Doing Great then Awful

Today I was at the range, the first bucket I hit all my shots nicely and clean.. maybe a little fade here and there

Then I started to draw the ball a little later on.. I think I was almost subconciously changing my grip to a stronger grip..The draws when on for about another half buket.. I was super happy at this time since I finally thought I got my groove in..

Then I started to hook the ball and it got to the point where I barely could even keep the ball airborne anymore.. I couldnt tell you how frustrating this was to me.. I was hitting them great earlier and now I cant barely get one off the ground and there hooking terribly.. I couldnt tell you how frustrated I was at the end of the session, but I was thinking later that Maybe I strengthened my grip so much due to the early fading that I overcompensated.. idk.. but this was really bothering me cause I was doing everything else same in my swing as I usually do and now I couldnt hit the ball..Im gonna go back to the range today and go back to a neutral and see if thats what i was doin..

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Were you using the driver?

If you were using the driver, were you bending down to tee it up? If you were bending down to tee it up, think of how many times you must do that for a bucket. To give you a better idea of the effect it has on your performance, bend down 70 times in a row with a few seconds in between each repetition. Hit 10 balls before, hit 10 balls after, compare the results.

Perhaps you are not strong enough to endure the effort needed to bend down on top of the effort needed to swing the club and strike the ball. The lower back is heavily solicited during the swing and during the bending motion. The muscles can become weak to the point where they don't respond and can't flex anymore.

I used to go to the range on my bicycle 10km away, hit 500 balls, go back home 10km again. I know what happens between the first ball and the last ball. I got very tired, I lost a lot of strength during the practice sessions. I though I could get away with it and eventually get in shape, so to speak. That's not what happened. I realised I wasn't strong enough to endure the effort I put in.

Renton, it sounds to me like you're hitting too many full shots.

When I go to the range, it's half a bucket for full shots - then 100 yards and in shots (pitch shots), then trouble shots in which I find different ways to bury my ball in the rough/turf.

Remember on the full shots, go through every pre-shot routine, every single time; takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to finish the half bucket. If you were to not take your time between shots, you're basically setting yourself up for fatigue. Have you noticed that if you hit a bad shot, you immediately grab the next ball and hit it quicker - on the course there's no way (unless you boinked one off the tree and it came back to you) you would do that; so try not to do it on the range.

Something I recommend, and others have recommended here, is to play your driving range practice as if you were on the course. Bring a scorecard of the course you want to play - then go to the range.

So for me, our first hole is a downhill 387 yard par 4.

So visualize the course layout on that first hole, hit whatever club - I usually blast a driver and usually end up okay - with a 8/9 iron away. So I choose 8 iron since it's cold outside and visualize my target and swing. Assuming I two-putt, I put down my score on the card.

Remember if anything goes wrong, i.e driver goes right, try to assume that you're in the rough and mimick that.

This is one of the ways I got down to a 5 hcp in less than two years. It's a great drill for course management and most of all you're being honest with yourself - and if you start to hit the shots that you're visualizing on the course, you can't get tired because you won't be focusing on your body,swing - you'll be focusing on the target.

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