How much Golf is too much?

I started playing golf a year ago at age 38, up until that point i thought it was a stupid game for retired people. I am now a 15 handicap and have an addiction to the game. Already this year i have played about 80 rounds and hit the range at least 5 days a week. My average time on the range is 3 hours and as much as six and between 500 to 1000 balls.

I have had 5 lessons and have played about 8 rounds of golf with my instructor,I have every gaget ,gismo and dvd you could name and read hours of posts on sites and as many books, Secret of golf the golf machine, Roteller you name it i have read it.

The problem i am finding is that i am going backwards, from shooting in the 80's on a regular bases to 90's and 100's. One week i can chip like a champion the next its chunk. Irons get hot and then not. And from driving the ball down the pipe to looking like i am smoking the pipe.This leads me to changing from one thing to the next to hours on the range, nailing one thing just to go on the course and have another part of the game fall apart.

In short i was wondering, am i the only one that finds too much of a good thing can lead to a bad swing?

Should i lay off for a week, or do a Vijay and try and work it out on the range?

You do both. You definatly take a period of time off doing something else...winters are made for this...those Canadian's will chime in here I am sure. This break is essential to allowing you to clear the head of getting too analytical about your swing and when you return, your body will let you feel the swing better. This is what you had early on. It was a feel, or a natural approach to the way you were meant to play. We can talk and analyze the game to a noxious level at time. It's fun. But trying everything you hear or read or are told, "This is absoutly the only way to do this...(shootn4par?) is the wrong way to go about it. It is a simple idea of doing what works for you, then sticking to it. Fiddling around with every gadget and DVD and website and suggestion will get you to where you are now. Confused. I like to think of it as a buying a car. There are so many to pick, and each one is different. But they all get you to where you are going eventually. Not every car is the right fit for everyone. But the driver will know what feel right eventually. Can you improve? Sure. But stick to a plan. One that is obtailable. Goals that are too lofty in a shot period will only setup a failure that gets you going backwards.

If you were in the 80's you had good stuff there. Not sure if you needed a better short game (my guess becase this is the hardest part of the game), so get your old long game back and maybe get your time on the greens and bunkers to help the score out. This will regain your confidence again and you can start to pick 1 element of your swing to work on.

Hope this helps.

__________________
I'm a golfaholic, no question about that. Counseling wouldn't help me. They'd have to put me in prison, and then I'd talk the warden into building a hole or two and teach him how to play. ~Lee Trevino

Wise wise words Greg!

Greg thks for your thoughts on this matter, i like your approach to the game and have read many of your posts, which have helped me.

The one thing i can say does work for me is if i start with a forward press and then nice easy take away with shoulders dragging arms and in turn hands into position and then pulling (like ringing a bell with left arm). works well with irons, 8 iron 160-170. But with the driver this same approach gives me a consistant slice. My istructor tells me i tend to pull my left shoulder open causing an out to in swing.

This is just one of the many swing thoughts i have, even when i am sleeping, let alone when i am playing, so i am trying to find a swing thought that works with the driver to get me in to out and rid me of the slice.

but that being said i think i will try to force myself to rest up my mind and body and hopefuly re gain some of my feel and of course confidence which i find helps me a lot, as when i am playing well this game almost seems too easy.
I think i will try to remind my self that golf is not a game of perfect.

Hi
Like you I started at 38 ( wish i had started playing 20 years ago ) and have played twice a week , including winter, since then . i hit the range twice a week hitting roughly 250 balls a time. then i go to the practice bunker for half an hour and then 30 mins on the chipping green. The rest of the time I am learning French. my wife works full time too and so find myself with plenty of time to fill in during my days off. I believe there is a very fine line between AVID GOLFER and GOLF MANIAC.

I think Greg is right. you need to take a break.
see if you can go a whole week with out touching a club at all. I guarantee you will come back refreshed. Regards....T.P.Grealey

Drivers are going to be slightly different from irons. Setup, and initial move are generally the same except for ball position being more forward. Your shoulder rotation and slow takeback is good. Where the difference comes is what to do from the top. Irons love to hit down on the ball, and the short shaft gets you lots of feel and ability to be handsy. But the Driver needs to have a sweeping "low-to-high" attack on the ball. If you have played tennis (just about everyone has), it is like the feeling of hitting a topspin shot. You come from under the ball and hit it on the rise. We accomplish this 2 ways: moving the ball forward gets you to put the center of your swing behind the ball and in a circular path you can see the circle beginning to raise back up where it meets the ball. So there is really nothing you have to physically do differently yet during the swing. The second is to shallow out your angle of attack on the ball so you are not comming so steep on it, but rather, swinging around your body more. This is done with more leg drive, more shoulder rotation through and less hands releasing to the ball. You still release the hands, but just not as aggressivly as you can do with your irons. To also help the new shallow attack on the ball, try to finish the swing with your hands high in the air.

Hope this gets you to straight out the driver. Now, take a week off and fish!

__________________
I'm a golfaholic, no question about that. Counseling wouldn't help me. They'd have to put me in prison, and then I'd talk the warden into building a hole or two and teach him how to play. ~Lee Trevino

thks for the advice Greg,its funny how that in Tennis or even Table Tennis that the ball can be moving much faster and its not a problem to place the ball in a smaller area at will and for me in table tennis putting top spin ,side spin and backspin on the ball without thinking about any mechanics and just reacting to what ever direction the ball is coming from is amazing and i cant wait til the day i can just react and make the shot that needs to be made without all the mechanical calculation, which just kills the feel for me.

I am sure when i go fishing i will be casting 300 yards straight. And if i don't i will try not to worry about it..

I also find that if i try to do everything mechanical, like set up perfect alinement , ball placement etc and then try to hit a shot, i end up froze over the ball thinking about all the little eliments in my set up that could be off by a fraction and effect the outcome of the shot. Then everything just doesnt seem to be right even if it is, so i second guess myself and start making adjustments to everything and then of course hit a bad shot. This also applies to putting. But if i just try to trust my comfort and by this i mean just line up by feel and and trust that everthing is in the ballpark (approx correct,not exact ) and just go for it, I tend to have a much better result, but not enough to totally trust it.

So do you think that if you have a pretty good foundation and knowledge base, it would be wise just to play through the slump without all the perfection of every little detail and trust that i will just become more consistant without any mechanical thoughts and just let the shots happen. Or continue to work in mechanical range time.

Just a thought,
I was at the range today watching one of the pros swing. He had a beautiful swing. Backswing was about 3/4 nice and relaxed and then came through it with a real sweet easy tempo. Every shot was in the same place. You could tell he wasn't thinking mechanics at all. He was simply thinking tempo. I tried to ingrain the tempo in my mind. I went to a field and hit some short wedges thinking about the easy tempo. I hit some real nice shots and fairly consistent. My point is, you maybe able to improve your consistency just by watching the rhythm and tempo of a professional without focusing too much on mechanics of the swing.

sorry that I questioned your right hand drill gregg, if you understood biomechanics you would realize you cannot "hold" that angle

I must agree that i have found it helpful to watch pros swing and try and ingrain this image therapy which I think is something we are born with that is under utilized as we get older. I go to this link and just watch swings http://www.v1home.com/LESSONSHOP.ASP#
, strange but true.....