15th, 16th, 17th I am hoping my ball supply lasts. but I am saying the heck with it I don't care any more and using my 9 iron for anything after the drive basically. 115-120 yards at a time. better then the 3 iron which was averaging something like 40.

18th hole, one ball left... get to the tee box trying to figure out where the hole is supposed to be.... I look up the hill over a large water crossing about 170 yards out.  and mostly OB and extremely thick "rough" or thick fescue  all the way in between.  now when I say hill... I mean HILL.... looks almost steeper then my drivers ball flight.. and I hit it fairly high... only thought I had at that moment was. "who's idea of a sick joke is this....." then I figured... one ball left... oh to #3!! with it... teed it up. and let her rip. landed up just past the hill dead center of fairway.

well after getting that done I came straight home and started teeing up and smacking balls into the field to try to figure out what I was doing wrong. shot after shot was pure and clean and everything was back to normal..... straight and high on command, low and drilling on command, high and low fades, high and low draws, everything (ok 95%) was going where I wanted (other 5% wasn't really that far off)

my only conclusion I can draw from this is my head was getting to busy while over the shot... anyone know how to turn this off without losing focus completely on the task?

[boogielicious]

We all have had that issue before, range better than real course.  The focus is different and on the course, you only have one try.

Having one swing thought is OK and even recommended by good instructors.  You should narrow down to one for the round and just focus on the target.

[Nytar]

thats what I was trying to do. normally its just a "it's time" my club starts back, and the rest is feel. I would have just that one thought I don't know why I had the others or why there were so many involuntary thoughts I couldn't stop them. I was wondering if anyone else had and fixed this issue and if they did something in their routine to keep all this junk out.