It Happened

My driving finnally cost me the .1 so I'm now 13.5. Playing off 14.

It is just getting worse and worse. I've managed to book a lesson with my coach tomorrow to try to sort this out.

I spent quite a bit of time last week working on this and thought I'd got a drive that was at least usable. But no. Played Sat and shot 94, then a 93 in the comp on Sun. All basically down to the fact I sliced pretty much everything.

The trouble is it's now starting to leak into my irons as well. It just feels like the swing I have on the course isn't the same as on the range.

I couldn't even make a good practice swing with my driver. It just felt I was going to slice it, and so i did.

Going up the range again tonight to work on it again.

Need to get something working before the end of the week as I'm heading off to Vegas and Scottsdale and want to get a few rounds in whilst I'm out there. Not sure I want to based on my current form.

I guess I should post an updated handicap graph. But I don't reall want to.

Driving - Bad to Worse

Just got back from another horrendous round. I won't go into too many details but shot 99, at least I kept it under 100 I suppose.

Driving still awful, but better than yesterday, hit a couple more fairways. Trouble is now it's starting to leak into the rest of my game. My usually solid irons and wedges deserted me at times, but my putter is still ok. I had quadruple, quintuple and sextuple boogies.

And to make things even more ridiculous I birdied one of the hardest holes on the course. The Par 3 17th. 180y into a 2 club wind. Nailed a 3h to 3ft of the pin.

I sorted out my driving a little. I think I'be been standing too close to the ball which has got me swinging out to in. So stood a little further back and that seemed to help a bit. Even hit a couple of draws. But that doesn't explain why I hit em straight in the range and not on the course.

I'm going to try to seem my coach in the week and see what he says because this is insane. Shoot 77 only 2 weeks ago and now back shooting in the 90's.

Just Been Googling

Looking for some mental exercise to help with my driving problems and found this singlemindedgolf.

Tried it out for a few mins just sitting here and the feeling part works ok. It look like it's based on NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) which I've studied a bit.

You can use it to change they way you feel about situations. I don't know why I hadn't though of trying NLP before. I used this in the past to get over a continues problem I had on our 3rd hole where I constantly sliced it into the water.

I used a similar visualisation trigger technique to get rid of my 'fear' of slicing it into the water.

I might see if I can get 18 in tomorrow, if the other half will let me, and try it out.

Here's hoping.

More Driving Woes

I played 18 last night by myself and another 18 this morning with my usual 3-ball and too be quite frank my driving is shocking.

Putting - OK
Chipping and pitching - OK
Irons - Good
Hybrid and 3 Wood - Good
Driver - Shockingly Bad

Basically everything turn right at the tee. Either a push slice or a straight slice.

Yesterday was quite bad, today was absolutely unreal. Slice after slice, after slice. I think I managed to hit 1, maybe 2 fairways.

I'm just not squaring up the club face and holding it open. I know I'm doing it I can feel it in my swing. I'm just not getting the club head through the ball. And I just couldn't get myself to commit to the shot.

So, after today's round, grabbed 25 balls on the range. Wind right in the face. Guess what, 22 went right down the middle with just a hint of fade. Sliced 1 and pulled 2.

This is driving me freaking nuts (no pun intended). It's obviously not my swing, it's in my head. For some reason when I'm on the course I just can't get myself to commit to the swing.

And that's a major issue. if it was my swing, I can work on it on the range. Because it's in my head, I'm going to have to find some mental drill to use on the course.

Or I'm just going to have to play through it until I get my confidence back.

Busy Week

Not been able to practice much this week at all. I managed a 45 min range session on Wednesday. Just really hit some balls to see what my swing was doing.

I wasn't really getting my body through the ball so concentrated on driving the right shoulder through which helped a lot.

I also played Brocket Hall yesterday with 3 mates. We played the Palmerstone course.

Played ok in spells but really struggled with my driving, yet again. I just can't seem to slow my swing down to get control and it's really costing me. My irons seem really good, solid crisp contact, good flight and distance. Chipping was good, putting was ok on really tough greens. But I was getting in sooooo much trouble off the tee I wasn't giving myself any chances to make a score.

Ended up shooting  a shocking 98, could have easily been over 100. And that's after shooting a 77 a couple of weeks back !!!

Putting was tough. Big greens, fast but true, but lots of humps and elevation changes.

The thing is about driving is at my course you can get away with bad drives because it is quite open. You don't really get overly punished. Ok you might not be able to hit the green in 2, but you can usually get it close to give yourself a chance at a chip and putt.

So it's when I play courses like Brocket, Woburn etc where accuracy off the tee is critical it really shows up my driving for what it is. Inconsistent and dodgy under pressure.

This driving is really getting to me now. It really seems to be my Achilles heel. When I drive well, I score well. When I don't, well, I have to hope I'm scrambling well.

Something to work on this week before next weeks comp. I just need to find something that is consistent, even at the loss of some distance.

However, it was an enjoyable afternoon out with fiends. For that I can be grateful.

Frustrating Game

Is it me or is golf one of the most frustrating games going ?

I mean round to round, hole to hole and even shot to shot can have such a huge variation. One minute you're playing like a pro, the next it's like it's the first time you held a golf club.

Take today for example, and probably last Sundays round as well, front 9, both times, some of my best golf ever. Last Sunday went out in 38 (3 over par). Pretty damn good for a 13 handicapper. Today, how about this one, 36, one over (again the same 13 handicapper). And I missed a couple of really good birdy chances !!

Now you can probably guess where this story goes next. Last Sunday, back in 49, that's 11 shots more for 9 holes. More than 1 shot more per hole worse. Insane yes ?

Ok, now today. So out in 36, back in, wait for it, 52. Yep 52. 16 shots worse for 9 holes. An average of almost  2 shots worse a hole. Obviously I don't expect to come back in a gross 1 over par like the front, but you'd expect some kind of continuation of form front to back would have seen me coming in at 41, maybe 42 at worse. You;d at least expect a sub-80 round, wouldn't you ?

And the really annoying thing. I have no idea why. Missed a few putts I probably shouldn't have, few chips that probably should have got closer and probably 1 bad drive OOB on the 16 (again !!!!!).

It almost feels like a lack of concentration on the back 9, just silly mistakes costing me. But the flip side is I don't want to over think things and put pressure on myself. I usually play best when, well, I just play. Don't think about it. Just pick my shot and hit it as well as I can.

But the plus side is I know I've got it in me to shoot low, and I mean really low. I don't actually feel that a level par round is completely out of the question if I hook everything up for 18 holes.

Now I wouldn't have been saying that a few months ago.

Stooopid Work

Getting in the way of my practice.

Meetings over ran yesterday, which meant I didn't manage to get up the range before I had to pick up the other half.

Same again today.

Sitting here twiddling my thumbs as I've got 15 mins before I need to go pick here up, So I thought I'd post a rant :-(