Why, Why, Why

Before each round of golf I play I try to get to the practice range to warm up and get my self ready for my round. Now mind you I am not on the range working on this or that. I am warming up and it is a beautiful thing. (now the why). But the minute on step on the course everyhthing goes to hell. Not every hole but alomost everyone. I'm not nervous, I seem to be focused. But it just goes haywire. The same thing when I go for a lesson. The instructor I have is great. I am hitting perfect golf shots. It is just crazy. I have been playing for about 7yrs. Two years ago I was playing some good golf (for me). I would hit mid to high 80's. But now its mid to high 90's and I know I can do better, but it just falls apart.
So Why.
Thanks

How about tension?

Hitting balls on the range or in a lesson is pretty easy - not much is resting on the outcome of one particular shot. Now you step onto the first tee - bet you're not anywhere near as relaxed. Which thoughts are in your head? Maybe things like don't pull left out of bounds or way right. Or a swing thought that's suddenly far more dominant than it is when you practice. All of this tightens you up.

Of course, if this is the case, there's no easy fix. One thing to try, though, is to spend time sizing up the shot before you're over the ball. One problem I have is that, when the shot is really important, like a crucial approach or, perhaps, the first drive of the day, I settle over the ball much more than I do on other 'normal' shots. So, already I've accentuated that these 'important' shots are different. Most recently, I've worked out before I take my stance exactly what I want to do. I then step up to the ball and swing away. I should say that I'm not trying to rush the swing part, just not getting everything glued in place by just standing over the ball subconsciously building up tension.

Seems to be working as of now.

I would suggest a good pre shot routine if you do not have one and never never hit a shot without using it. This should include standing behind the ball and picking out a spot where you want the ball to go, how you hold the club ie. left hand, walking up to the ball and positioning the clubface where you aimed when you were behind the ball, taking your address, placing the right hand on the club, and the all important waggle. If you do this everytime, its hard to get tense and you will be focused the way you were at the range when you used the preshot routine.

Difficult one and very common problem. One factor may be that you are hitting off a mat at the range and when having lessons, it's a bit different than hitting of grass and varied lies. If you catch the shot thick a mat will bounce the club into the ball for example.

Another difference at the range is you can have a number of tries at a shot and not necessarily at a defined target. As TID suggests you may not be using a repeated pre-shot routine.

Can you explain exactly what goes wrong on the course? Is it direction, ball contact, distance, putting?

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Best Regards
Brian

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Funny o'l game!

An interesting perspective:

You have not found a way to merge 'golf' with 'hitting balls on the range'.

Vison54/Golf54 suggest the following while at the range:

Don't hit the same club twice.
Have a specific target.
Apply the pre-shot routine to all shots.

There's a few more, but "Every shot must have a purpose" is a great read... and cheap to pick up.

OLDWEASE:
Being nervous I'm not suprisingly. I wish that was the problem but it is not.
TID:
I do have a pre shot routine. I get behind the ball pick a target, I make sure my hands are set properly all the things to get myself ready.
BRIANW:
I can either use mats or grass before my round. The grass area is not very good though, grass to high or small rocks etc. With my instructor it is strictly grass. I take lessons at a private club (I don't belong) were he is the club pro. The practice area is just as nice as some of the golf courses I play at. I get some of my best golf shots there. I'm just not very consistent with my shots.
I just wonder if I try to hard on the course where as on the range or lesson I just hit and thats it.

I have read the book very interesting. I think maybe I might be over swinging on the course. Who knows

I've fallen victim to that one myself. I think I'm doing OK (swinging within myself), then, 9 or 10 or 11 holes in, I decide I'm going to throttle back a touch and swing a little shorter and ease one in there... and pure it. The swing always feels effortless, I always finish in balance, the ballflight is always spectacular. Then I go 'what the hell was I thinking? Why didn't I always swing like this?'

It eludes me, even in warmup. Go figure.

This is one of the hardest things to master. It's one reason--maybe the reason--why the practice swing may feel so perfect, followed by a botched swing at the ball. We never try to kill the imaginary ball.

As I wrote in my "New PB" post, in my round of golf last Saturday I really, really committed to slowing my swing down, for every shot, all day. I told myself I don't care about the distance, I'm just going to slow it down. Interestingly, this did not mean shortening my backswing. It just meant making my downswing feel gentler, or lazier, with little or no feeling of pulling the club. This worked very well. Amazingly well. But it's hard to do, espcially at the tee and when facing a long fairway shot. Those are the times when the instinct is for power, and therefore to hit it hard. It goes against that instinct to take a lazy swing. So there were a few times when I simply lost the discipline and tried to hit it hard, and hit it badly instead.

I've learned the hard way that I can shorten my backswing and still overswing, or I can take a full backswing and not overswing. I'm coming to the belief that the essence of overswinging is swinging with the arms, so that they outrace the body, regardless of the backswing. Whether this is the OP's problem or not is hard to say. I have days at the practice range when I overswing as much as I do on the course, like when I'm trying to "prove" to myself that I can hit a certain club a certain distance. Those days are not productive.

Where I play, we have a 165 yd hole, guarded by a good-sized pond in front. On various days I've reached that green easily with a 6i, but I've also put it in the water plenty of times with that club. I've tensed up and put it in the water with a 5i. So, on Saturday I figured, I'll use the 5w and make a really lazy swing. Well, of course, that ball flew 190 like a rocket, straight and beautiful, and just waved to the green on the way over. I was able to pitch back on okay for a bogey, but it was amazing how that ball flew with such a lazy swing.

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

My immediate suggestion would be to stop practising before a game. Play your game then afterwards go and practice the things that were bad.
This has 3 distinct advantages as far as I can see.

1. Its reactive practice, the things you need to work on you can work on, loads of people work on something before the round, like driving but then go out and hit their wedges awful despite hitting 12 fairways.

2. It loosens the muscles after a round.

3. You dont hit any bad shots before the round so you arent worrying about that shot/club when you go play.

Before the round just work on a stretching and warm up regimen and then hit a couple of dozen gentle 7 irons into a net with a nice slow smooth swing which sets you with a nice smooth tempo for that first drive.

Good Luck.

D.

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This may sound simplistic to some, but I believe that many of us are feel players rather than method players. Obviously most of us will recognize in ourselves that this is a spectrum that we all fall into somewhere. I have noticed players that are 80% method and 20% feel tend to play a better round than say someone who is exact opposite.

The reason that I say that....Well on a range feel golfers are super stars... yeah they hit a couple of bad shots at first then they tweak a little here and there and before you know it they are smashing straight beautiful shots--they just needed time to adjust and feel the shot. On the course, feel players don't have the opportunity for a second try... I can't count the times that I have hit a shot badly, and then drop a ball and hit the next perfectly...

Method players picture the shot, focus on mechanics, routine---routine---routine... Out on the course they can pull shots off with higher consistency everytime. Obviously a the great players are groved mechs that can picture and feel a shot---lots of practise....

Earlier in this thread some said to get a pre shot routine---great advice. I go to a driving range to work on mechanics, routine, pre shot focus... change clubs very regularly...play a par five in my mind...driver...8 iron...pitching wedge...---you get the idea.

Hope that helps.

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SumoSid
"Moments of Greatness followed by Moments of horror."

My guess is you hit the ball great beforehand because youre not thinking about anything or having to hit to a target

Then when you play the target is real and smaller and you start thinking too much about what you were doing on the practice range and your swing gets mechanical - youre trying to place the club in certain positions rather than just swing it

The only thing I can suggest (and I know its hard) is to forget about score for a few months, just think about tempo and swinging. If you hit a bad one dont try and over analyse what you might have done wrong and start trying again to 'put' the club in certain positions as you swing. Relax and let it happen and keep working on those mechanical things in your practice

You may have to accept you will score badly for a few weeks (tell your mates your working on things your instructor is giving you -they'll all understand!) but over time you will learn to just trust that swinging motion when you play

Hard I know but I see so many people on the course parcticing what they think they should be doing and consumed with mechanics that they forget to actually swing the golf club !

Hi Paul,

I am straying a little from Dant's original post but thought I would mention this:

What you say about not thinking mechanics in the game is very good advice and the same as I would put to someone. It does not work totally for myself though, if I do not focus on closing the clubface in a full swing I will bring it through wide open, it has always been the same with me.

I have tried a stronger grip, more forearm rotation etc etc, If I don't set it firmly in my mind to close it every time I will either push the shot or in severe cases push slice it. Now I am someone who plays two or three times a week and practices at least three times a week, year in year out.

I guess what I am saying is that some people need to have some swing thoughts, what is important though is to come to terms with any weak points and work hard on what you can do about them.

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Best Regards
Brian

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Funny o'l game!

I think you should read Dr. Bob Rotella's book "Golf is not a game of perfect". He gives you a great feel for the mental side of the game.

Working on your game and swing on the range is one thing, but trying to remember all of that swing mechanics stuff while playing really adds confusion. Do you think when Michael Jordon shoots a free throw that he goes through all the thoughts on how to shoot the ball...no.

Rotella thinks the best approach is to focus on the target and that alone. I think it's a good idea. Try hitting a few shots with only thinking of the target, like a baseball pitcher looking at the catcher's glove as a target.

Read the book too. I read it in one afternoon and it's a great book.

Chessbum...

Brian, good point and I would guess most of us maybe have one swing thought but to have any more than that just leads to a jerky, slow, clumsy motion - not a athletic one. I try and feel something I am working on in a practice swing and then try and just trust it and keep everything balanced

You see guys stood over the ball for like 8 seconds, stood like statues and you can only imagine all the guff going through minds

Whats interesting about your situation though is how often you have done that release motion and its still not something you can just let go and trust on the course?

I've played a few horrible rounds and tried changing just about everything and more often than not it goes from bad to worse