played every day for a month and lost 30 yards

[overratedplayer]

Hello everyone,

I would like to know if this ever happened to anyone before as it is really troubling me!

On a roll for a year, practicing every week and playing every weekend, managed to get down to 5 handicap.

I gained 30 yards (litteraly 30 with the driver, probably 15-20 with the irons) last year by working on my swing, spending a lot of time on the range, and playing as much as i could (once a week sometimes twice).

I really feel that the distance gain made me feel more confident and playing shorter irons made everything easier, obviously.

So i get down to 5, plan my summer holiday in a golf resort in Florida, play EVERY DAY.

Starts great, playing my handicap, hitting great shots, huge drives.... And towards the end of the holiday I start realising that i can't hit it as well as i used to....actually i went from hitting 270 to.....230-240 at best!

So of course i didn't practice during that month, i only played. But i don't understand what can "switch" in your golf swing to make you lose that much distance! Feeling i was doing exactly the same thing!

And now the worst part: i spent twice 3 hours on the driving range since i came back and.....it's not coming back.

If anything i'm losing distance.

I know distance isn't everything blablabla, but this is really disapointing. I'm 44, not 70.

Any help? Thank you very much in advance.

Aldo.

[ChrisWev]

I'm not at your level but when I stopped practicing short game and was messing with long game swing and just playing I lost the same distance by flipping the club at impact and adding loft, although I imagine you would have noticed this on course.

I'm sure many others will say it but post a video in the swing thread section.

[ZappyAd]

I sometimes find that after playing more frequently than normal I can lose form and not hit the ball so well.  I don't get any specific pain or soreness I just think that there is an accumulation of something (fatigue?) in the body that somehow contributes to a number of very small changes or restrictions in how I swing.  I think the limits are at a subconscious level in that maybe I can't quite stretch as far on the backswing or I don't release my wrists quite as fluidly on the downswing even though it all feels like normal, but the net result with my driver is that I don't hit it so far.

For myself I think the solution is to work on general fitness rather than trying to rebuild or change my swing.  Certainly doing more stretching and strength work this year, even if only on a very limited scale, has helped me play better for longer.

It might also be the case that if you are constantly thinking about not hitting it as far as you used to when you are on the range then you might end up doing just that.  Maybe just leave the driver in the bag and work on something else for a week or two to see what happens.

[JetFan1983]

Yea, this happened to me this summer. At my low point, my yardage dropped down to like 220 yards with a fairly large banana slice. It made 400 yard par 4s a lot harder than they had to be. I filmed my swing, posted it on my thread, and @iacas gave me something to work on, and now I'm back to hitting it 260+ again. Big relief.

You're just doing something fairly significantly wrong. You need to figure out what that is, and then work on the fix. I suggest making a My Swing Thread and finding out the solution because it's unlikely you'll figure it out without the help of a qualified instructor. Take advantage of the great opportunities this website provides for your game, and then give back to the community by contributing to various other thread topics. You'll be happy you did!

[overratedplayer]

thank you very much for your responses!

i will see how it goes in the next few days and probably post a video if there is no change.

at least the short game improved this summer!