What has ruined your game ?

ThinBullet

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YouTube, without doubt. Had an awful year watching lots of different content.
Binned ALL YouTube and now just listening to me Pro

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mariwin

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On reflection, I'd say a lower back injury ruined my season this year. I was on a high in 2022. I genuinely couldn't go wrong. Heading for single figures. Confident with every club, and even flushing blades from 170 out. It was heaven every Saturday.

Snow came in over the winter, and I was clearing the driveway, and something popped just above my hips in my lower back. Couldn't move. Took me 40 mins to get into the house. Felt like my legs were going to fall off.

6 weeks of physio. Injury was in Nov, and it took me till Jan 2023 to swing a club (probably shouldn't have pushed it). Massive drop in swing speed, and confidence. Fear of injury played heavily on my mind all season, but now I'm lifting weights again, and got up to my normal speed, so fingers crossed I can carry it through to next season.

I still get the odd flare up, but I know how to manage it now with stretches and rest.
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How do you plan to adapt your training regimen and approach to the game to maintain your peak performance? I'm really touched by the subsequent setback caused by the lower back injury...
 
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Hoganman1

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Injures!

Rotator Cuff injury that appeared in early Spring meant playing all season with pain and/or restricted movement.

Had to cry off some days out (Sunningdale etc😭) and in a couple of cases walk off.

Thankfully, it's on the way out and lazy few rounds have been pain free
I'm hoping that's the end of it
Same for me. I have bad knees and a torn right rotator cuff. That coupled with being old (74) has ruined my game. I've gone from an 8.3 index to 12.9 in just three years. I moved up tees from 6250 to 5800 and can still shoot in the 80s. However, when it's cold (below 60*F) I really struggle to make solid contact. Having said that I guess I'm fortunate to still be able to play at all. A lot of the guys I used to play with are on the other side of the grass.
 

SwingsitlikeHogan

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Playing once or twice a year for 10 years.
I did same for 8 yrs after moving across country. What I thought was a grooved golf swing wasn’t…when I got to joining a club after that period I discovered that I had in fact been an expert tightrope walker, and on my restart from the word go I would regularly fall off the tightrope with painful consequences - often finding me think I’d just jack it all in.

After many years I realised that I didn’t want to be a tightrope walker, that it was worth putting in the time and effort to change things, to create a good foundation on which to build a solid game.

But as @bobmac tells us, changing a swing that has been part of you for a long time (50 yrs for me) is difficult. 30months later it is still very much WIP but I feel that I’m getting there.
 

road2ruin

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Having 4 lessons then having another child….although I put a lot of the blame on the new addition and not the instructor!

Background is I decided that I wanted to work on my game over the winter and for whatever reason thought it a good idea to have a number of lessons when I had another child due in a couple of months. The lessons went well and I was getting to the range and trying to practice what I was being taught. Then things abruptly finished with the new arrival and my golf game has gone completely to pot!!

Having not picked up my clubs for 3 months I’ve had a couple of rounds over the Christmas break and my golf is absolutely terrible. I wouldn’t blame a lack of golf particularly, I think I’m trying to remember what I was doing and now I’ve got a combination of the old and the new going on. This has resulted in rounds of thins, duck hooks and just poor golf.
 

Billysboots

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A series of lessons about a dozen years ago with a respected pro but one who, as I found out later, prided himself on getting all his pupils swinging the club the same way. A bizarre approach, given we are all unique.

I am a natural fader of the ball and was told “we’ll have you hitting a draw in no time.” Well, that’s not how it turned out, despite me doing all the drills, putting in the hours, and continuing with the lessons long after I should have realised the damage they were doing.

What followed were years, and I do mean years, in the doldrums. A spiralling handicap, a huge overswing I could not rid myself of, and periods when I hated the game so much it was only the social element of it which kept me going.

It took years to get back to anything like where I wanted to be. A lot of it has been down to my own persistence, with the occasional lesson thrown in just to fine tune stuff. I realised long ago that we all have a natural level - I have reached mine, and am happy being a mid single figure golfer, with the potential to maybe come down a shot or two for brief periods, but I will never be a scratch golfer or close to it.

I enjoy my golf again, and like to think I am now pretty good at it, without being great. But I still have flashbacks to the harm those lessons did, and what they reduced me to.
 

garyinderry

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A series of lessons about a dozen years ago with a respected pro but one who, as I found out later, prided himself on getting all his pupils swinging the club the same way. A bizarre approach, given we are all unique.

I am a natural fader of the ball and was told “we’ll have you hitting a draw in no time.” Well, that’s not how it turned out, despite me doing all the drills, putting in the hours, and continuing with the lessons long after I should have realised the damage they were doing.

What followed were years, and I do mean years, in the doldrums. A spiralling handicap, a huge overswing I could not rid myself of, and periods when I hated the game so much it was only the social element of it which kept me going.

It took years to get back to anything like where I wanted to be. A lot of it has been down to my own persistence, with the occasional lesson thrown in just to fine tune stuff. I realised long ago that we all have a natural level - I have reached mine, and am happy being a mid single figure golfer, with the potential to maybe come down a shot or two for brief periods, but I will never be a scratch golfer or close to it.

I enjoy my golf again, and like to think I am now pretty good at it, without being great. But I still have flashbacks to the harm those lessons did, and what they reduced me to.


Sometimes you gotta just swing your swing.
 

clubchamp98

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A series of lessons about a dozen years ago with a respected pro but one who, as I found out later, prided himself on getting all his pupils swinging the club the same way. A bizarre approach, given we are all unique.

I am a natural fader of the ball and was told “we’ll have you hitting a draw in no time.” Well, that’s not how it turned out, despite me doing all the drills, putting in the hours, and continuing with the lessons long after I should have realised the damage they were doing.

What followed were years, and I do mean years, in the doldrums. A spiralling handicap, a huge overswing I could not rid myself of, and periods when I hated the game so much it was only the social element of it which kept me going.

It took years to get back to anything like where I wanted to be. A lot of it has been down to my own persistence, with the occasional lesson thrown in just to fine tune stuff. I realised long ago that we all have a natural level - I have reached mine, and am happy being a mid single figure golfer, with the potential to maybe come down a shot or two for brief periods, but I will never be a scratch golfer or close to it.

I enjoy my golf again, and like to think I am now pretty good at it, without being great. But I still have flashbacks to the harm those lessons did, and what they reduced me to.
Could have written this myself.

Golfers are always trying to get better,( some are anyway)
I’m enjoying my golf now off 6 cap but am never scratch and now I know it.
 

Billysboots

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To achieve that change, you would need to change your aim, grip and swing path, tough to do.

It seems it was a line he trotted out a lot, Bob. As I say, a hugely respected coach who I like a lot, but whilst I can hit the occasional snap hook with the best, a drawer of the ball I am not, and never will be.

I’ve had some fantastic short game lessons with the guy, and there are few better putting coaches near me. But his long game methods simply didn’t work with me - quite the reverse.
 

clubchamp98

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Trying to hit up on my driver also ruined my game for months.
I have a negative AOA and drive it well but lose a bit of length.
My swing speed is 8mph faster than my mate but he’s longer than me due to his delivery.
I have learned to live with it.
 

Orikoru

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Golf is definitely a case of 'be careful what you wish for' sometimes. My only problem driving used to be a slice. I dialled that back to a fade and drove it nice and consistently for a few years just hitting fades. Since my lesson in January though, I started pulling it straight left sometimes, or on occasion can even hit a massive hook which I never did in my life before. And still occasionally slice one. Dispersion of misses is now enormous and I wish I could go back to just slicing it - at least I knew where to aim!
 

bobmac

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Golf is definitely a case of 'be careful what you wish for' sometimes. My only problem driving used to be a slice. I dialled that back to a fade and drove it nice and consistently for a few years just hitting fades. Since my lesson in January though, I started pulling it straight left sometimes, or on occasion can even hit a massive hook which I never did in my life before. And still occasionally slice one. Dispersion of misses is now enormous and I wish I could go back to just slicing it - at least I knew where to aim!
Have you changed your grip?
 

Orikoru

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Have you changed your grip?
In the lesson he did have me strengthen my left hand very slightly, yes. I was coming to this conclusion myself as well actually. Might just change it back again. Honestly I already thought my left hand was quite strong before, so it surprised me when he said that to me.
 

bobmac

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In the lesson he did have me strengthen my left hand very slightly, yes. I was coming to this conclusion myself as well actually. Might just change it back again. Honestly I already thought my left hand was quite strong before, so it surprised me when he said that to me.
It sounds as if your swing is a touch out to in and the clubface is inconsistent at impact.
That would suggest a conflict in your grip.
When your left hand dominates, you hit the pull (face square to the swing path) and when your right hand dominates, you hit the slice (face open)

You have a choice
1. Aim right, strengthen your right hand and force the pull, which because of you aiming right, will go straight.
2. Weaken your left hand back, aim left and groove the fade.
Try both and see which works best.
I would guess 2.
 
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