Consistency

[MattVSTS]

It is almost a year I approached this amazing sport. I started literally from zero, and now I am going around the course, which is an achievement on its own. But...

Yesterday I had my usual 8 holes after work. Aside from the fact that getting a par looks almost impossible and - without counting lost balls - I am well anchored on +2, +3 per hole with the odd +1, my consistency is dreadful.

Driving is hit and miss really (despite a lesson I had a couple of weeks ago, but I keep working on it, and the swing seems to be still 'evolving'), I might manage to hit an amazing second shot from the rough, but then I would ruin everything with the pitching wedge sending the ball somewhere far, like the adjacent hole's fairway or in the water. Strangely enough yesterday the putting was great, I even holed from a foot outside the green on our 4th for bogey. I think I started to ingrain into it, at least.

I'd say I hit a great shot every five, and I keep alternating decent shots to ridiculous ones. And what's worse I keep losing a somewhat large amount of balls - 5 lost balls yesterday on the front 8 holes.

Needless to say I am not even thinking about getting an handicap, my pro told me to wait until I manage to get an average of +2 on each hole, but at the moment if I count all the lost balls I am way over that.

Is there any range drill which could help in that regard? What could I do to limit the amount of lost balls? I was told by my pro that I downswing too heavily, do you have any suggestion in this area?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Foliage Finder]

Mate, you've just described my situation in a nutshell! All the cylinders are there but the timing belt has gone/is yet to be fitted and they're not working together? I too have been playing for around a year and I too, lose balls almost for fun. Firstly, you're getting lessons from a pro and that should continue. I'll tell you a couple of things that have helped me and I hope they can help you too.

I've been working on the mental aspect, as it is undoubtedly one of the most important things that is going to get you to getting a handicap. When you hit a good shot, and you watch the entire flight and roll, remember it. Remember it clearly, as that will give you confidence later on. When you hit a bad shot, obviously you'll remember it, but if you don't think about it afterwards, just focus on the good ones, the bad ones will fade. Obviously this is difficult, but I find that if I focus on the good ones enough, and recall them in my head later on in the day, the bad ones don't hang around. What you do need to remember though, is what type of shot you were playing when you hit a bad one, as this gives you areas you can work on with your pro/at the range. So rather than remembering that you took a gap wedge from 70 yards out in the first cut of rough on the left fairway, that you thinned through the other side of the green on the 5th hole; remember that you need to work on achieving a good contact and your approach play with your pro/at the range.

Another great tip is one I got from my pro. Rather than play strokeplay, which is the most difficult form of the game, if you're keeping score on a round, play Stableford. This way, if you implode on a hole and score double figures or something, it just goes down as a 0 and you don't even have to finish the hole. Then, you don't look at your scorecard with a 12 or something on it and your morale is in your boots. Then once you know you're scoring around 30-36, that's roughly par with or without a buffer for a 28 hcp, and you should think about putting some cards in. Sounds simple but it has worked well for me (best so far is 26 so getting there).

Finally, (you'll be glad to read...) I also find that I rush into the downswing. When I play well I almost feel as if I'm waiting at the top of the backswing for the elastic recoil in my muscles and tendons to begin the downswing, then that's my cue to bump/rotate the hips and add some smooth acceleration into impact. This often sorts out iffy contact, and also enables me to eliminate some open clubface and fadey slices.

Persistence is key at this stage I think, and if you keep going with good basics and a calm mind you'll be putting cards in before you know it.

 

[GG26]

I am with you on the number of lost balls. When I started out a few months ago I was regularly losing 6 to 8 balls a round. To keep the financial pain down I have been using the cheap Dunlop balls from Sports Direct until my game justifies using something a bit better. These only work at at around 40p each. One of my goals at the moment is to play a whole round with the same ball. I once got as far as the 17th before I lost one, but I am still losing between 3-5 balls on average.

As regards getting a handicap, after reading around I discovered that any shots more than +2 on a hole are disregarded. Therefore as a general guide, if you can get four pars or eight bogeys in a round, or a combination of the two, this should equate to a handicap of 28. Put in these terms it does not sound quite so daunting. I give myself 2 points for a par or 1 for a bogey and then deduct these points from a starting 36 (+2 for each hole), which should give a guide to your handicap. I have got an initial handicap of 26 and I average around two pars and four to six bogeys per round.

Good luck and hope you continue to enjoy the game.

 

[duncan mackie]

Been playing nearly 40 years and if I was consistent I would be on the tour...

Golf for most is not about 'can you?' but about do you....

However, as a rule of thumb, most problems happen because you don't plan around them and have clear achievable targets for each shot.

That said hit it, find it, hit it again is a lot of fun for those of us for whom it's not a living.

 

[glasgowbeginner]

Exact same here ! Although I played my first ever 18 holes yesterday! I can hit some cracking shots and some down right terrible ones, yesterday for example on the first tee I smacked my drive to about 60 yards from the hole, 2 wedge shots and then 3 putted - which as ridiculous as it sounds I wad pleased with ! Recorded a 7 on the next hole and on the 3rd hit par, it is a short par 3 though. Still I was so proud of myself for achieving so much so early, confidence was high and I felt I was playing good even though I was hitting 6s,7s and 8s lol.

As the round went on by the 12th I was getting tired, forgot my water bottle and just annoyed. And it showed in the golf. I lost 5 balls on the last 6 holes and came off the course feeling crap.

I feel like it's all mental, when my confidence was high I was playing well, but when I was feeling down my shots nosedived !

 

[TheCaddie]

I was in your position not so long ago. Continue to get lessons... not too often, once a month, and stick with what you are taught.

Grip and posture are critical, make sure the club comes down the same way it came up, and watch the club hit the ball. Then..... practise. And always commit to the shot, whatever pace you decide to hit it, never decelerate.

And practice.... range, 9 holes, 18 holes, as much as you can to get a swing embedded in. Keep practising, and keep sticking to what you've been taught. Once you get some consistency and start shooting in the 90s, then you can start focusing on smaller things to keep the shots reducing.

You WILL get there.

 

[Craigg]

I was in your position not so long ago. Continue to get lessons... not too often, once a month, and stick with what you are taught.

Grip and posture are critical, make sure the club comes down the same way it came up, and watch the club hit the ball. Then..... practise. And always commit to the shot, whatever pace you decide to hit it, never decelerate.

And practice.... range, 9 holes, 18 holes, as much as you can to get a swing embedded in. Keep practising, and keep sticking to what you've been taught. Once you get some consistency and start shooting in the 90s, then you can start focusing on smaller things to keep the shots reducing.

You WILL get there.

It's a good job Jim Furyk doesn't bring his club down the same way it goes up :lol:

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Tot he OP, stick with it. Consistency, to a degree will come and it's great that you feel that you can fire on all cylinders at times and that it's a question of getting it all to work at the same time. When you do, the results will be superb and will only fire you on and on to try and get better and better.

 

[TheCaddie]

It's a good job Jim Furyk doesn't bring his club down the same way it goes up :lol:

He doesn't count!! Ha ha!

 

[MattVSTS]

Thanks everybody for the answers. Great to see I am not alone in this

Keeping up with the lessons is a must, I still have 2hrs (four lessons) left from a package I bought and I'll surely keep scheduling them on a monthly basis.

All the suggestions are really helpful, I'll try going out today again and see how and if they apply!

 

[MattVSTS]

As regards getting a handicap, after reading around I discovered that any shots more than +2 on a hole are disregarded. Therefore as a general guide, if you can get four pars or eight bogeys in a round, or a combination of the two, this should equate to a handicap of 28. Put in these terms it does not sound quite so daunting. I give myself 2 points for a par or 1 for a bogey and then deduct these points from a starting 36 (+2 for each hole), which should give a guide to your handicap. I have got an initial handicap of 26 and I average around two pars and four to six bogeys per round.

Interesting, I didn't get at all I could discard scores while playing for getting a handicap. This looks a more achievable target, in this terms.

 

[TheCaddie]

Thanks everybody for the answers. Great to see I am not alone in this

Keeping up with the lessons is a must, I still have 2hrs (four lessons) left from a package I bought and I'll surely keep scheduling them on a monthly basis.

All the suggestions are really helpful, I'll try going out today again and see how and if they apply!

Let us know how you get on!!! What did you focus on, and how did it go?

 

[ChrisB0210]

To the OP and other posters that have highlighted their struggles, let me reassure you that I feel your pain!

I started playing again on an irregular basis in 2010 and after buying all new kit, took the plunge into lessons in early 2011 with the previous pro at the club where I am now a member. Progress was slow, but I got to the point where I could hit a ball (although the direction and likely finishing point were anybody's guess) and could get around our course in a reasonable number of shots, although the engravers didn't have to worry about adding my name to any silverware any time soon.

i joined my club in early 2012, submitted 3 cards quite quickly and was granted a handicap of 26. Within 5 months of joining, I started entering comps and playing in Rabbit section friendly matches. I didn't set the world alight, gained 2 shots on my handicap but started to make new friends, almost all of whom have encouraged, cajoled and generally helped me get around the course at various times.

At the suggestion of my then coach, lesson frequency dropped and I didn't really kick on that much, in fact I stagnated. This wasn't helped by our pro moving to another club which meant a 25 mile round trip for lessons. Things came to something of a head towards the end of 2013 when I'd not long since had a lesson and had ironed out a few issues (or at least I thought I had) prior to the first round of our winter league. I played alongside a new member of our club who had noticed something in my swing etc and told me very directly to get a second opinion.

I did this courtesy of a freebie with a range membership scheme I'd signed up for. The video assessment was a real eye opener, certainly became clear why I was so inconsistent. I pretty much changed coaches on the spot and started putting things right. Within a couple of months the improvement was noticeable, I'd bagged my first ever eagle and started getting late 20 - 30 point stableford scores, culminating in a best of 37 that winter.

Fast fwd to summer 2014, almost back to square 1, the little fixes had got me so far, but a major overhaul of my game was needed to really kick on. I started work on this and have to confess that things got worse before they improved, although improve they did before an injury intervened earlier this year.

Since returning from that injury, things started slowly, didn't set the world alight but could feel momentum building. Underlined this with a few brilliant holes on a 2 day coaching course at Carden Park, these definitely boosted the confidence.

I entered all our club matchplay comps this year, plus an inter-club one. I only last on the last hole in each of the ones I went out of, all to lower handicappers than myself and I'm through to a final having beaten two previous winners. Last weekend I should have won our open in my handicap division, but three appalling holes put paid to that. Playing to handicap on those would have seen me win by two!

So, I've said a lot here, but what is my message to you?

I suppose there's a few elements to it really.

1. Keep going. If you can feel the improvements (and your posts suggest you can) then it will come good, trust me. There's a few of us at my club that joined around the same time and we've all come through similar times/experiences to those set out above.

2. As soon as YOU feel ready, get your cards in for your handicap. This way you can start playing comps, this really does help improve your game. I found that sometimes it's seeing or realising what not to do that helps as much as seeing what to do.

3. Accept it takes time. My journey has probably taken too long, mainly due to persisting with my first coach, but this game is tricky to learn and you'll often find two steps fwd, 1 step back is the norm while you get to grips with certain aspects.

4. Enjoy it. It will come together and you'll soon get to a point where you'll hit a "bad" shot, but then realise that in days gone by you'd actually have been pretty happy to hit that shot!

5. Look at the mental side of the game, certainly the Bob Rotella books are well worth reading and can be obtained via Amazon for £2-3 each.

The number of lost balls will reduce as you improve and at most courses I've played, the lower handicappers are just as likely to lose balls as the higher handicappers.

Just remains for me to wish you the best of luck, hope it starts to come good for you and your commitment and effort get you where you want to be.

 

[MattVSTS]

So, off I went and I report a scorecard of 89 shots, but missing four snag holes, where I completely lost the plot of the game and I stopped counting. If I would have managed to get an average of +2 (all the other holes range from +1 to +3 except for a +5 and a +4 due to putting mistakes) the grand total would have been 114 including the missing four holes.

I focused on making the shots work, basically. Keeping the head down together with a reasonable downswing and not suddenly raise the back. The driver was awful again and for unknown reasons even my iron shots morphed into bananas to the right hand side. On a brighter note there were a few notable shots which I kept reminding, especially with the 5 wood.

Now I will be off the course for a week, but your help was really invaluable. Thanks a lot again to you all

 

[mattyb0y]

Yesterday had my usual 8 holes after work


Is there any range drill which could help in that regard.

Whilst not a suggestion for your down swing, on the range try practising the shot routine you would normal take for playing your regular 8 holes in an ideal world, for example hole 1 - driver, mid iron (if it's a par 4) if you hit a bad one hit the club you would if you were playing to recover etc.... I found this helped me..

 

[MattVSTS]

I forgot mentioning, still six lost balls but out of 18 holes.

 

[MattVSTS]

Whilst not a suggestion for your down swing, on the range try practising the shot routine you would normal take for playing your regular 8 holes in an ideal world, for example hole 1 - driver, mid iron (if it's a par 4) if you hit a bad one hit the club you would if you were playing to recover etc.... I found this helped me..

I will start doing this from the next time I am going at the range. It gives a lot more sense to the range

 

[TheCaddie]

So, off I went and I report a scorecard of 89 shots, but missing four snag holes, where I completely lost the plot of the game and I stopped counting. If I would have managed to get an average of +2 (all the other holes range from +1 to +3 except for a +5 and a +4 due to putting mistakes) the grand total would have been 114 including the missing four holes.

I focused on making the shots work, basically. Keeping the head down together with a reasonable downswing and not suddenly raise the back. The driver was awful again and for unknown reasons even my iron shots morphed into bananas to the right hand side. On a brighter note there were a few notable shots which I kept reminding, especially with the 5 wood.

Now I will be off the course for a week, but your help was really invaluable. Thanks a lot again to you all

Keep working hard and keep enjoying it!

For me, I just constantly remind myself of grip and posture. With good grip and posture, the swing more or less looks after itself. Then you have to just keep working on hitting the ball cleanly.... a lot of the time 95% of the swing is correct, and you will hit the ball a fraction of a second too early, or too late, or too low or too high, and it effects the shot dramatically.

Practice, and lots of it, will start to improve your ball striking.

 

[Roops]

I suspect everyone who has played this game, except the exceptionally gifted, have been through the pain you are feeling. Everyone wants to be consistent, it's the holy grail of golf. However, as you play/practice more it comes and with it the enjoyment of feeling you are progressing.

There have been a load of good posts in response to your original posts, I thought I would add a few more of what I have discovered during my progress.

1. Lessons - While most will agree these are important, I would suggest that it is vital that the lesson is concerned with striking the golf ball and not looking pretty on the video. I got into the area were I was being told to emulate "the" golf swing and hitting the ball as an after thought. IMHO, this is useless (some may disagree). If your lessons are improving your ball striking and you understand why they are working, that's good. If not, I would find another teacher.

2. Mental Approach - I think that a relaxed mental approach is a result of good ball striking, not the other way around. After all, when you are hitting it well, you tend to be more relaxed on the course, swing slower, have more control etc. You don't feel the need to rush at the ball as you are confident of a good strike. Which comes back to Number 1.

HTH

 

[TheCaddie]

I suspect everyone who has played this game, except the exceptionally gifted, have been through the pain you are feeling. Everyone wants to be consistent, it's the holy grail of golf. However, as you play/practice more it comes and with it the enjoyment of feeling you are progressing.

There have been a load of good posts in response to your original posts, I thought I would add a few more of what I have discovered during my progress.

1. Lessons - While most will agree these are important, I would suggest that it is vital that the lesson is concerned with striking the golf ball and not looking pretty on the video. I got into the area were I was being told to emulate "the" golf swing and hitting the ball as an after thought. IMHO, this is useless (some may disagree). If your lessons are improving your ball striking and you understand why they are working, that's good. If not, I would find another teacher.

2. Mental Approach - I think that a relaxed mental approach is a result of good ball striking, not the other way around. After all, when you are hitting it well, you tend to be more relaxed on the course, swing slower, have more control etc. You don't feel the need to rush at the ball as you are confident of a good strike. Which comes back to Number 1.

HTH

Following on from this, ask the right questions before a lesson as well. Explain what you are not doing very well, is it a slice, a hook, a duff? Then work on that.

A while back, when playing in the winter I was taking the turf before the ball, which in mud, basically means you will hit it about 20yds. Minor ball and hand address position change and it was a whole ither world. Small things can make a massive difference when you are starting out and isn't always the swing itself, but often smaller components.