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When your game goes to the crapper...

It happens to all of us, hang in there.

I try to give myself some space to clear my head and lose the frustration. Then I go into diagnosis mode...check my swing away from the course against some known issues. If I can discover the problem point(s) I start working on it away from the course until I feel like I'm compressing the ball well again.
 
One thing I always do during an in-round slump is to go back to basics to get on track. I'll take extra club, choke down, abbreviate the swing and just focus on hitting down on the ball. Even off the tee. Sure you lose some distance, but in a slump just getting back on track is most important. Once you hit some solid shots you can work you way back up to normal. Usually it is effective and whatever was going wrong will work itself out by not trying to do too much.
 
Yup, lots of good advice..

Trying not to put too much mind to whatever the fault was. Every round is always a bit different than the last. Yesterday started out fighting rain and a little wind, which coming out of the gate, I had it on lock with a couple pars. Thinking about it more, I remember being concerned that my glove got soaked pulling the cart cover over the clubs, both my towels were wet from cleaning off the bench seat and just getting hit by rain. I think I chalk it up to mental stutter and quicksand. I would normally go today (remember I'm in Japan) but I'll just take the day off and not think about it any more than to post about it.

I've thought more about my pre-shot routine and how important that is. I'm pretty solid on it but I can definitely atribute some of yesterdays frustration with being pre-shot-routine-handicapped. I definitely let something quake that up and couldn't recover it. Like, I was asking myself every preshot "what am I doing wrong" and not really going after the reset of the basic routine I've come to know so well. What am I aiming at and where is my target line, how are my hands going to be on the grip and what kind of swingpath am I going for, stance at address, intended power, predicted follow thru. Ready, set, go. Of course there is a bit more to it, but that is my basic routine.

Just chillin' today. Watching some UFC. See if I can find some PGA on an internet feed. Speaking of which, anyone have any links to pages that cover real-time live feeds?

Thanks for the thoughts people.
 
This happens to me a couple times a year as well, usually it's short lived but last year I had a month where I might as well have been swinging the grip at the ball while holding the clubhead. I spent hours at the range reinforcing all the bad habits that had crept in...didn't help. Finally I just took a few weeks off altogether to reset. When I finally got back to the range I just hit 3/4 shots with wedges and short irons to get my confidence back.
I also decided after that that it was time for a new swing as that one never stood up under pressure for me.
 
what helped me last yr was to start playing target golf on every shot clubbing up and taking 3/4 swings, laying up just shy of the green on everything but par 3's. I also started shooting for bogey on every hole agin instead of going for par.

I also spent 20-30 mins before each round hitting all kinds of short game shots with different clubs focussing on ball striking not how close i came to the pin.
 
When this happens I simply try to stop thinking about the swing all together and just grip/rip. When things go bad it's usually mental.
 
If my game goes to heck the best thing for me is to usually just leave anything over a 5 iron in the bag. I can reach almost any par 4 in 2 and par 5 in 3 with those and I find that it leaves the most dangerous clubs in the bag.
 
When that happens, I usually call it a day, have a few beers and tell myself that tomorrow will be a better day. Ive found that usually when my swing just abandons me, its 99% mental.
 
when my game goes to the crapper, I bring lots of toilet paper to clean it up
 
Allrighty, so my completely mundane life here in Atsugi led me back to the range quicker than I expected...just to go back to some drills, 1/2 & 3/4 swings and something I noticed almost immediately was that my hands were not where I used to set them...like, they'd gotten weaker and weaker over the past few months wrt my neutral grip. Didn't really wind up at what I believe to be 100% power through the whole session. Felt much better about my striking. Maybe I'll venture out tomorrow for a light round. Certainly have my mind back together.
 
Whenever I'm struggling I go see coach. I'm lucky enough to get free lessons with the county u18 team and the coach encourages me to send him videos so he can have a look what's happening. I've had 4 lessons this month, where I'd usually have 1 a month at most last year because they were £30 an hour.
 
Andrew.E.Barron said:
Allrighty, so my completely mundane life here in Atsugi led me back to the range quicker than I expected...just to go back to some drills, 1/2 & 3/4 swings and something I noticed almost immediately was that my hands were not where I used to set them...like, they'd gotten weaker and weaker over the past few months wrt my neutral grip. Didn't really wind up at what I believe to be 100% power through the whole session. Felt much better about my striking. Maybe I'll venture out tomorrow for a light round. Certainly have my mind back together.
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Good to hear you're getting it back on track. The swing just leave us for some reason. Look at Phil from last week to this week, though a bad round for him is still par golf.

I do think a lot of it is mental for me. I have a couple of common faults that creep up in a round that I can usually diagnose and correct if I think about it and go through my routine. Sometimes it just goes away, for seemingly no rhyme or reason. And comes back just as quick. If I can't figure it out after a break and range session, I go see my teacher. He usually points out a pretty simple to correct flaw and gets me back on track.

I played a round last month that still confounds me. I had a great round going (for me) on a pretty hard course. Just finished the front 9 with a couple of pars, and bogied 9, but struck the ball well, had a brain-freeze on my 2nd shot. Ripped the drive up the middle on 10, and was really feeling good about the round, thinking I might break 90 for the first time since I started playing again. From the second shot on 10 until the tee shot on 15, it was like I had never seen a golf club before. My swing just completely left me. I ripped the drive up the middle on 15 and pared the hole, and went par,par bogey to finish from there. I have no idea what I was doing different on 10-14. Just happens sometimes. During the meltdown I just remind my self that it's a blessing to be out on the course enjoying a beautiful day and still had a good time.
 
What the OP posted was me yesterday.... i practice 2 times a week and play 2 to 3 rounds on the weekend. i had been taking classes and really feeling confident about my swing and game.

i been posting low 93-95 scores (always have 1 blowup hole).

Yesterday after 5 holes i was +1 and mentally i already thought i was going to break 90 for the first time on my home course..... sure enough..... the next 3 straight holes... triple bodegy... i went from the highest confidence to the lowest ive had.... the next 10 holes were disaster... good shots followed by big time mistakes...

i went to the range after and just shot pitch, and wedge shots to relax.....

im going back today and will probably take a class... and then play 18....
 
If your tee ball is your issue, and you're on a rather short course, just play the tee ball to about 150 yards away. Like if you're on a 350 yard par 4, use a 4 iron off the tee. Always helps me. Save the driver for par 5s, especially if you have some firepower.
 
If the round isn't going well by the turn I usually grab a few beers and maybe move up a tee box if I am just out playing a fun round with my friends.
 
Usually when I'm swinging it bad, it's because I'm getting Over the Top. I just make a conscious effort to bring the club to the inside. That usually fixes it.
 
Smallville said:
You're talking about my normal round here! hehehe

I try to just deal with it. It's still better than not golfing.
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Yep...couldn't agree more. While it's frustrating to struggle, I always try and remember it has been better, and will get better. I haven't golfed since before Christmas, and would take a really crappy round any day right about now.
 
Do what I do and completely change your swing...:D... just kidding... just keep doing what your doing, it'll come back to you.
 
I tend to hit a wall when I start playing real well. I make some progress, get excited, then play more. Then I start regressing.

I find taking a week or two off generally does the job. Shot an 87, came back 2 weeks later and shot a 78.
 
Andrew.E.Barron said:
Worst round in 10-12 rounds.... First couple holes, ok...everything after that was a disaster. Just couldn't stop it and I have no idea where it went. Push, pull, chunk, skull, toe, toe, shank...by the turn, I was ready to stop and call it a day. Stuck it out and had a better back 9 than front, but still couldn't get off the tee box to save my soul.

What do you do when your swing just collapses? Wasn't freaking out and slamming clubs, but man it's really hard to enjoy a round when nothing you do seems to fix the problem.

Even went to the range a couple hours later just to try and get a reset and I'm still amiss. Painfully made it through a bucket and just left, disgusted. Think I'll take a week off and give it a rest. Been playing twice a weekend and hitting the range 2-3 during the week...dunno.:banghead:
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Have the cart girl follow you with the cold ones.
 
Relax. Once its done in there it will come back. I have been there before. A few years ago I went out for my usual Sunday round and could not hit anything with a big head. Gave up and went with iron off the tee on the back. Next practice day everything was great again.

Think of it like most pros, they don't bring their A game every round. Thats why tournaments have 4 rounds, so it kind of evens out.
 
This happens to us all from time to time, and is very frustrating when you pay for that kind of abuse. One tool I use to get my back on track is my ipod touch. I will have my partner record my next few swings with the "Tiger Woods My Swing" app. I will take a few minutes and watch them in slow motion with my spine angle and swing plane lines. Take some mental notes on what I am doing wrong, and also what I am doing right. If you focus on solely the bad things you could overcorrect and hurt some of the things you were doing good. Golf is always a work in progress for most of us and there are far worse things in life to stress over. Relax and take it one swing at a time and remember,.......you could be at work right now. :)
 
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