What Gives?!? - Game Improving, Handicap Getting Worse

[stealthhwk]

My frustration is about to go sky high even by golf standards! My ball striking and distance are better than ever before and yet my score and my handicap are rising quickly. Golf is a game of misses, well, even my misses are better. Used to hit it ob and hit houses. Now its usually 5-10 yards into the trees or rough. Used to hit it in the water at every opportunity. Now only hit it in the water half of the time. Used to take six to eight swings to escape a bunker, now it takes one or two. Used to three and four putt every hole, now its one or two and Im done. Used to have one sided short game. Now I can hit flops, bump and run and several home grown short game shots.  I used to hit 7 iron 140, now it goes 160. My biggest improvements have come in the last 18 months and instead of my handicap coming down its gone up nearly a whole point and a half. After all this improvement, I feel like I should be shooting high 80s NOT the same 96-105s I was shooting three years ago. I have truly improved by leaps and bounds. If working that hard, and improving that much is gonna get me the same crappy scores Ive always had, IM DONE!!! Its just the most assanigned thing Ive ever ****** heard! Maybe it really is time for a new hobby. Totally ridiculous!

[boogielicious]

3 minutes ago, stealthhwk said:

My frustration is about to go sky high even by golf standards! My ball striking and distance are better than ever before and yet my score and my handicap are rising quickly. Golf is a game of misses, well, even my misses are better. Used to hit it ob and hit houses. Now its usually 5-10 yards into the trees or rough. Used to hit it in the water at every opportunity. Now only hit it in the water half of the time. Used to take six to eight swings to escape a bunker, now it takes one or two. Used to three and four putt every hole, now its one or two and Im done. Used to have one sided short game. Now I can hit flops, bump and run and several home grown short game shots.  I used to hit 7 iron 140, now it goes 160. My biggest improvements have come in the last 18 months and instead of my handicap coming down its gone up nearly a whole point and a half. After all this improvement, I feel like I should be shooting high 80s NOT the same 96-105s I was shooting three years ago. I have truly improved by leaps and bounds. If working that hard, and improving that much is gonna get me the same crappy scores Ive always had, IM DONE!!! Its just the most assanigned thing Ive ever ****** heard! Maybe it really is time for a new hobby. Totally ridiculous!

Where are you losing shots the most? The swing work you are doing will improve, but you also need to figure out where you are losing shots and eliminate that issue too. Don't give up.

[saevel25]

What's your GIR? Has your putting changed? How many penalties? Are you taking too many risks at dummy pin placements? Are you leaving yourself easy or hard short game shots? 

Seriously analyze your round by how often you give your self a good shot at a GIR, but how many GIR you get and how many near GIR you get (with in 20 yards of the green not in a bunker), and by how well you are putting. 

You should be able to locate where you are losing strokes. 

 

[pumaAttack]

Were you 100% honest with your scores in the past?  Or did you not count that lost ball?  Or improved your lie.  Maybe you didn't count all of those 8 bunker shots.  Or maybe you wrote down a 6 instead of a 9.

It's pretty easy to not count that water ball and just tee one up again.  So instead of taking a 7 on a hole, you write down a 5.

If you have improved that much, I would bet you weren't actually shooting mid 90s before.  A lot of people "cheat" themselves by posting lower scores.  But then you have no idea if you have actually improved.

So it is entirely possible you have improved by a lot but didn't have an accurate benchmark to go off.

Edited April 6, 2016 by pumaAttack

[stealthhwk]

2 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

What's your GIR? Has your putting changed? How many penalties? Are you taking too many risks at dummy pin placements? Are you leaving yourself easy or hard short game shots? 

Seriously analyze your round by how often you give your self a good shot at a GIR, but how many GIR you get and how many near GIR you get (with in 20 yards of the green not in a bunker), and by how well you are putting. 

You should be able to locate where you are losing strokes. 

 

 

7 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Where are you losing shots the most? The swing work you are doing will improve, but you also need to figure out where you are losing shots and eliminate that issue too. Don't give up.

Thats another frustrating thing. I use golflogix app and it doesnt appear Im losing shots in any particular place. There is a HUGE glaring thing and thats a lack of girs. Ive been averaging one a round which I just dont get. Im an average to slightly above average hitter distance wise but cant reach in two shots. Only reason I can come up with is I dont get enough distance out my tee shot or I dont get enough distance out of the second shot. It constantly changes. Id love to move up tees but that means playing from the ladies tees which would probably be embarrasing for a guy in his 30s who has some distance POTENTIAL. :(

[boogielicious]

Just now, stealthhwk said:

 

Thats another frustrating thing. I use golflogix app and it doesnt appear Im losing shots in any particular place. There is a HUGE glaring thing and thats a lack of girs. Ive been averaging one a round which I just dont get. Im an average to slightly above average hitter distance wise but cant reach in two shots. Only reason I can come up with is I dont get enough distance out my tee shot or I dont get enough distance out of the second shot. It constantly changes. Id love to move up tees but that means playing from the ladies tees which would probably be embarrasing for a guy in his 30s who has some distance POTENTIAL. :(

Are you missing short, right, left, long? That is how you need to look at it. For me, my miss on approach shots was either short (slightly fat), or long left (a hook). So I focused on good contact and aimed somewhere in the right half of the green. GIR then went up. It is still not great (~30%), but I get up and down a lot with my short game and putting. So I am getting near GIR a lot.

This is how you have to analyze and be critical of your assumptions.

[stealthhwk]

4 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

Were you 100% honest with your scores in the past?  Or did you not count that lost ball?  Or improved your lie.  Maybe you didn't count all of those 8 bunker shots.  Or maybe you wrote down a 6 instead of a 9.

It's pretty easy to not count that water ball and just tee one up again.  So instead of taking a 7 on a hole, you write down a 5.

If you have improved that much, I would bet you weren't actually shooting mid 90s before.  A lot of people "cheat" themselves by posting lower scores.  But then you have no idea if you have actually improved.

So it is entirely possible you have improved by a lot but didn't have an accurate benchmark to go off.

LMAO!!! My buddies always give me crap for being such a stickler for the rules. I count every shot and always have. No improved lies and such. Only way I cheat myself is with mulligans and those have changed. Used to take one on front nine and one on back nine. Now one mulligan and its only allowed on the first tee since I never get to warm up before play. But I suppose that might be a good point for some people...sadly just not me.

2 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Are you missing short, right, left, long? That is how you need to look at it. For me, my miss on approach shots was either short (slightly fat), or long left (a hook). So I focused on good contact and aimed somewhere in the right half of the green. GIR then went up. It is still not great (~30%), but I get up and down a lot with my short game and putting. So I am getting near GIR a lot.

This is how you have to analyze and be critical of your assumptions.

And this sucks too cus this is GREAT advice! But not helpful to me cus I lack a consistant miss. I miss short, left, and right about equal. Wish I had that one way miss I hear people talk about but I just dont.

I have finally ordered lsw. Its supposed to arrive today and Im praying maybe it can shed some light on the mystery or somehow help me improve.

[pumaAttack]

15 minutes ago, stealthhwk said:

LMAO!!! My buddies always give me crap for being such a stickler for the rules. I count every shot and always have. No improved lies and such. Only way I cheat myself is with mulligans and those have changed. Used to take one on front nine and one on back nine. Now one mulligan and its only allowed on the first tee since I never get to warm up before play. But I suppose that might be a good point for some people...sadly just not me.

And this sucks too cus this is GREAT advice! But not helpful to me cus I lack a consistant miss. I miss short, left, and right about equal. Wish I had that one way miss I hear people talk about but I just dont.

I bet you take more liberties than you imagine.  No way you go from shooting OB's to 5 yards off and shoot the same score.  I bet you didn't tee up 3 from the tee each time.  

And that mulligan could save you easily 5 plus strokes.  That's never playing by the rules.   

Just be honest with yourself, if you really want to improve your game.  

 

[stealthhwk]

4 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

I bet you take more liberties than you imagine.  No way you go from shooting OB's to 5 yards off and shoot the same score.  I bet you didn't tee up 3 from the tee each time.  

And that mulligan could save you easily 5 plus strokes.  That's never playing by the rules.   

Just be honest with yourself, if you really want to improve your game.  

 

NEVER imagined a mulligan could save five strokes. Thats a ton! I dont think Ill be taking any more of those. Ill keep a closer eye on my card. When I re tee after an ob, thats always a three. But I try to take my medicine. I go to the spot where it went out take a drop and a penalty stroke and just try to move on. 9/10 if I re tee, Ill just hit it ob again.

[pumaAttack]

2 minutes ago, stealthhwk said:

NEVER imagined a mulligan could save five strokes. Thats a ton! I dont think Ill be taking any more of those. Ill keep a closer eye on my card. When I re tee after an ob, thats always a three. But I try to take my medicine. I go to the spot where it went out take a drop and a penalty stroke and just try to move on. 9/10 if I re tee, Ill just hit it ob again.

 

Think about it.  You hit your tee ball OB.  You get mad and wanna fire another one right down the middle. You re-tee the ball and hit it OB again.  Now you are hitting 5 from the tee. Hopefully that one lands ok.

If you took a mulligan after that first OB, you are still calm and maybe poke one down the middle. So instead of laying 5 you lie 1 right down the middle.  

Jump ahead to today. Now you have improved and don't take that mulligan.  You get the same score as before, as you did with the mulligan, but when you look at the details they clearly are not the same.  That mulligan cheated yourself from seeing the improvement in your game.

Same story can be applied to a water ball, a lost ball, a sand shot, etc.

[stealthhwk]

Se events from last round that may help;

Missed 5 greens left, 5 right, and five short. Landed three girs, two more than usual but girs only seem to hurt as I always three putt every gir. Mostly cus when I land a gir the ball lands in the middle of the green and rolls away from flag or sometimes it rolls off completely costing me a gir. Either way, when my first putt is 30 feet or more, I three putt every time. Only other detrimental constant Im aware of is Im a high intensity kind of a person, not one of the laid back cool kids thus Im highly tense and stressed on the golf course. Cant relax.

[mcanadiens]

5 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

 

Think about it.  You hit your tee ball OB.  You get mad and wanna fire another one right down the middle. You re-tee the ball and hit it OB again.  Now you are hitting 5 from the tee. Hopefully that one lands ok.

If you took a mulligan after that first OB, you are still calm and maybe poke one down the middle. So instead of laying 5 you lie 1 right down the middle.  

Jump ahead to today. Now you have improved and don't take that mulligan.  You get the same score as before, as you did with the mulligan, but when you look at the details they clearly are not the same.  That mulligan cheated yourself from seeing the improvement in your game.

Same story can be applied to a water ball, a lost ball, a sand shot, etc.

This is something I've tried to take into account with myself. For the first couple of years, my buddies and I played with mulligans and took liberal drops on OB shots. By the third year, I had improved a bit, but there wasn't as much difference in the scores I was marking on the card. ... Today, the same buddies still play by their own rules.

[allenc]

I agree that if everything you say is true, the only possibility is that you are now keeping score more honestly than you used to.  Even if you don't think the way you keep score has changed, just think about it.  Fewer balls out of play mean fewer opportunities to bend the rules.  So congratulations!  You are better after all.

[stealthhwk]

11 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

 

Think about it.  You hit your tee ball OB.  You get mad and wanna fire another one right down the middle. You re-tee the ball and hit it OB again.  Now you are hitting 5 from the tee. Hopefully that one lands ok.

If you took a mulligan after that first OB, you are still calm and maybe poke one down the middle. So instead of laying 5 you lie 1 right down the middle.  

Jump ahead to today. Now you have improved and don't take that mulligan.  You get the same score as before, as you did with the mulligan, but when you look at the details they clearly are not the same.  That mulligan cheated yourself from seeing the improvement in your game.

Same story can be applied to a water ball, a lost ball, a sand shot, etc.

Thats a very good point, ur absolutely right. The madder I get, the worse I get and often found myself laying 5. This is why I try to take my medicine and move on.

[stealthhwk]

Lol!!! The mailman has just delivered my copy of lsw. Now, Ive got some reading to do. Fingerss crossed, prayimg for a miracle

[sirhacksalot]

LSW will help you see what areas you need to practice. For some it improves scores straight off the bat for those like me it says " hey, if you want to improve you need to do this..." and i'm still working toward doing it.  So its still on me.  

Have you tried playing easier courses, just for the confidence boost.  I play a pretty tough course "for me" its tight, with skinny tee boxes that there isnt much area to move around, lots of dense trees, lots of water, crowned fairways that can make good drives roll to water or tree line,  and though its short the "blues" which is where the blitz plays me, is long enough to demand a driver on most par 4's. I know that there are easier courses around but they aren't as close or as cheap as the one I play.

Do you have a go to short game shot?  You mentioned that you can to all the shots but how close are they leaving you first putt?  It may be worth taking a look at the quickie pitching video thread and adapting a single swing for all short game shots.  I can hit chips, bumps, flops, etc. too but unfortunately those are sometimes accompanied by duffs and fats, and chili dips, and thins. If you can't depend on a flop shot then on a par 4 that has a drop off on the left side of the green, water behind and bunker on right, with pin in back left. It may be better to play for short middle/ right etc. Especially if the longer club could put me in any of that trouble. Again this is what "I" need to work on.  

 

Edited April 6, 2016 by sirhacksalot

[stealthhwk]

9 minutes ago, sirhacksalot said:

LSW will help you see what areas you need to practice. For some it improves scores straight off the bat for those like me it says " hey, if you want to improve you need to do this..." and i'm still working toward doing it.  So its still on me.  

Have you tried playing easier courses, just for the confidence boost.  I play a pretty tough course "for me" its tight, with skinny tee boxes that there isnt much area to move around, lots of dense trees, lots of water, crowned fairways that can make good drives roll to water or tree line,  and though its short the "blues" which is where the blitz plays me, is long enough to demand a driver on most par 4's. I know that there are easier courses around but they aren't as close or as cheap as the one I play.

Do you have a go to short game shot?  You mentioned that you can to all the shots but how close are they leaving you first putt?  It may be worth taking a look at the quickie pitching video thread and adapting a single swing for all short game shots.  I can hit chips, bumps, flops, etc. too but unfortunately those are sometimes accompanied by duffs and fats, and chili dips, and thins. If you can't depend on a flop shot then on a par 4 that has a drop off on the left side of the green, water behind and bunker on right, with pin in back left. It may be better to play for short middle/ right etc. Especially if the longer club could put me in any of that trouble. Again this is what "I" need to work on.  

 

Id kill for an easier course!! Dfw has tons of courses but few for the weekend warrior. From what I understand the average course for an amateur is around 113 slope. All the courses near me NOW are between 117 and 129. Ive moved 40 miles away from the easy courses I used to play. 

And I do have a go to bump and run shot around the greens. I suspect some recent golf ball testing has probably had a very negative effect on that part of my game over the last three months. Ball testing was completed yesterday with shocking results so Ive found my ball and Im sticking to it til they stop making it or til I outgrow it which hopefully wont be anytime soon. My first putts are usually close but it all depends on the length of the approach. Anything outside of 115 and Im not gonna be close

Edited April 6, 2016 by stealthhwk
Added stuff

[Dave2512]

I've had periods of funny scoring while improving. A lot of it was taking on more risk and finding trouble I couldn't previously get in to. Improved ball striking for amateurs still comes with inconsistency and often with perception sneaking in to confuse us. I often have days I drive the ball really well, driving is the weakest part of the game for me, and manage to score worse than usual. I score the best when I play Groundhog Day golf because I am accustomed to those positions on the course.

Goes the other way too. My scoring average has dropped half a stroke in 2016 and I am injured and hitting the ball very poorly. As a result I am playing very conservative. Using an old man swing I don't find trouble.