A shambles...feel like giving up!

[barrybridges]

Golf is so frustrating.

After making really good progress with lessons and plenty of practice, I've seen my scores slowly come down since the winter. My last round out was 87 with plenty of areas to improve, so I went out with my neighbour at the weekend full of confidence and hoping to do well. I'd been working on my putting especially and felt that with a few simple corrections I'd be looking to take a few shots off in that area at least.

Anyway, my game completely fell apart and from 87 one week I went around in...106! It was like watching a car-crash!

Annoyingly, my iron play and short game was actually pretty good. What fell apart, however, were my tee shots. I literally couldn't hit the ball. I didn't even touch my driver all round, but even with my 3 wood everything was sliced. Of 14 holes, I hit 1 FIR and ended up in the trees 10 times, all of which destroyed my score.

Every hole was the same; tee shot into the trees followed either by a provisional played with an iron, or else a 2nd shot from the trees to the fairway and then playing on from there.

I've never felt so despondent about playing golf! I'm so angry at myself...but at least I know where to focus my attention in my next lesson.

Everything else was fairly reasonable...I hit some good irons to escape trouble, but I wasted so many shots having to come out of the woods from my 2nd shot. The 106 includes 8 penalties/drops! It was honestly embarrassing - every time I play with my neighbour I fall apart.

Feeling pretty gutted and actually feeling pretty demotivated now. So frustrated!

To be fair, the course we play on is really tight; if your drives are anything but straight you'll end up in thick gorse making recovery impossible.

 

[Aztecs27]

Seems alot of us are going through slumps at the minute. Stick with it mate. This game has a way of sucking you right back in when you least expect it!

 

[barrybridges]

Yeah I know - I wonder whether all this nice weather has brought people out more often and we've all got our hopes up too much as a result!

In some ways I don't mind a bad round - chances are it'll be balanced by an above-average round at some point, but it was so demoralising. I can't tell you how bad I was!

To be fair, the course was pretty tough on those who couldn't hit it straight from the tee, not that that's an excuse. The fairways were narrow and the rough was just thick bluebells and gorse. I understand that the members complained a lot about this recently as they felt that they were losing too many balls and that the rough could be made punitive whilst still giving them a chance to find their ball each time; instead, you pretty much would never find your ball if you get it in the deep stuff.

On one hole (a 340 yard par 4) I hooked it into the trees and OOB. Played 2nd shot (with penalty) and hooked it again into the rough. Hit from the rough (4th shot) and the thick grass made it tough to get out - managed to duff it about 15 feet. 5th shot was 7i onto the fairway, followed by a good 7i onto the green for 6. 2-putted to give me a quadruple bogey was really frustrating as I can see there that my driving cost me 4 shots on the hole! Repeat this for the rest of the round and it was awful.

Everything just fell apart. From 87 last week I went round with 44 putts in total. 44 PUTTS!!! WTF? 8 penalties and around 10 wasted shots getting the ball back onto the fairway from the rough after each drive. On the plus side I can see that if I've got at least 26 extraneous shots there which should go if I can cure what is surely a ridiculous fault.

I think the problem is with my grip though, so in some ways easy to resolve. I have a grip that is too open, so I'm blocking the release and not swinging through on impact, with the result that I'm slicing the ball out right each time.

 

[Oddsocks]

baz it will come good. i had the same thing sunday, ive missed buffer in a medal once this year, and NR'd once, other than that its been good. Just when your full off confidence, this sport bites you in the arse with a reality check that hurts, sunday i was 11 over HC. driving wasnt there which has been mega of late, hit one par 3 from 5, it just wasnt my day.

it happens, get it out ya head and move on, still 8 months left of golf this year.

 

[G_Mulligan]

I know how you feel when you can't get the ball off the tee. So embarrassing that you just don't want to be out there anymore. I worked through my clubs on saturday off the tee. Driver slice, 3 wood slice, hybrid slice (normally my go to club) settled on a 4 iron for the rest of the round but by then my head was in bits and short game unraveled. Think I might play just with the 4 iron tomorrow and see how it goes.

 

[barrybridges]

That's what I ended up doing...resorting to my 4i. By that time the damage was done.

You know how it's gone so badly wrong that you just want the round to be over and to go home? I haven't picked up a club sicne Friday, although I might hit the range tonight.

 

[G1BB0]

Barry, sounds just like my round on Sunday, a 103 after shooting an 87 only 6 days earlier (different course tho). I was brimming and then went to pot. only thing that saved it slightly was chipping and putting. I have just written it off as it was a strange course, windy as hell and I didnt do any range work all week.

My next proper round is the Beau Desert meet (maybe one extra in between) and I have booked 2 lessons and will be working solely on my tee shots!!!

goto the range, hit a few balls and enjoy it. Next round may well be an 86

 

[Tiger]

Same boat as you my friend but putting it down as a momentary blip. It'll come good again!

 

[trevor]

When I read the first post I had to look at the auther to see if it had been written by me! Everything I hit yesterday went right and the farther it went the farther right it went. Booked a lesson for Thursday, hope he can sort me out again.

 

[barrybridges]

Thankfully I went out to the range last night and I think all of it stemmed from a really simple error: my grip was just too open.

I corrected that and for the next 45 minutes pretty much every drive was nice and straight.

Very frustrating though to think what 'could have been' had I done that on the course!

No doubt my short game will go to pot now!

Bloody golf!

 

[Oddsocks]

easy answer baz, open grip for short game if its working, normal grip for everything else.

 

[barrybridges]

Haha! That's exactly what I've ended up with...!

Fancy a game soon?

 

[Oddsocks]

yeah defo baz, cant do this weekend as its medal weekend, but any time after im clear

 

[TriggerTech]

Same thing Barry - went from 113 in a medal (10 pens) to 93,90,90 and then the round of my life 79 within a month.

Went into Medal last Sunday thinking my net 51 form would surely get me top 10. However as soon as the card was in my hand I lost it big time - NR after a shocking 63 on front 9.
I finished the round out of courtesy to my fellow group member but didn’t enjoy it one bit. This is the first time Ive felt like this since I got the Bug around 18 months ago.

The difference in my 79 and NR was purely down to me off the tee - 13 FIR for 79 and 4 for NR - Ive got a lesson booked next week to specifically cover driving - so hopefully I can avenge the NR!