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How long did you play before you developed consistency of any sort?

slodsm

slodsm

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I am a stickler for everything I do. I work hard, practice ridiculous amount of hours, and spend the gdp of a small third world country on equipment and lessons (if applicable) for whatever hobby I am indulging in because I want to be good at whatever I attempt.

Golf in short is KILLING ME hahaha. If I were seeing steady improvement I probably wouldn't beat myself up over it but I have Dr Jeckle and Mr Hyde days like you wouldn't believe.

I have good equipment, I take lessons regularly, I can identify my own faults a lot of the time etc but still nothing clicks. Last month I went out and played 18 at a nice course with my boss. 6900 yards, par of 72, CR 73.x and slope of 13x (can't remember exactly). I shot an 88, would have been a PB had I not put a bit too much draw on my tee shot which I dropped in the water on the left side of the fairway and that rattled me a bit (only truly bad shot of the day, everything else was recoverable) and I three putted (also the only one of the day) because I drug my putter on the first stroke and came up wayyyyyyyyyyy short. So it was well on it's way to an 85 and still even with my little bungle on the last hole I was thrilled with an 88 on this course.

My home course the very next day (also a nice course) is rated much softer though I don't know how with hazards on every hole and ball eating water on 11 of the 18 holes it's a 68/121 from 6000 yards which is where I usually play it. I shot a 105, 2 days later a 100, etc etc. This is on my home course which I play 100 times a year minimum.

I could deal with the 100's (I've only been playing seriously for 18 months) if I had never seen what I was actually capable of doing when I'm playing well. Seeing how many high 80's I've posted though on supposedly harder/longer courses just crushes my drive to practice harder etc.

In short, this is a whining post because I'm getting a bit disheartened over my roller coaster ride of trying to learn to play the game modestly well.

In my 35 years on this planet, I've raced MX, drag raced NHRA SFWD, competed in ATA trap shooting competitions, IDPA and USPSA shooting competitions and been sponsored as a 1/8 nitro buggy and 1/10 stadium truck racer in RC. I worked at all of them and and put in ridiculous amounts of practice and saw steady improvement and results over time which motivated me to try even harder. Golf is just killing me, I work at it, dream about it, practice constantly, take lessons from a great instructor, and then fall apart.

What keeps you guys going? When I'm having bad days sometimes I actually get embarrassed and leave the course because I don't want people to see me hacking up the ball, I mean how can you go from missing 2 fairways and hitting 10 GIR one day to 0/0 the next?
 
Have you asked yourself if you are playing the right tee box?
 
Yep, I play pretty short most of the time. My failing isn't distance, it's ball striking. When it goes south, I can't get a ball off the ground and then I get frustrated and resort back to my "old standby" swing I learned on my own and start slicing everything in the bag just because it makes consistent contact.
 
Golf is hard.

Time spent practicing, money spent on clubs, or instructors seen doesn't guarantee anything.

Unfortunately, part of it has to do with the goon swinging the club.

No matter how bad the scores are remember it could be worse. You could be dead.
 
slodsm said:
Yep, I play pretty short most of the time. My failing isn't distance, it's ball striking. When it goes south, I can't get a ball off the ground and then I get frustrated and resort back to my "old standby" swing I learned on my own and start slicing everything in the bag just because it makes consistent contact.
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Just as a point of reference. I would recommend not doing that. If the best player in history needed repetitions and to trust the process of learning a new swing, so do you.
 
blugold said:
Just as a point of reference. I would recommend not doing that. If the best player in history needed repetitions and to trust the process of learning a new swing, so do you.
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I know blu, I think I just start doing it unconsciously trying to save face.

I keep working at it, I'm only 35, maybe I'll get it down before I get too old to swing a club.


Taptaptaparoo
 
Well, a couple of observations.

1. What JB mentioned, but i suspect that if you are playing your home course at about 6K you are probably close to the right box.

2. I would venture a guess that most if not all of us here are not really good enough to get as mad as we do from time to time. I left the game the first time because I took myself way too seriously. Now that I'm back playing again, I am so disappointed in myself for being gone so long. I will never get those years back.

3. Golf is hard! Some of the other things you mentioned like shooting don't have near as many variables as does golf. I was a firearms instructor in the Corps (you were in too as I recall). Yes weather changes, but at the level you shot, loads were identical, distances were set mostly and the target was very similar if not the same. In golf, your load (swing) is different from round to round based on how you feel, what you are working on with your instructor etc. The target, greens fairways etc. change from round to round based on current and recent weather conditions and tons of other variables which affect how you "pull the trigger", how the shot impacts the target and how it gets there are also affected by all of the above. All of this makes for a very difficult game indeed.

4. I couldn't bear to leave the course......I'm too cheap, I paid my money so I'm gonna :banghead: :act-up:

5. What keeps me going? Trying to get to a personal best. The people I am with too. If you don't have a regular group, try to find some to play with on a regular basis. I didn't have this before, and it has brought a whole new dimension to the game for me. So much more enjoyment!

Hang in there jarhead! Come to Branson for the outing in July. I think it's two man teams. Ill play with ya! FTW,!! There are too many head cases in golf. Play for the enjoyment and the rest will come bro.

BTW, what is the name of that metal polish you use? And if you quit, I got dibs on the staff bag and the 712 AP1's. :act-up: :act-up: :act-up:

J.
 
Hi guys, 1st post. Had to join up and join in when I saw the thread. I found myself wondering the exact same thing after my most outrageous round in quite some time. I took up the game a year ago and have got decent gear, some lessons and manage to hit a ball every other day, be it at the range or the club. I find my issue mainly is poor starts to rounds, which on turn makes me think to much on things. Not good. Not always the case though, as I appear to have gone full circle, and I will attach my last round and history to show as much.Thoughts? Any similar patterns slodsm?


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You know when I started getting more consistent? When my mental game got better! Seriously! The harder I tried, the worse I got at times. When I finally learned to relax and enjoy the beauty of the outdoors, the people I was playing with, and took the game a lot less seriously, I started getting more consistent. I am not kidding. I was taking lessons and playing 150+ rounds a year a couple years ago. All it took was having 5 months off where I could not physically play to realize how much I loved the game and didn't ever want another miserable round. Never ever be embarrassed as to how you're playing. No one cares how you're playing, they only care how they are playing.
 
Johnny mojo said:
Well, a couple of observations.

1. What JB mentioned, but i suspect that if you are playing your home course at about 6K you are probably close to the right box.

2. I would venture a guess that most if not all of us here are not really good enough to get as mad as we do from time to time. I left the game the first time because I took myself way too seriously. Now that I'm back playing again, I am so disappointed in myself for being gone so long. I will never get those years back.

3. Golf is hard! Some of the other things you mentioned like shooting don't have near as many variables as does golf. I was a firearms instructor in the Corps (you were in too as I recall). Yes weather changes, but at the level you shot, loads were identical, distances were set mostly and the target was very similar if not the same. In golf, your load (swing) is different from round to round based on how you feel, what you are working on with your instructor etc. The target, greens fairways etc. change from round to round based on current and recent weather conditions and tons of other variables which affect how you "pull the trigger", how the shot impacts the target and how it gets there are also affected by all of the above. All of this makes for a very difficult game indeed.

4. I couldn't bear to leave the course......I'm too cheap, I paid my money so I'm gonna :banghead: :act-up:

5. What keeps me going? Trying to get to a personal best. The people I am with too. If you don't have a regular group, try to find some to play with on a regular basis. I didn't have this before, and it has brought a whole new dimension to the game for me. So much more enjoyment!

Hang in there jarhead! Come to Branson for the outing in July. I think it's two man teams. Ill play with ya! FTW,!! There are too many head cases in golf. Play for the enjoyment and the rest will come bro.

BTW, what is the name of that metal polish you use? And if you quit, I got dibs on the staff bag and the 712 AP1's. :act-up: :act-up: :act-up:

J.
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Hahahaha, I'm not quitting man, I never quit anything until I get good enough at it that it's easy. I'm just trying to decide if I'm expecting too much out of myself already. I honestly feel like I work hard enough I should be able to consistently shoot in the 80's right now but it's just not working. Distance if killing me for one, when I'm smooth and having a good day, I'm about 155 7i and 255 driver give or take a bit for the quality of my ball strike. On other days I'm 140 7i and 230 driver and it makes club selection tough because any given shot could be longer or shorter because I'm all over the place.

I do play with a few guys regularly but their mindset is different than mine and I think that affects me. I don't do anything to "have fun", the working towards a goal and accomplishing it is the fun part to me so when I'm hacking it up and it's killing me it actually bothers me, they don't care if they shoot 90 or 190.

I won't walk off on a course I paid for the round on period, my home course I'm a member of and I walk off the course because I'm becoming a hindrance (in my mind, I'm never slow even on my worst days) and I go to the club house and get a couple of bags of balls and work on irons etc for a while and then go putt for a while. Putting is the only thing that rarely lets me down. A good day of putting is 30, a bad day is 36. If I do happen to 3 putt one hole I'll make up for it a few holes later with a single.

You're right in shooting doesn't have as many variables as my competition guns were all modded and put together by me (except my 9mm 1911, I'm nowhere near a good enough amateur smith to build John Brownings masterpiece) and they fit my hand, my eye, my style etc. The loads are all loaded by me for exact power factor, OAL, etc and on a bench I'll stack my competition loads up against anything else out there but still, it took untold thousands of rounds running and gunning to learn to shoot that fast and accurately while running etc. Of course the 12 years I spent in the Marine Corps probably did help that part out lol.

I want that PB so bad I can taste it but I honestly think I want a good average even more. I want to have a general idea of what to expect each day when I walk up to the first tee. Shoot sometimes even when I walk up to the 9th tee, I can have two totally different 9's on some of those days.

I'll keep at it though, it will come.


On another note, I know D.Farrer (another local THP'r) has seen some of this. I played 9 with him one morning, I went out with 13 or 14 putts over 9 holes but I think I shot a 49, I couldn't do anything with the ball other than on the green.


Maybe. lol

ETA: The metal polish is "Mothers Mag wheel polish". It's for uncoated aluminum wheels. I've used various other polishes as well and they all give ok results but the kind for uncoated aluminum seems to give it the most natural shine.
 
KellyBo said:
All it took was having 5 months off where I could not physically play to realize how much I loved the game and didn't ever want another miserable round.
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I can see that happening. I work a great schedule of 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. For those 2 weeks I'm in South Texas I miss golf and fishing so bad it's all I think about. I don't know what I'd do if I absolutely couldn't play anymore but when I'm having my dead stretches I sometimes wish I could just go back to work because I need to earn more money to replace all the balls I lost hahahaha.
 
Well, then it sounds like you want to keep at it anyway. Damn, I wanted those irons :act-up:. So all that runnin and gunnin paid off with the pistols and it will pay off in golf too. Hang in there bro. KBS said it best. Try to enjoy the process.

Thanks for the heads up on the Mothers Mag polish too!

J.
 
I would evaluate what you are hitting off the tee. Driver is not always the right play. I would also evaluate the lessons you're getting. Stay with the swing at all cost. Do not get away from it.
 
If you're taking lessons already, you may want to look into a playing lesson (on-course with your pro). A big part in becoming a consistent player is learning how to play your way around a course. Especially if you've been playing <2 years, you may be losing strokes trying for hero-shots when you'd be better served by playing conservatively (and vice versa).

Also, I'll agree with Tadashi above me here... if you're working on a new swing with your pro, don't revert to your old swing when the new one starts going off. That will lead you down the 'one step forward, two steps back' path very quickly. It takes thousands of reps to groove a new swing into muscle-memory. Every time you revert to your homemade swing, you're messing with the muscle-memory you're building.

I know it's frustrating, and even the best players in the game would probably love to be more consistent. Ultimately, it's just time, repetition, and acquired wisdom that leads to more consistency. Even after close to twenty years, I can spend weeks shooting in the seventies and then throw out a round in the high eighties.

And of course that brings me to one final thought: have you asked yourself when your ballstriking goes to heck? I wonder if, given the amount of time you seem to spend on golf, if you're over-practicing? Sometimes a few days off can do more for your swing than hours at the range. Like working out, rest days can be as important as work-out/playing days. And BTW, it sounds like you're doing pretty damned well for someone golfing for so little time!
 
wow, this thread is probably about you and a million others of us. Feast or famine type of golf all within the same round and even during the same hole and I've been at it for 20 years vs your 18 months. If you can float between upper 80's to a 100 or so in only 18 months I'd say is about as consistent as people golfing for many years including me. In your open you mention well one your way to 85. I got news for you. You, me and a million others are all well on our way to an 85 every time we step on the first tee. At least until my first explosion of the day and then my second, and then my third.

I've matured, learned to play smarter, lessons for first time in years, more practice and play than in years past ever, really making the efforts this year and though I was making progress this year but lately have gone backwards so far you would think I never played the darn game before at all. This game is so very hard. Some people are naturally better at it than others. All you can do is have fun, keep at it, and hope it comes together hole by hole for a round and then another. No real answer to this madness of why so great one moment and then so crappy the next that sometimes it gets the best of our emotions. Its not easy but let it go and keep at it. I know this don't help much but it is what it is and getting angry and upset never ever made me any better, that's for darn sure.
 
Some good tips coming in on the mental thing, I believe that's a lot of my issue because maybe I expect too much. I'm almost at the point of OCD with the way I try to do everything perfectly. It's great for promotions at work but stresses me out in other places.

Tadashi, I don't take the driver out on any hole less than 400 yards and when it's off I don't even take it out there.

Spharticus, in hind sight (every time mind you) I can tell you why the easy effortless new swing we are building fails on me. When we had our first lesson the instructor moved me wayyyy back from the ball. I was so close to it you could fit a fist between the club and my belt on a good day. He said that my arms are long and I'm strong so use it, step away from the ball, let the additional length help increase my speed and go with it. Well it works like a champ but I don't feel natural there. I always end up moving closer to the ball unconsciously and that is when it just completely fails but since it feels so right I don't notice that problem usually until 3-4 hours AFTER the round. When I get too close I come over the top and it makes it harder to release the club as well so I end up hitting out to in with an open face and the disasters are epic.


We talked about leaving the bay next lesson and just playing the course. He thinks that is where we need to go from here. The last lesson we spend around the green exclusively which resulted in some much better chipping on my last actual round. I've usually been a chutter because I tend to blade chips across the green which cost me probably 3 strokes a round.

Ball striking is however my downfall and will continue to be for a while I believe. When I have rounds that I can't seem to miss the green from 150 in I get huge confidence and then the next round I do something silly like get too close to the ball and the confidence is just blasted out of the water.
 
By
rollin said:
wow, this thread is probably about you and a million others of us. Feast or famine type of golf all within the same round and even during the same hole and I've been at it for 20 years vs your 18 months. If you can float between upper 80's to a 100 or so in only 18 months I'd say is about as consistent as people golfing for many years including me. In your open you mention well one your way to 85. I got news for you. You, me and a million others are all well on our way to an 85 every time we step on the first tee. At least until my first explosion of the day and then my second, and then my third.

I've matured, learned to play smarter, lessons for first time in years, more practice and play than in years past ever, really making the efforts this year and though I was making progress this year but lately have gone backwards so far you would think I never played the darn game before at all. This game is so very hard. Some people are naturally better at it than others. All you can do is have fun, keep at it, and hope it comes together hole by hole for a round and then another. No real answer to this madness of why so great one moment and then so crappy the next that sometimes it gets the best of our emotions. Its not easy but let it go and keep at it. I know this don't help much but it is what it is and getting angry and upset never ever made me any better, that's for darn sure.
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Totally agree with this and know this one first hand. I was down to shooting high 70s to very low 80s consistently a year or two ago. Now, I can shoot in the eighties only every once in a while. It seems that most of the time I am in the 90s now days. Why, who knows. I got mad during my last, because I a even our one over through 6, but two nice shots shots on a par 5, and hooked my third into the green. It tore me up for the rest of the round. I had no confidence the rest of the day. That is definitely not the way to enjoy the game. I have been taking some time away from the course and range since then, to get my head straight. Plan on going out this next weekend with a group of THP'ERS to ENJOY a round of golf. It is supposed to be fun. Your not the only one here who runs into this problem from time to time. I think we both need to try and just not try so hard while on the course. I know I will just be trying to enjoy the company I'm with this weekend, just like KellyBo said. Let's see what happens.
 
It comes easy to some people, and not to others.

There are numerous people on this board that have been playing 30 years less than me that are FAR better than I've ever been.

I played 3 holes the other day with a 14-year-old girl and her dad. I went par, double, triple. She went bogey, par, par.

It can be quite disheartening to read the "What did you shoot today?" thread around here and see the apparent ease with which people are putting up rounds in the 70's and low 80's, while the mortals among us hope for high 80's, but are more often in the 90's or worse.

However, some observations:

1) Many of the folks around here represent some of the best at their club. They're not your typical amateur. They're closer to the club champion. Most typical amateurs don't spend their time on golf forums.

2) If you've only been playing 18 months and have had some rounds in the 80's, you're way ahead of the curve.

3) One thing that's difficult to tell from someone's score is how difficult the course was. I have one course on which I've never broken 90. My buddy who regularly shoots low 80's and sometimes high 70's shot 91 last time he played it. Sure, someone may have shot 78, but you might shoot 83 on the same course.

4) With all this said, the only way to improve is to practice. You're definitely not going to get better by not trying, so if getting better is a goal, you might as well keep plugging away at it.
 
haha You looking for consistency in this game :bulgy-eyes:? I've shot a 73 & 100 in the same weekend :beat-up:. Golf is gonna kick ya arse to the woodshed so just put on ya big boy pants and get ready for the ride. You'll have good days but the bad ones come around like a dog chasing his tail :thumb:
 
I am still waiting for consistency....hehe
 
It's been 4 years of really playing golf for me now, still waiting. I'd say if you were truly consistent, you'd be getting paid to play golf.
 
I feel your pain. Golf is the hardest sport I've ever played. My first year and a half was extremely inconsistent and I'm just now starting to develop a game I can count on.
 
Like all amateurs I can hack it up with the best of them, so don't take this as high and mighty, but in my nearly 30 years of playing the game I've arrived at a personal opinion that the game of golf should be taken up and learned from the hole back to the tee, not from the tee to the hole. It allows you to maintain the fundamentals you've learned and makes the next part easier. Job #1- learn to swing a putter. Then learn to hit a chip, then learn to hit chips with everything down to a 5 iron or even hybrid. Then learn how to hit a pitch shot. This is where you start to learn the fundamentals of hitting a ball with a full swing, but without the added complication of coiling your upper body against the lower for power. You want to build important consistency into your game? It's a lot easier to learn to keep a pitch on plane and consistently control your distance here than it is with full swings. Then learn how to hit a full swing with a wedge. Then longer irons. Then start thinking about woods.

Average Joe taking up the game grabs a driver and goes right to the range- it's no wonder they are lost as they start with and focus on the most difficult clubs to hit. The concepts they've learned for driving a ball don't transfer well to a pitch shot for instance.

A good short game can really save your bacon when your ball striking is off. When I get in a ball striking funk, I don't stress out about it, I spend time on putting, chipping, and pitching instead. I find it often addresses some of the full swing issues when I get back to it by going through the progression I described above. I believe that an hour invested in short game practice will yield much higher dividends in terms of the score you can go out and shoot than full swing practice. I personally find it far more fun to practice putting yourself in a sticky situation around the practice green and trying to get it up and down than it is to beat a bucket of balls with some particular club that's giving you fits. I don't get a lot of time to practice anymore, so that's what I prefer to focus on. Putts, chips, and pitches count the same as drives and approach shots, but people overlook that. Why don't you try to focus on that part of your game for a while if you are frustrated?
 
well i've been swinging a stick since i could stand, but once i broke 100, i was breaking it almost every round, until i started breaking 90. and i started breaking 100 around age 11 or 12...
 
I always thought that if I could get into the 80's that bad golf would be a thing of the past but Ive realized that bad golf is always one swing away. I need to learn to not let one bad shot throw me off and turn into 2 blow up holes.

Golf is hard. The harder I try when I get to the course the worse I will play.
 
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