First time I've considered quiting

[socky]

It's coming up for 3 years since I took up this game properly. I've joined a club, had at plenty of lessons (at least 15) and put in hours and hours and hours of pratice. The problem is my swing just keeps failing apart, I'll play well for a little bit, then gradually it will get worse and worse until I have to get a lesson or two to try and sort things out.

Just recently I've been sh**king it endlessly at the range, went and got a couple of lessons and started hitting the ball so well, it really made me think I might have turned a corner. Club championships rolled up and I had one of my worst days on the course ever, humilating exprience, my poor playing partners having to help look for every shot I scuttled off in to the rough. I didn't moan though, kept smiling and having a laugh and joke with them (then bought them a beer at the end)

Put it down to just being an off day and have hit the range a couple of times since and its still just garbage, I feel lost. My swing feels alien, I'm questioning my stance, backswing, grip... So before you all say it I will be heading back to see my teacher to get help.... (tonight infact) I can accept that I'll never be scratch, but I did think I'd be able to get down to 10ish and play resonable golf. I might have even hoped for single figures (eventually).Have been off 17 for 2 years, adding .1 all the time, then get a little cut, make a few buffer and then it starts again.

Is this what life is like for a golfer, the odd good day, lots of very average ones and then periods of misery? I had hoped to get to a level where I was consistantly average, that I could enjoy.

I'm not sure there's anything you can say, I just wanted to moan to somebody who might understand and not thinking I'm over-reacting about hitting a little ball with a stick.

 

[One Planer]

Sounds to me like your getting far to technical and this is transfering into your swing. Rather than just swinging the club you're feeling for positions and trying to hit them rather than hitting the ball.

As my pro says to me. You work on your swing at the driving range, you play golf on the course.

In other words, when you're on the course, trust your swing, play golf and enjoy it.

I also have a tendancy of getting too technical. When I do I take a few days away from the game and let my mind settle. It may not work for all but it works for me :thup:

Another thing. Even the players on tour hit poor drives, find the rough, hit it in the water and trake 5's (... Or more) on Par 3's. If they are going to do this every now and again, I think it's OK for a club golfer to do it also.

Stick at it pal. You'll get there :thup:

 

[Ethan]

If you haven't considered packing it in, you just haven't been playing long enough. The shank is a nasty affliction where the outcome is much worse than the mechanical error deserves. But it can be beaten and overcome. Take a breath and then get stuck back in.

 

[mcbroon]

Is this what life is like for a golfer, the odd good day, lots of very average ones and then periods of misery?

In a word, yes.

When I was a kid, I used to play at a course that ran alongside a cemetery. Whenever I played badly and was getting down on the game, my dad used to point at it and say "There are 500 guys in there who'd swap places with you in a heartbeat." However bad it gets, it could always be worse.

 

[DaveyG]

It's coming up for 3 years since I took up this game properly. I've joined a club, had at plenty of lessons (at least 15) and put in hours and hours and hours of pratice. The problem is my swing just keeps failing apart, I'll play well for a little bit, then gradually it will get worse and worse until I have to get a lesson or two to try and sort things out.

Just recently I've been sh**king it endlessly at the range, went and got a couple of lessons and started hitting the ball so well, it really made me think I might have turned a corner. Club championships rolled up and I had one of my worst days on the course ever, humilating exprience, my poor playing partners having to help look for every shot I scuttled off in to the rough. I didn't moan though, kept smiling and having a laugh and joke with them (then bought them a beer at the end)

Put it down to just being an off day and have hit the range a couple of times since and its still just garbage, I feel lost. My swing feels alien, I'm questioning my stance, backswing, grip... So before you all say it I will be heading back to see my teacher to get help.... (tonight infact) I can accept that I'll never be scratch, but I did think I'd be able to get down to 10ish and play resonable golf. I might have even hoped for single figures (eventually).Have been off 17 for 2 years, adding .1 all the time, then get a little cut, make a few buffer and then it starts again.

Is this what life is like for a golfer, the odd good day, lots of very average ones and then periods of misery? I had hoped to get to a level where I was consistantly average, that I could enjoy.

I'm not sure there's anything you can say, I just wanted to moan to somebody who might understand and not thinking I'm over-reacting about hitting a little ball with a stick.

Mate I know how you feel... this is very much my golf at the moment. Bounce games are great - Play in a comp/charity day and I am embarassed of my swing!

My only comments are (and its easy to say this to someone else but I still refuse to listen to this on a bad day) Look at how many years you have been playing and imagine what your average scores, best and worst were over the past year...

I.e.
I have been playing atleasy two full years now
2011 - Worst 125ish Average 110 Best 101
2012 - Worst 120ish Average 101 Best 93
2013 - Worst 100ish Average 93 Best 73 (short course) Championship course 84

When I look at how many shots I have dropped on average I can see how I have become a far better player... the problem is you only ever expect to be better than last week and that wont happen. Some days as you know your swing just isn't there... you walk off ridiculously disappointed look at your card and realise you have hit an 96! In my case a year ago could have meant a 100 + as a complete disaster.


Its easy for me to say this but I know how you feel. I am obsessed with the game but when I play awful I don't pick up a club for a couple of days and then get that bug back a little bit.

Also do you feel like when the pro is standing next to you and gives you the slightest bit of steer you could be a cat1 or single figure golfer? I do! He came on a playing lesson with me (Roughly 5 holes) I bet I could knock 10 shots off a round with him standing next to me... Mental It really is mental

 

[Garush34]

Just take a wee break from golf a week or so, don't think about the game much. And when you come back don't have any idea of what your looking to shoot just go out and play and have fun and you'll find that things are back to normal.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Really sorry to hear about your miiserable experience.

Golf can be a massively frustrating game and every single golfer here will know exactly how you are feeling. Those who don't play just don't - they can't - understand golf - it takes a golfer to understand another golfer's highs and lows. We have all been there - I myself golf have been playing 40 yrs and still have similar miserable experiences to yours. The difference these days is that I have learnt about 'golf - the inflication' and how to cope. I know that the periods of horror - recently been going through a period of the s***ks myself and only just about coming out of it - will not last for ever. They WILL end. You WILL get through your misery. But it does take a little time. And you have said it yourself in your post - you are thinking about EVERYTHING - that is what golf does to the head. If you think about it - hitting a little ball a long way with a metal stick is pretty darned amazing bit of mind and body coordination.

Trust that doing a few simple things is enough for the head to coordinate the body - at the moment you're thinking about these simple things. You don't actually know how they go together but your head does. You may have all the pieces of the jigsaw and you may well in fact know the picture they make - problem is you don't know how to put together a jigsaw puzzle. Golf teachers have essentiually reversed engineered the golf swing. Theyu know the final picture - and so they worked out the bits the body needs to construct the final picture - and then we leave body and mind to put it together.

Yes - golf can be very miserable - you may feel that you are the only golfer of your bunch who doesn't 'get it'. You're not. All golfers don't get it from time to time. This feeling will pass. Trust in yourself. Once the mind and body has learnt to do something it doesn't forget - we just get in the way sometimes. Chin up and bash on

 

[Robobum]

This is one of my issues with swing lessons at our level - becoming totally reliant on mechanics and not being able to schlap it round and still score ok.

In your shoes, I'd back right off the lessons and go to the practice ground and mess about trying to hit all sorts of shots. Reintroduce the feeling of hand, eye, club, ball whack.

Get a natural shape and type of shot you can hit at will and the go try to chop your way round with the same shot in mind. Just gotta try to make it fun again

 

[Canary_Yellow]

Whenever I’m feeling down about my progress or lack thereof (and there’s been a few occasions in the last 12 months) I take a few days off, read a bit of my Bob Rotella book, and then pick the clubs up again when I’ve got a more positive and enthusiastic outlook again. In particular, focusing on rhythm and timing.

My cycles of good golf (relatively good at least) and then a gradual deterioration coincide with over thinking things and trying to hit the ball too hard – when I just go back to trusting my swing and concentrating on tempo and timing things are much better (then I get greedy and try and hit it harder and my swing degenerates and so it goes on and on…).

Stick at it – I am off 20 and can only dream of being off 17. If I’m having a stinker practicing my long game, I stop, and practice my short game / putting – beating balls and getting increasingly frustrated gets me nowhere – practicing some chipping / putting is very valuable on the other hand.

 

[ger147]

It's coming up for 3 years since I took up this game properly. I've joined a club, had at plenty of lessons (at least 15) and put in hours and hours and hours of pratice. The problem is my swing just keeps failing apart, I'll play well for a little bit, then gradually it will get worse and worse until I have to get a lesson or two to try and sort things out.

Just recently I've been sh**king it endlessly at the range, went and got a couple of lessons and started hitting the ball so well, it really made me think I might have turned a corner. Club championships rolled up and I had one of my worst days on the course ever, humilating exprience, my poor playing partners having to help look for every shot I scuttled off in to the rough. I didn't moan though, kept smiling and having a laugh and joke with them (then bought them a beer at the end)

Put it down to just being an off day and have hit the range a couple of times since and its still just garbage, I feel lost. My swing feels alien, I'm questioning my stance, backswing, grip... So before you all say it I will be heading back to see my teacher to get help.... (tonight infact) I can accept that I'll never be scratch, but I did think I'd be able to get down to 10ish and play resonable golf. I might have even hoped for single figures (eventually).Have been off 17 for 2 years, adding .1 all the time, then get a little cut, make a few buffer and then it starts again.

Is this what life is like for a golfer, the odd good day, lots of very average ones and then periods of misery? I had hoped to get to a level where I was consistantly average, that I could enjoy.

I'm not sure there's anything you can say, I just wanted to moan to somebody who might understand and not thinking I'm over-reacting about hitting a little ball with a stick.

You also need to practice trusting your swing at the driving range as if you never practice just hitting it, how do you expect to be able to just hit it on the course?

I've no idea how much you practice but I usually hit balls every second day either at the course or on the range. I usually split my balls up in to wee piles at the range. The first 15 are just a wedge or 9i to warm up then it's on to whatever club I want to practice with. I'll hit 10 while I'm thinking about grip, stance, technique, swing thoughts etc. and analyse each shot before, during and after. I usually have 2-3 clubs so work through that with each club.

I then go through the clubs again but this time just hit 10 shots each and try to be as automatic as possible and just monitor the results - high, low, left, right, fade, draw, straight.

It sounds more complicated written down than it actually is when actually doing it but it also gives you something to aim for at the range rather than endless thoughts about technique etc. For example, on Sunday at the range, of the 10 3 woods I hit off the tee 8 of the them went dead straight, 1 had a slight draw and one a bit more of a fade. I absolutely melted the last one just to see what would happen and according to the distance boards, it carried 220 yards and went dead straight. I enjoyed that one!!

So last night in my 4somes match, we are 2 up on the 17th tee and it's my tee shot. The 17th is 385 yards, 2nd half of fairway is downhill and prevailing breeze is behind. Everyone always hits a driver off the tee so my playing partner was a tad surprised when I reached for my 3 wood. He played the 2nd shot, a 9 iron from about 135 yards after I ripped my 3 wood straight down the middle and past my opponent's driver from the tee. Their approach to the green was already in a greenside bunker and we won 3&1.

That's the first time since I started playing Golf again regularly last year that I KNEW I was going to hit a good tee shot as 8 out of 10 go dead straight and the other 2 would still be on the fairway.

Try forgetting as much as you can thinking/technique wise at the range for your next few visits and just hit balls and see what happens. You don't have to find range balls and there are no penalties or scores to worry about. Just hit away and see what happens. And use a wedge or a 9 iron, leave the driver and the 4 iron in the house.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Golf like so much of life - is the three-legged milking stool - Physical, Mental and Spiritual. You must be physically capable of playing; you must know what you need to do; you must believe that you can do it. At the moment you have lost your spirit - the milking stool topples over and you fall off into the cow poo. Get that spiritual bit back - at first it might be a bit shoogly - but it'll do for a start and you are not in the poo. Soon that shoogly spiritual leg will start to firm up a bit (couple of topples into the poo on the way likely though) and in not too much time you'll be nice and stable on that milking stool. BELIEVE.

 

[Andy808]

I have had the same. Periods of woeful golf, periods of average golf for me and very short periods where I hit a purple patch and get a cut only to start creeping back up 0.1 at a time.
I have gone from hitting the range again and again, having 20 swing thoughts and a feeling of desperation to keeping swing thoughts and practice on the range and going out on the course to have fun.
I have had 2 cuts since this and I enjoy playing far more now than I ever did. This is what we do to relax and get away from daily life, don't let it drag you down.

 

[Foxholer]

Sh*nks on the range are not uncommon. I can probably remember the ones I've had on the course, but there are times when it's 4 or 5 in a row on the range - normally the PW or GW.

Golf i meant to be enjoyed, and if you are not enjoying the actual golf, at least enjoy the company, scenery and the exercise. That'll help you relax and forget the technical stuff - which causes tension - and it's likely your game will improve.

And yes. A cut, some buffers and 0.1s is the standard cycle. You are not expected to play to your handicap every outing. If you do, then your handicap is deemed too high - and that cycle resumes!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

And yes. A cut, some buffers and 0.1s is the standard cycle. You are not expected to play to your handicap every outing. If you do, then your handicap is deemed too high - and that cycle resumes!

This is important point Foxholder makes. Statistics tell us that when we are playing to our ability we will score on average 32 pts stableford or equivalent. This is because your handicap is a stretch reflection of your ability based upon your best competitive golf - coming down (for Cat 3) 3x faster than it goes up. Getting 36pts you are actually playing one of your better rounds relative to your ability. So what ever you do - don;t get down if you score 32pts. In fact I am happy if I score between 30 and 34 pts stableford as that is me playing around about my ability.

 

[socky]

Firstly thanks to everybody for the encouragement. Obviously its just a game and there are far more important things in life. I am slightly obsessed though, the feeling of a well struck iron is hard to explain to people who don't play. I love it.

I guess you can't expect to get good without some set backs on the way. In my head the level of play that would make me happy would be shooting high 70's - low 80's regularly, with the odd v good / v bad round thrown in. Thats where I want to be... I just figured that I'd have made some progress by now.

This is important point Foxholder makes. Statistics tell us that when we are playing to our ability we will score on average 32 pts stableford or equivalent. This is because your handicap is a stretch reflection of your ability based upon your best competitive golf - coming down (for Cat 3) 3x faster than it goes up. Getting 36pts you are actually playing one of your better rounds relative to your ability. So what ever you do - don;t get down if you score 32pts. In fact I am happy if I score between 30 and 34 pts stableford as that is me playing around about my ability.

Obviously we all care about score / points but the difference between an 85 or 90 could be as simple as one duffed chip and a few missed putts.... thats nothing to get upset about.

I'm taking about my ball striking going from sublime to ridiculous... I judge a round of golf by how well I've hit the ball. Right now even the good shots feel terrible, off centre, lacking in distance.

As other people have mentioined, I think I do tend to over think the technical aspects of theswing rather than just using feel and tempo. Perhaps something I can try at the range.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I'm taking about my ball striking going from sublime to ridiculous... I judge a round of golf by how well I've hit the ball. Right now even the good shots feel terrible, off centre, lacking in distance.

Oh I absolutely understand. Three weeks ago one evening in perfect weather I went out for 10 holes - level par gross over eight playing well (or so it seemed to me) then completely out of the blue two s***ks in a row and I had to drag myself in. Then two weeks ago in dire weather - blowing a gale - I did 8 under CSS in a medal (a gross 78). But I know my problem - I need a lesson to iron out some probably fairly minor faults that when put together have me playing 'on the edge'.

You may well be like me - you are playing 'on the edge'. You have a good enough game - and you will feel that one moment you are striking the ball fine. But there are a couple of flaws that when you don't get things quite right, the flaws combine and cause you to collapse completely. I know. Your are me and I am you.

 

[socky]

I know. Your are me and I am you.

Sounds like you're me while at the same time being much better than me.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Sounds like you're me while at the same time being much better than me.

Maybe - but I still have the same problems - and as I mentioned - I've been playing for 40yrs

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I had a similar experience on the last bank holiday. Every shot was a nightmare and if I wasn't marking a card I would have walked off. Kept quiet, kept encouraging my partners and kept up. I hated myself and it was no better in the next few range sessions. Finally grabbed my teaching pro for a quick lesson and feel I'm starting to turn a corner. Hoping my new clubs will help (providing the muppet keeps doing the right things) and getting excited about going out and playing after the break last week for the racing at Royal Ascot

 

[CMAC]

I had a similar experience on the last bank holiday. Every shot was a nightmare and if I wasn't marking a card I would have walked off. Kept quiet, kept encouraging my partners and kept up. I hated myself and it was no better in the next few range sessions. Finally grabbed my teaching pro for a quick lesson and feel I'm starting to turn a corner. Hoping my new clubs will help (providing the muppet keeps doing the right things) and getting excited about going out and playing after the break last week for the racing at Royal Ascot

with all due respect Homer you've turned so many corners I feel your back at the start........"if you always do what you've always done........" etc etc
Might be time to try a different approach.......

no offense....just sayin'