I think I may be getting to hate golf.

[chilepepper]

Golf is hard. Some days it makes no sense. Today I shot 107 on a course I consistently shoot 82-89 on. Go figure. 

[jkelley9]

Bro, I straight skulled 2 balls yesterday into ISOLATED hazards that aren't even really in play. I feel ya.

I'm able to still enjoy a round though because I understand that not ever day, or even week, is going to be better than the last.

[RGoosen]

4 hours ago, DannyMac said:

If Golf was easy they'd start calling it Tennis .  You're down to a 21 HI after your 2nd year of golf, that is mighty impressive.  Take a second to breathe, maybe even a few days without any golf, and come back with a fresh mindset.  Negativity between the ears is a golfers biggest nemesis.  Good luck

Hey now... I saw that! :)

[rkim291968]

9 hours ago, paininthenuts said:

I have only been playing a year. I am now 58 and started at 57. My handicap has dropped to 21.

For a one year old golfer so to speak, 21 HI is pretty good.   Perhaps, the beginner's luck has ran its course and you now have to grind things out.   

[Rainmaker]

A similar but different thing happened to me a few years back. I was frustrated with my rounds first and foremost - but I also increasingly felt like golf is pretty much a pain in the ass. 

Nobody I know plays. It's expensive and time consuming. Still - I'm fascinated by it. 

Thats when I turned into basically a golf practicer vs golf player.  I practice and hit balls just about everyday. I play a few times a year.  I'd like to play more but it's just such a pain in the ass lol. 

[stealthhwk]

12 hours ago, paininthenuts said:

I have only been playing a year. I am now 58 and started at 57. My handicap has dropped to 21. Unfortunately the last few weeks has been so embarrassing I can barely face my colleague at the end of a round.  The weekend before lst I played in the club championships and looked a complete plonker. Last weekend I played a tight course 20 miles away and lost 8 balls in the first 14 holes. Two weeks ago I played my clubs sister course and blobbed on 10 holes and scored 13 points. 

What the hell has happened.I have no confidence anymore, and the little ability  I did have has deserted me. Before anyone says it, this isn't a case of needing lessons, because I am not doing what I know I can do !!

Darts anyone ?

I was in the same place as u about 9 months ago. My home course was a very tight challenging par 66 golf course. Between the terrible hooking and the complete inability to get the golf ball in the air and the losing of 14 golf balls during one round I absolutely hit rock bottom. I was terribly depressed, angry, and heart broken. Unlike most everyone I know, golf is the only interest I possess other than my family. I own firearms but I do not hunt. I enjoy shooting and bowling over work but Im not overly passionate about either. My round on that given day concluded with me on 18 25 yards before the green aimed away from it. I retrieved the last 9 balls from my bag and hit every single one as hard as I could into the lake!!! I yelled, I cussed, I screamed, I behaved like an absolute lunatic. Broken and ashamed, I returned to my car and swore that no matter what I was done for six weeks. I had lost control and track of my priorities. I was holding golf above all else including my beautiful wife and amazing young son. Im ashamed to admit that esp publicly, but golf had consumed me. It was hell, but for six weeks; no golf channel, no golf browsing, no sand trap visits, didnt touch a golf ball or golf club. After six weeks and re prioritizing my life (getting my shit together) I returned refreshed and re discovered my love for the game. And now Ive dropped 8 strokes from my handicap and have done so while playing much longer more difficult courses. And MOST importantly Ive learned to balance golf with life and things that actually matter. Like family!! If u have reached the point u are at now, u are in danger of becoming me. RUN!!! Dont walk...RUN away from golf before its too late. For six weeks ignore all things golf at any and all costs!! Then come back and see what happens. Hopefully u rekindle your passion, if not, theres no law that says u must play golf. There comes a point where giving it up is the right move. ;) But I bet it doesnt come to that. Best of luck!!!! 

P.s. Golf takes a lot of time away from the ones we love. Spend that extra time with those u cherish most. 

[dove694]

I agree with the first reply. Take some time away and give yourself an opportunity to recharge. We all have our slumps - even the tour pros. Remember, it's just a way to get some fresh air and exercise!  

[paininthenuts]

13 hours ago, billchao said:

I'm not going to sugar-coat it for you: if you aren't going to take lessons and you're not going to take active steps towards improvement, you're not going to improve. You may figure out how to score better given your current skill set, but there's always going to be a ceiling somewhere.

If you are happy with that, that's ok. Find a way to enjoy golf playing at your current level. When I was a 20, I had bad days. I still have bad days. The difference now is my bad days are better now than they used to be, and I enjoy myself on the course much more. I made a commitment towards improving and it is rewarding me.

I have had many lessons. It's not that I don't know what to do, it's a mental thing that is stopping me from doing it. 

 

5 hours ago, rkim291968 said:

For a one year old golfer so to speak, 21 HI is pretty good.   Perhaps, the beginner's luck has ran its course and you now have to grind things out.   

It's not luck. I am retired and get to play at least 5 times a week

[rap5000]

Hi

As my previous posts will testify I've been there and still am. I find it dull paying golf so I tried lots of crazy things to keep it going, then I discovered no matter what's did I would still pay my fees and play every opportunity I got. So I asked myself why? Simply put when it's good it's addictive and when it's bad I don't care. It's that change in attitude to disregard the bad as unimportant in your life that counted for me.

When it's bad I looked if there was a degree of commonality by writing down all my shots on a pad whilst playing. Discounting bad bounces and bad luck I isolated the problem to be going for it off the tee and chips over obstacles which was ruining my scores. So I cut back the power on the tee went for position over distance and put the fear of obstacle chips in the back of my head and committed to the shot. I improved and I score better but I keep analysing as there are other aspects that occasionally go wrong and that's how I improve. It's still dull but I still play so I guess that's even waining I just need to let time eradicate that issue.

[RH31]

It never gets any less frustrating either, at least for me it hasn't. I've been playing golf on and off for 30+ years and there are times every year when I wonder why I put myself through all the aggravation.

I always tell newcomers to the game that it's the hardest most frustrating game you'll ever try to play, and if you can't enjoy doing something poorly, don't get into golf.

If I could still run, I wouldn't be trying to play anymore. I play a sport and get some exercise instead of golf.

I may put a pool in and take up swimming and just hack away a few times a year.

[imsys0042]

3 hours ago, paininthenuts said:

I have had many lessons. It's not that I don't know what to do, it's a mental thing that is stopping me from doing it. 

 

I have an overactive mind.   When I start sliding off the mental rails I play different "games" on the course for the day to hit different shots.   I might try and hit driver on every non-par3, or not hit driver at all.  Every shot is played with longer clubs and I have to adjust.   No matter what, hit high lobs for pitches around the green for fun.   Also play from a mixture of front and back tees for different style shots.

That keeps me focused on the different swings I normally don't need and not on the overall game.  Also, drinking heavily helps.

[mcanadiens]

4 hours ago, paininthenuts said:

It's not luck. I am retired and get to play at least 5 times a week

Five rounds a week is a bunch. It's not hard to imagine anyone getting a bit burned out after that.

Like many others says, take a few days off.

[krupa]

Personally I think your mind and body are tired.  I had the same problem.  I took a week off, then stopped keeping score.  I pay attention on a per-hole basis, but I don't write anything down.  I also freely take mulligans these days; life is too short to worry about the small stuff like rules. :)   Of course, I can do this because I don't have or care about an official handicap.

Funny thing is, once I stopped worrying about a score and making GIRs and in general playing like a golfer I'm not, I found that I was swinging more freely and making more pars and bogeys.  

 

[paininthenuts]

Thanks for all your advice. To be honest, my thread was a bit tongue in cheek. In the short time I have been playing I have got to realise that improvement is about two steps forward, and then one step back. Over the last few weeks it has just been two steps back, but with the occasional decent shot. At the end of the day, I took up golf to give me exercise and  to use up time. Even when I play badly, it does both !!

[CarlSpackler]

9 minutes ago, paininthenuts said:

Thanks for all your advice. To be honest, my thread was a bit tongue in cheek. In the short time I have been playing I have got to realise that improvement is about two steps forward, and then one step back. Over the last few weeks it has just been two steps back, but with the occasional decent shot. At the end of the day, I took up golf to give me exercise and  to use up time. Even when I play badly, it does both !!

If you want exercise, then Army golf is the best approach (left, right, left). You get to walk a lot of bonus yards. 

[ScouseJohnny]

During one of my roughest patches, about eight years ago, when I was returning to golf after not having played for a decade, I discovered a 5 iron off the tee was infinitely preferable to embarrassing and useless slices, skyballs, and pop-ups with a driver (worst of all was this habit of driving the ball straight into the ground a couple of inches in front of where it had been teed up - I have no idea what caused that, and it gives me the horrors just to think about it, years later). Then, for a couple of years, I played quite good golf with my irons, only, and worked on my driver at the range. Once I got confidence back with my driver (part of which seemed to come from finding one that I could work with - a very light Wilson Staff D100), the driver finally went back in my bag. For quite some time before that, I had been hitting my 3 iron off the tee on every par 4 and 5 because it produced a straight, reasonably long drive in the fairway, and the driver just caused misery and lost balls.

I suppose the limited advice I'm offering is this: during rough patches, stick with what you can do. If you know the driver will result in a horrifying slice, hit an iron off the tee. If you know the chip from the fringe will be skulled over the green, just play a Texas wedge, and so on....

[billchao]

8 hours ago, paininthenuts said:

I have had many lessons. It's not that I don't know what to do, it's a mental thing that is stopping me from doing it.

You don't have a "mental block" stopping you from changing your golf swing, but you might not be practicing effectively.

If you can do it in your lesson, you can do it on your own. The hard part is getting the change to become a part of your real swing. That requires changing your "muscle memory," not overcoming some perceived mental obstacle.

[CarlSpackler]

It could be in your head, but I would ask you... who is in charge of your head?