The "Stop Conning Yourself" Thread

[Marty2019]

I think I've been conning myself my whole life by thinking I could get better by just going to the range and pounding balls, self-diagnosing my swing, and doing everything without an instructor.   Of course, this is no longer the case.   I now have an instructor. 

So what am I conning myself about now?   If I knew that, I wouldn't be conning myself. 

 

[iacas]

13 hours ago, Marty2019 said:

So what am I conning myself about now?   If I knew that, I wouldn't be conning myself. 

Educated guess: how easily it will be to do what your instructor asks you to do.

[easyjay39402]

What an interesting thread !

I use an app on my iPhone to track my stats as I play. So I have a good idea on any given day how many greens I will hit, how far I will hit an 8 iron, etc.

The con - I believe keeping these stats will improve my game, but I never take the obvious, necessary next step: focusing my practice on those areas that I actually know with certainty are weak.

Edited November 24, 2016 by easyjay39402

[Marty2019]

10 hours ago, iacas said:

Educated guess: how easily it will be to do what your instructor asks you to do.

Up until a couple of weeks ago, you would have been right.  But not any more.  Not since he told me to do that flattening move at the top of the back swing.   I have a hard enough time hitting the ball without adding an extra move in there. 

[lastings]

oh...  what a hurtful thread! don't make me say these things to myself!  let me go on living in blissful ignorance..   

 

 

[lastings]

Hello, my name is Chad and I lie to myself about my golf game..   

I can go to the range and, after a handful of warmup swings, I can hit 8 or 9 out of 10 shots perfectly (with the same club).   I have conned myself to believe that because I can do this, for a short stretch, on the range, that every approach shot I hit on the course should be money.   

Alas, on the course, I inevitably mishit 10+ approach shots (to varying degrees of severity).  I then proceed to tell myself that i didn't have a good ball striking day out there.   It'll be better next time.   The unfortunate reality is that there's only about 2 rounds per summer that I walk away from saying that it was a good ball striking day.  

If I am only having what I consider to be a "good ball striking day" on less than 10% of my rounds I play, then I have obviously conned myself with my expectations.  can I hit the ball well?   sure I can.  should I expect that I will go out and strike the ball exceptionally every day?  absolutely not.  As a matter of fact, at this point, I should be considering any round where I don't have a complete meltdown to be a good round.   

[p1n9183]

Last year I´ve been conning myself thinking that i don´t need to practice during the week to achive scratch golf.
For 2016 i played for a 2-4 handicap all the year without real improvement.

On december started hitting balls during the weak and practicing chip/putt too. Even putting at home. The result it is that i lower my handicap to 0 in 2 month and keep it the other 2 months.

Been honest about my current game it´s as follows

My Driving it´s the worst thing on my game. I changed from an accurate short fade to a wild long draw that gave me 20 more yards and a lot of throubles. Lot´s of OB/Water that are costing me 2,5 strokes per round. Thinking of getting back to the accurate short fade till i can work and manage the wild draw.

My Irons where the worst thing on my game but after the Driver thing and changing my aligment it isn´t that bad at the moment. My a little more work it can get decent.

Chipping/Pitching/Etc it is my strong suit. Feel really confortable about it and I made a lot of up/down.

Putting. Below average i will say, short putt and long putts on fast greens keep me from scoring. Mid putts for some reason im quite good.

Mentally, at the moment I continue to crack under pressure. In my last 2 tournaments i shoot +4 and +5 in the last 3 holes of the last round. And in the first tournament i play, i miss a 1 footer on 18th hole. In another i was 3 under for the first round on hole 11th to finish the round +2.   

Course Management: with all the new concepts and google earth tools to mesure courses i get really good at making strategies for courses a play for the first time.

Practice: Started practicing witch is a bonus for my game. Read a lot to look for drills or ways to practice that can be translated to the course.

[amished]

I'm horrible off the tee.  I can get into the groove and sometimes hit it far and straight 3-4 times in a row but there are too many times where I still have my old push fade (slice) and now sometimes I have a dead pull.  I'm "afraid" of posting a swing thread as when I saw video of my bowling game, I made strides being in better positions for bowling but not being used it made my average much much worse.  So I delude myself by thinking that my bad swings aren't my normal swings and my good swings are my normal swings.  I know, LSW told me not to think that way but it's hard to break old habits, especially when I view my irons as pretty decent.

[Shindig]

7 hours ago, amished said:

I made strides being in better positions for bowling but not being used it made my average much much worse

A good number of changes I have made to my swing I was very not used to when I started adapting them.  That's why it took time at home, time at the range, and so on to get used to them.  It isn't just "do this with your backswing, remember to do this when you play."  I know you probably don't think that's it when it's phrased that way, but if you post such a video and take a few sessions to practice what someone like Erik or Mike suggests, you'll find some good improvement -- and then the change will be something you get used to, along with the lower scores it brings.

[chris3putt]

I'm conning myself when I think that my handicap is going to come down significantly over time. Yes, it does fluctuate a bit from summer to winter, but the main reason it is stagnant is because my current practice regime is keeping my swing at the status quo. I don't have time to practice more than 10 mins a day (average), and that is without hitting balls - I swing at a tee peg stuck in the lawn. I believe (and I may be wrong) that this simply isn't enough time or quality to make significant swing changes and get them to stick. I'm slowly getting comfortable with things being the way they are.

[Midpack]

Too late to post much, but an interesting thread. I certainly con myself somewhat. Because I hit a good number of spectacular shots in even my worst rounds, I keep telling myself if I just practice more I could be a single digit player again. But when I hit bad shots (far too often), I rarely know why. I've gone to a pro for two lessons now, she's changed my setup and nothing else. I've tried to make those changes and my game has only gotten worse. The reality is I haven't carried a single digit handicap for decades, and likely never will again. 

Edited June 22, 2017 by Midpack

[zipazoid]

I got a 58 year old body & a 35 year old mind. So I con myself into thinking said body can pull off what said mind is telling it to do.

For ex, if it's a par 4 & I got a 200y shot that has to clear a pond in front of the green for my second shot, mind says 'Dude. It's a par 4. Of course you have to go for the green.'

Meanwhile the body is saying 'Hit Wedge Wedge you dumbass!'

Edited June 22, 2017 by zipazoid

[JonMA1]

4 hours ago, zipazoid said:

I got a 58 year old body & a 35 year old mind. So I con myself into thinking said body can pull off what said mind is telling it to do.

I seem to remember a line from a Lowell George song that went something like... 

"well you know that you're over the hill, when your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill".

[zipazoid]

25 minutes ago, JonMA1 said:

I seem to remember a line from a Lowell George song that went something like... 

"well you know that you're over the hill, when your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill".

The mind writes checks that the body can't cash. 

[JonMA1]

Of all the things that us old guys lose ground on, seems like golf is one where, despite the inevitable loss of distance, we can still hang tough by playing smarter and improving in other areas. Wait, this is a thread about not conning ourselves isn't it?

Now if you'll excuse me, it's time for my nap.

[Buckeyebowman]

6 hours ago, zipazoid said:

I got a 58 year old body & a 35 year old mind. So I con myself into thinking said body can pull off what said mind is telling it to do.

For ex, if it's a par 4 & I got a 200y shot that has to clear a pond in front of the green for my second shot, mind says 'Dude. It's a par 4. Of course you have to go for the green.'

Meanwhile the body is saying 'Hit Wedge Wedge you dumbass!'

Oh! That's a good one. My Mom used to tell me that when she was in her mid 60's! In her mind she was still 29!

I think a lot of golfer's, especially male golfers are like that! My buddy used to tell me that he "busted" a drive 250-260 on a 400 yard par 4! Then, when he got to his drive, he had 2 hundy in! Uhhhhhh, how does that math work out?

It's taken me some time, but I've come to accept having to hit a club, or 2, longer into a green. And my buddy and I have come to accept that at a lot of courses we really should play the senior tees! And it's amazing how much more fun the game becomes when you're putting for birdies and eagles again!

Edited June 23, 2017 by Buckeyebowman

[TheArtfulDodger]

Not sure if it would be considered a con, but I think one if my biggest issues, at least when it comes to practice, is that I lack patience. I will try a drill or swing thought and if it doesn't give my results very quickly, I do away with it and look for something else.

[Jack Watson]

The con I did to myself was thinking I get to choose certain things in golf.

Theres certain things you can't choose.