How many of you have lost your game ?

[buteman]

I'm really curious have any of you ever completely lost your game ? I don't mean just having a bad game then rebounding but the whole lot goes south, like gone, and you end up clueless as to what happened.
I am at a complete loss as to what happened to my game, the course I play is a great test of golf, par 72 playing to around 6500 yards off the regular men's tees. It's very heavily bunkered and it's a rare day when you don't have the wind to contend with. Eleven rounds of golf in since early March, the first nine my highest score was 84 and my lowest 78 so thats' pretty steady and acceptable for me.
My last two rounds are an absolute complete mystery ( 91 and 94 ) never in all my years have I collapsed like this. I'm of the opinion I have a mental block somewhere, I'm striking it great during my practice warm up but once I get on the tee I lose it. Hooked tee shots, irons hit fat, snap hooked hybrids, and shanked wedges, at present I'm looking at this on the bright side, no way I'm going to beat myself up about it. I will play men's day tomorrow then I have booked as session with the pro. at my club after my round to see if we can find an answer.
One other point, for some unknown reason I'm quitting on most of my shots, I have a block somewhere that is preventing me from following through and finishing my swing,,,,,,,,,,weird indeed, I'm sure there is a fix, let me know if any of you have experienced anything like this. Thanks guys.

[klaymon]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

I'm going through the same thing. I'm heading to the course tonight to test it, but I think I have mine narrowed down to being too close to the ball and my back is too hunched over (I hit into the net last night for about an hour or so). My last 3 rounds have been awful: thin and fat irons and my driver is of no use to me. My only saving grace has been my putting and I actually have played a good chipping game my last couple of rounds. But when it takes you 5 strokes to get in range to chip or putt, scores hit the sky.

I think my being too close to the ball (both the distance from my feet and how low I was bent over it) are contributing to a lack of a follow-through for me. I am really chicken-winging my left arm. After working on it last night, I was getting a really good extension and follow-through. Before I felt like I was forcing myself into the shot, but after practicing it feels a lot more relaxed and more like I'm swinging the club instead of hitting the ball.

[LowPost42]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

In my case, you can't lose what you've never had.

Although, my coach insists that my swing is good enough to be shooting par, which suggests my issues are largely brainial.

So, maybe I DO need to lose my game, and start shooting a couple over par.

[BrianW]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

I posted yesterday on another thread here regarding a medal match I played Saturday where I shanked just about every iron shot and returned my worst score in years. I have been playing so well recently and came runner up in a comp the previous week, then out of the blue come the socket rockets. Thankfully I went to the range and sorted out the problem the next day.

I believe that as your swing improves it can take a small flaw to completely destroy it.

[mariner]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

I think everything in golf is only on loan - and you can lose it at anytime and almost revert to the player you were the very first week you started playing.
OK, maybe not quite, but it certainly FEELS like it when you've been shooting around 80 then suddenly lose 15 shots and can't break 90 or even 100 on a particularly bad day.
I guess you check everything, go back to basics and slow down. I always think of tapping the ball round the course when this happens, but it's massively frustrating.

[arch11]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

i went through a bad patch about 4 years ago. My handicap went from 8 to 11, the first time i had been on double figures in 5 years. I fixed it by doing three things: The first was to go back to complete basics; i read the bible (Hogans Five Lessons again) and second i started doing drills from the golf digest site under breaking 100. The third was i started recording my stats when i played which stopped me thinking about my score and made me concentrate on the shot at hand. In the space of three months i got back to 7 without having one round where i lost a whole shot.

[klaymon]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

My game is in the ****per. I thought I had it figured out a couple of days ago and I went yesterday to play 9 after work. I had one, count it, one good iron shot. Everything else was bladed/topped. Driver is wortless. Putting was off. The only thing I have going right now is chipping.

[Cliff]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

I have been a bit lucky and played well for the last 3 years.

It might be confidence that you lack when playing poorly, or some new trick of the swing.

But a safe guide is to try and repeat a golf swing and make it your stock shot. Once that is ingrained into your game then the odd change that you make that goes wrong can soon be undone and replaced with your stock shot. You stay on track better and your confidence will return.

One important point of any player making a change in the swing (today’s cure is tomorrows fault) learn that if any thing at all, and you possibly won’t make the same mistake again.

Regards Cliff

[Cliff]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

In my case, you can't lose what you've never had.

Although, my coach insists that my swing is good enough to be shooting par, which suggests my issues are largely brainial.

So, maybe I DO need to lose my game, and start shooting a couple over par.

It’s odd how this game finds a plateau and you work hard and it resets at a new level, sometimes it goes the other way!

Over the past few weeks I have had some sort of confidence boost to my game, don’t ask me what it is I can’t put a finger on it, other than I am at ease with what I am doing on the course, that in itself is a huge weight of my shoulders if you know what I mean!

Just this past week I have played 3 rounds of golf and finished 8 under par for the 3 rounds. That is 11 shots better than it should be, but I’m not going to argue about a bonus like that.

How long this new wave/ plateau will last is unknown but if I can learn from it, maybe I can repeat the feeling when the golf goes off the boil.

[jbrunk]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

I'm really curious have any of you ever completely lost your game ? I don't mean just having a bad game then rebounding but the whole lot goes south, like gone, and you end up clueless as to what happened.
I am at a complete loss as to what happened to my game, the course I play is a great test of golf, par 72 playing to around 6500 yards off the regular men's tees. It's very heavily bunkered and it's a rare day when you don't have the wind to contend with. Eleven rounds of golf in since early March, the first nine my highest score was 84 and my lowest 78 so thats' pretty steady and acceptable for me.
My last two rounds are an absolute complete mystery ( 91 and 94 ) never in all my years have I collapsed like this. I'm of the opinion I have a mental block somewhere, I'm striking it great during my practice warm up but once I get on the tee I lose it. Hooked tee shots, irons hit fat, snap hooked hybrids, and shanked wedges, at present I'm looking at this on the bright side, no way I'm going to beat myself up about it. I will play men's day tomorrow then I have booked as session with the pro. at my club after my round to see if we can find an answer.
One other point, for some unknown reason I'm quitting on most of my shots, I have a block somewhere that is preventing me from following through and finishing my swing,,,,,,,,,,weird indeed, I'm sure there is a fix, let me know if any of you have experienced anything like this. Thanks guys.

Buteman,

Listen close, I think I can help you because you describe all the makings of someone (used to be me) that swings too far from the inside.

The hooks, the fat irons, the shanks, and the 90 round from nowhere from a low handicap player.

Its not rythm, its not your "overactive right hand", or swinging too hard or any of the other non sense you may read on golf channel or digest. Get you swing plane straightened out. The swing is an arc, approach from the inside squaring at impact and back to the inside after separation.

I would bet your divots all face right to well right of your target too. Trust me, I was you for 2-3 years until I uncovered the real reason.

If you could post a video of your swing that would help. Be good


JB

[Cliff]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

A great practice routine is to work on different aspects of your game without changing a thing! Yes that what I said (don’t change anything at all). Let the changes take care of themselves while you concentrate on repetition/grooving a swing.

Ok now I have your attention, golf is all about repetition even if you think your swing is not up there with the pros on tour. You must be able to repeat a golf swing especially under the pressure of competition.

Here is the practice lesson.

If you are shanking/hitting it fat/hooking the ball.

Then go down to the range and hit shots with the ball 6 inches below your feet. Try and feel the more upright plane that is required to make the shot, you can play the ball back or forward in your stance and see what results you get! Just keep that smooth rhythm and tempo going through the bag.

Practice this with quality and not quantity of shots/balls.

If you are slicing/cutting topping the ball.

Then go down to the range and hit shots with the ball 6 inches above your feet. Try and feel the flatter plane that is required to make the shot, you can play the ball back or forward in your stance and see what results you get! Just keep that smooth rhythm and tempo going through the bag.

Practice this with quality and not quantity of shots/balls.

Understanding what is required in a golf swing to make the shot off any lie will feed confidence that is lacking at this moment in your game.

You need to make practice as enjoyable as possible with quality practice and not quantity.

[BrianW]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

I like to think I have a fairly sound repeatable swing but on the odd occasion something creeps in that damages it. When this happens it's not something conscious that I am trying to instill, I think it's when I have been considering something I have read or heard and my brain takes this subconsciously on board and then somehow transmits an exaggerated form of the change to my motor cortex.

I refer back to my recent outbreak of socket rockets in a game, I felt I was swinging normally without any new thoughts but somehow I had subconsciously introduced a damaging change . I find the best way for me to analyse and repair this is to get to the range then try to repeat the problem, consciously try and create shanked shots or whatever. As I do this I can see what events create the problem and then the solution is fairly obvious.

[Cliff]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

Try and make the game work for you and not the reverse, when I set up to the ball I have made my mind up to what club it is, the direction the lie is fed into the shot to be made, I then clear the brain of any swing thoughts except one (the one for me is rhythm) repeat that and 90% of the time the shot is good.

If you can clear the head of any thoughts, it will help reduce the inconsistency; after you have made the shot, feed back from the result if it was good can only increase the confidence and your quest for improvement will escalate in the right direction.

Play in the present is another great way of control.

Regards Cliff

PS I have had the dreaded S%^%& (It happens to us all!) They say it is close to being a great shot haha, but when you see it disappear into a bush you wonder how good it can get lol.

Anyway as far as I am concerned I have never had a S$%^& and never will in fact NOW I can’t remember ever having one!!

[Neil18]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

Oh my we are delving deep into the psychology of golf with this thread aren't we!

Aren't we?

I haven't seen any comments yet that really try to find the under-lying reason as to why ones game may suddenly "go south" without warning. One may liken it to a picture-perfect tropical beach suddenly wacked by a tsunami.

Having played this game solidly for about 6 years now, I am realising (albeit slowly - gime a break, I am from Essex!) that there is no "short term".

There is no short term with improvement. One cannot find a thing here or a thing there that will miraculously and instantly cure a problem we have, be it a long-running issue or a sudden crop-up of the sh**ks.

The key for getting better, consistently better, is learning humility and acceptance within ones self, alongside a hefty bout of inward honesty.

Let's take Buteman as a perfect example, since this is his thread.

Buteman represents every golfer from the top level to the chopper. He knows he can do better. His playing partners have seen it. He's seen it. He's felt it. He remembers it. In fact, I'm willing to lay my house on the fact that Buteman has played more good rounds of golf that his memory can store. Where we come unstuck is the thought already referred to.

We can do better.

We golfers play so much golf, that having a disastrous round is just as mathematically likely as having a good round. The difference is the emotional attachment we give it. The good round, or even the great round, is briefly enjoyed. But we could do better. The good round is there for all to enjoy, then it is gone. We want to beat it next time. All of a sudden , the magical round we just had becomes the benchmark for all good rounds. Our expectation goes up, and we forget how well we played to "up" the expectancy notch in the first place.

The bad round is tarnished with a different brush. The bad round causes all sorts of emotions. We've all been there. We look silly infront of our playing partners. We have to face the question you least want to hear: "how did you play", when you get in the bar. You spend anything up to a couple of weeks wondering what went wrong, and we embark on the quest to find the (non-existent) short term fix to enable us to get back to where "we know we can do better".

You know you can do better. Your partners have seen you do better. The irony is that nobody else cares much about your good round or your bad round, regardless of any comments that may fly during standard-issue golfing banter. So the only person to worry about is you.

What you must train yourself to do is enjoy the good times and forget the bad. One bad round, three bad rounds in a row, or a case of the sh**ks does not put your house into reposession, doesn't plunge your family into life-long poverty, and doesn't give you a terminal illness. Whilst on the golf course, where golf is the only thing that matters, we must remind ourselves of this for perspectives sake.

The feelings we have over a bad round or a bad shot are not real. We make them up inside of us. Pride, ego, anger, attach what definition to them you will, but the negative feelings associated with poor play are self-determined and self-destructive. But the more we worry and the more we try to figure out what went wrong, the more the bad experiences are etched in our memories, and so the downward cycle begins.

I only know this because a couple of years ago I was on the verge of chucking the game in. I wanted to get better. Quick. I wasn't. In fact the more I tried to get better, the worse I played. Shanks, tops, 4-putts etc etc etc. I started to get better when I learned how to strike the balance between playing the game and wanting to play it well, against enjoying the experience, regardless of what happened.

Sometimes we just have to let it go. We had a few bad rounds. Who gives a turd? Really? We will play better in future. We know we can. Everybody else knows we can. We can, and will, without even trying. If you don't belive that, then just you wait. You'll decide one day that you'll just kay for teh fun of it, not even try, and you won't shank one, string some pars together and have a wonderful time playing well.

It may sound funny, but when you next shank one into a bush, admire the bush for what it is.

[BrianW]

Re: How many of you have lost your game ?

Oh my we are delving deep into the psychology of golf with this thread aren't we!

Aren't we?

I haven't seen any comments yet that really try to find the under-lying reason as to why ones game may suddenly "go south" without warning. One may liken it to a picture-perfect tropical beach suddenly wacked by a tsunami.

That's exactly what I was trying to express. It seems quite unsuccessfully!