How to get out of a golf slump

[mister v]

I had a period of struggle, everything was awful . so had a lesson and then a couple of weeks on the range, and a few 9 hole knocks just for fun as its so nice out there...... make a world of difference

 

[bobmac]

Played 18 holes on my own last night just trying to enjoy the walk and hoping that playing by myself, no card, no scoring, would ease things and to find some enjoyment again.

I said played 18, but actually walked back to the car park from the 16th tee after slicing the first shot off the planet, following it up with a pull hook into the jungle. That was my 7th and 8th lost balls for the 16 holes.

Have enquired for lessons at the club and hope they get back swiftly.

Unless something changes, I don’t really seeing myself playing golf next year. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was only a week ago I paid the membership, the clubs would probably be up for sale by this point. Lowest of the low since I started playing golf.

That suggests to me an out to in swing with the clubface open for the slice and closed for the pull hook.
My guess would be a weak left hand and a strong right hand.
Check your grip in a mirror, it should look like below

 

[Deleted member 1147]

I'm in what might be considered a slump, but I don't mind.
Played yesterday, and save for 3 blobs played well. Just need to stop the bad holes being so destructive.

Virtually every golfer goes through it, especially when improving. There are lots of times you find a barrier to improvement. But hopefully you get through them, and if not, "so what?", it's only a game/hobby.

 

[Depreston]

Don’t go and play forest pines like I’ve just done when struggling

Wow that place is tough if you’re a bit of an erratic driver

 

[Springveldt]

That suggests to me an out to in swing with the clubface open for the slice and closed for the pull hook.
My guess would be a weak left hand and a strong right hand.
Check your grip in a mirror, it should look like below

View attachment 48087

I've been struggling with my driver for the last couple of weeks with a big miss both ways but yesterday during another terrible round (had 3 snap hooks and 3 big slices) I decided to weaken my right hand as I think it had gotten too far under the club with my effort to get my right elbow closer to my body at address. I hit 4 good drives in a row to finish the round, so I'm hoping that might have helped cure my issue.

 

[bobmac]

I hit 4 good drives in a row to finish the round, so I'm hoping that might have helped cure my issue.

The direction the ball goes is down to the swing path and clubface direction at impact.
As the swingpath doesn't change a huge amount, it must be the clubface.
Clubface is controlled by the grip.
Fix the grip, fix the clubface

 

[jamielaing]

Late to the party here but, going through similar, here's my thoughts-

I am rereading some Rotella to get my head right, you'll pick up some nuggets that help.
Take the positives from the rounds you play, they are always a few.
Try and not play as much competitive stuff just now. Issue with this is that we are prime time golf right now so I feel like I am missing out.
Try to identify what needs worked on specifically and find the time to work on it.

My big issue comes from having a 1 year old and it has changed me from having unlimited time to work on my game if necessary to only really having time for comps. I've found a few hours here and there to get a wee bit of practice time. I also went out with my missus and the wee man for a few holes and my focus was on him enjoying himself going round the course with his dad. Watching him smile when he was on the green and seeing golf shots hit. While I am focusing on that suddenly I could play this game again. Seems to have reset me.

The main thing to remember is that one day soon, you'll drain that early birdie that will make you say, I fancy this today. And you'll be back.

 

[Deleted member 25172]

That suggests to me an out to in swing with the clubface open for the slice and closed for the pull hook.
My guess would be a weak left hand and a strong right hand.
Check your grip in a mirror, it should look like below

View attachment 48087

I’ll ask for a full run down of the fundamentals when they confirm my “MOT”. This can’t go on.

I accept that I’m an amateur and it’s supposed to be fun. But I simply don’t have any fun losing 5+ balls every round. I guess I’m as deluded as 99.9% of us golfers, thinking that my potential is more than this, but if it’s not, that’s ok - but it won’t be for me then as it’s not enjoyable.

 

[Sports_Fanatic]

I'm standing on tees not knowing if I'm going to hit a hook or a pull or push or a fade or a slice

At least it sounds like your work on shot shape has been successful, those pretty much cover everything apart from straight

 

[azazel]

I'm also going through similar, with my index having gone up from 5.1 last year to 7.6 currently, only having broken 80 twice (par 70 home course) in that time.

Like @jamielaing above, I've got youngish kids and so golf time is limited and since the youngest was born I haven't played many bounce games, it's all been competitive or card in hand stuff. That seemed to work out ok for a couple of years but last year my iron game went completely off the boil, although luckily my driving has remained a strength. I went for a lesson with our club pro at the end of the summer last year and she identified a major issue with my takeaway and gave me some drills to work on to fix it. As a result I spent some time during lunch hours working on that and it put me in a place where my game was actually in decent shape over the winter.

However... in January I started training for a marathon, more or less putting the clubs away from then until competition season in April. Since then, I've fallen back into the driving-good-irons-terrible cycle. That's led to me becoming increasingly frustrated and after a pretty average showing in our club champs over the last week I went back to the pro today for another lesson. Thankfully, she was able to confirm that I've "fixed" my takeaway, so that was good - but I've developed a whole new problem with hip rotation on the downswing! She's given me more drills to work on but, somewhat inspired by this thread, I also asked if there was any kind of "workaround" that would leave me with a reliable, consistent shot I can use on the course while I work on the permanent fix with whatever limited practice time I can muster. As a result, we've found something useful that will hopefully get me back to enjoying the game on a regular basis while working longer-term on correcting the overall issue.

Very long story short: for me, 1. See a good pro; 2. Try and find one shot shape/type and stick to it; 3. Play less golf with card in hand and more time playing casual stuff until some kind of consistency returns.

 

[MadAdey]

Were you trying to make those swing changes by yourself, or with a coach? If you tried to do it by yourself you could have really messed your swing up. Went through similar things a few years ago and could not hit the ball. It is not good standing on the tee box not knowing where to aim because you have no idea where the ball is going.

I put my clubs in the garage and did not touch them for a couple of months. Having played for 30 years my swing is embedded into me, so just putting the clubs up I forgot what I had been messing around with and went back to how I was doing it before and not looked back since.

 

[Jaco]

By the end of last summer I'd got down to 2.3 - I was pretty confident in every aspect of my game.

I think I then started experimenting with hitting different shot shapes and trajectories to try and improve further.

All that's happened as it's fogged my brain and hurt my swing - I'm now up to 5.7 and heading for over 6 soon.

My last four differentials have been 10.9, 9.2, 9.2 and 14.5 !

I'm standing on tees not knowing if I'm going to hit a hook or a pull or push or a fade or a slice

Should I take a break from golf?
Get down the range more?
Play less competitive golf?

I'm not sure I need a lesson as it seems more of a mental thing

I can’t be the only one thinking ……… wow, I’d sell my kids to be 2.3 even for a month

I’m being facetious obviously. Hope it all comes back together soon

 

[Sausagefingers23]

I feel your pain. been struggling badly this year with my golf and its so frustrating.

Currently having lessons and my good stuff is getting better but my bad stuff is much worse. Confidence has definitely been knocked on the course and don't feel like I am moving in the right direction at all. On the range all is good - in fact very good but on the course its no reflection at all.

I am throwing away shots all over the place with way too many duffed shots a round. Course management is getting better but just shooting myself in the foot for no real reason alot.

I know at some point it will click but until it does it is not much fun and the handicap creeping up all the time.

 

[bobmac]

I am throwing away shots all over the place with way too many duffed shots a round. Course management is getting better but just shooting myself in the foot for no real reason alot.

If you are duffing shots, you must be swaying on the backswing/downswing or your ball position is too far forward.

 

[Sausagefingers23]

If you are duffing shots, you must be swaying on the backswing/downswing or your ball position is too far forward.

100% right on the swaying - working on that in the lessons currently. I will get there eventually

 

[bobmac]

100% right on the swaying - working on that in the lessons currently. I will get there eventually

If you are working on the swaying, you are trying to move the bottom of the arc forward to where the ball is or just after it.

If you find this too difficult, you could move the ball back to where the bottom of the arc is presently.
It's a bit of a cheat, creating a fault to balance another fault but it could save you hours of bashing balls on the range
Let the sway happen, let the swing go where it wants to go, just move the ball at address.

 

[Sausagefingers23]

If you are working on the swaying, you are trying to move the bottom of the arc forward to where the ball is or just after it.

If you find this too difficult, you could move the ball back to where the bottom of the arc is presently.
It's a bit of a cheat, creating a fault to balance another fault but it could save you hours of bashing balls on the range

Will definitely give that a go (whilst still working on trying to keep more planted to the spot)
Thank you