Terrible Day

[Renton405]

I just had the worst day at the range today.. I think the turf Ive been hitting on has given me some false confidence.. We could hit off the grass today and I was terrible.. Lotsa chunked terrible shots..My wrists were in pain though from the other days and it was a very wet misty day, around 50 degrees, rain.., so maybe it had to be involved.. but I barely could get the ball in the air.. I went home totally broken thinking the turf has messed up my swing..

[JohnP]

Re: Terrible Day

Now now sir, chin up, you've just had a bad day - which happens to all of us. Take a few days off, and get back up on that horse, you don't become a bad golfer overnight!

Go back to basics like posture, grip, and alignment (PGA) and things will return to normal - FACT!

Be positive and don't let it kill you.

[GregJWillis]

Re: Terrible Day

The turf didn't mess up your swing, those mats you have been hitting on all winter have. Unless you play on a golf course with mats on the tee and in the fairways, then your experience moving back to the grass on the range is the true indication of how you should feel back on the course.

So what went wrong? Most of the time it is all about your height at setup. Mats have very little give when you stand on them. So you are in essence going to be standing taller to the ball. If you wear your spikes on the mats, this makes it even worse. After a while this hight becomes natural to you and you adjust your setup to compensate...who wants to hit fat shots on the range mats?

Then you have the problem of the impact. A mat gives you better results when the ball is pinched, and when it is not and you hit behind it, you get bounce that actually squares the face giving you false-positive feedback. After a while, you gain this swing that is not suited at all for Grass.

The issue of your wrists hurting is a bad sign that you are using them tensely and incorrectly. It is easy to try to manufacture a swing that gets you some good results in flight, but bad overall in forum. So, rather then go into all the basics, just let this sign mean you probably want to start some rebuilding in the use of the arms/wrists.

When you got to the grass, your feet now sink into the ground, AND the ball will sit higher. Yes, sometimes it will find a divot, but who practices that on the range? ((I do actually)) So, now having this ball closer to you, and your old setup will always produce fat shots, horrible impact, and you starting to wonder what the hell is going on. You want to jump back on the mats and get that good feeling back!

If you find yourself in this position, start out with the 1/2 wedge choked up about ½ inch and hit about 30-40 of them. You must get the good feeling of impact back before you can even think about getting back to a full swing. Then, hopefully, you have a better comfortable setup and the confidence back to hit on grass again.

[Renton405]

Re: Terrible Day

yes most of the shots on the grass were horrible divots..I went back on the mat again and hit the shots nicely.. then back to the grass,, big divots again..

Your right about the bounce , because since a mat takes no divot the club can bounce up and back to the ball and make it seem like a good shot..This is a problem for golfers living in cold areas where u have to practice on mats all winter and unconciously make adjustments to the mat..

The wrist pain is pretty bad.. Mostly deep in the joints. There is hard wood under the mats so you get alot of feedback if you hit a fat shot(and alot of pain)

Its very frustrating because Im starting the downswing with the hips, keeping my lag, and doing everything the book says. I hit them beautifully off the mats but can't hit it worth **** off the grass now..