From 2015-most of 2018 I played from a .2 to a +2.4 handicap. 15 - 17 most was spent as a plus, 2018 (When I joined a club) my handicap started to go up, and by the time I realized why, the bad move had become ingrained. I have ballooned all the way up to a 4.2 now and I am questioning joining a private club, where I think my mistakes from a bad practice routine, became ingrained. So, I am here to kind of layout my crossroads, and build my game back up from the ground.

My background, College golfer, have held 4 course records, one that will never be broken (course is closed). Since college where my strength was driving and putting, my game has evolved, and my strengths had become my iron game in 2015-2018. I was a streaky putter, and a long but average driver of the golf ball. I was hitting just a little over 13 out of 18 greens per round during this time.

How it started....and what it is...

1. Bad practice habits. Not working on anything or paying attention.

2. Reverse pivot, super low ball flight, and a two-way miss. <--- a two-way big miss is horribly detrimental to scoring, could be 30 yards right or 30 yards left.

3. huge divots, I mean big enough to lie down in

4. left hand grip too strong, wrist had started aching from grip and huge divots

5. I have been putting my tee shot into trouble (water, OB, blocked out by trees) 5.6 times per round. I have been only hitting 5.7 greens per round

How to fix.....

1. I have spent a CR@PLOAD of time on my short game. My putting and chipping is getting really good (switching my lob wedge to a low bounce version opened up different shots). I understand how to work with the bounce of my wedges instead of against them. This took time and using a video from Monte as reference for my work. Fixed my putting, understand my open stance, SBST type of stroke and went to a mallet putter. I HATE this, I have never putted with anything other than an Anser style for my whole life. However, the stats don't lie, and my putting has become a strength. I now feel like I can get up and down from anywhere within ten yards of the green.

2. Weakened my left-hand grip, this has helped with shallowing out my swing, and getting to less of a two-way miss, should also help my aching left wrist. My two way miss before was 30 yards right and then 30 yards left.

3. Worked to determine where my weight should shift, how it feels and how it looks.

4. Built into my practice visual cues on where my positions should be. I now have these on how I turn away from the ball and how my weight should shift.

5. Have a Duval/DJ type of move. Really strong grip and shut at the top and using big muscles and a hinge to square my clubface, do not like really rolling my wrist. I prefer to play a cut with everything but could draw irons and 3 wood.

6. This if GolfWRX, so of course I replaced every club in my bag, well my 3 woods aren't going anywhere, but everything else.

I started working on weight shift by turning back and lifting my left foot/heel off the ground. I had to exaggerate this move somewhat the first 2 practice sessions. Now this is where it gets tricky, as your body learns these new feelings, what felt foreign at first starts to feel more normal and you get back to where I was with going too far in the wrong direction. So, in conjunction with my video camera on my phone, and bookmarking my best swing with short, mid, long irons and fairway and Driver I now know where my alignment should be, where my ball position should be, and where my weight/shoulders and club position should be.

It is a LOONNNNNGGGGGG road back, but I am seeing progress on the range and course so far. My last 6 rounds before starting this work have been…..84, 82, 81, 79, 82, 84. Only one 9 hole round in the 30’s and it was all smoke and mirrors, with great short game play. Since my first four practice sessions my first four 9 hole rounds have been….40, 39, 36, 38. I still have a slight two-way miss, and my grip is still strong with both hands, but I am moving in the right direction with a 10 yards left to 20 yards right miss. I have cut my miss margin by 30 yards from when I started. I also am well versed in understanding that four 9 hole rounds does not make a trend, so I have to stay vigilant.

Anyone else here have a huge failure in their game, and then work hard to get it back? How did you do it? Am I going about this completely wrong? Sure I could see a pro, I only trust one, and he lives 6 hours away. I am starting to trust our teaching Pro at my club, but he is booked solid, he has given me some good feedback though, so I may try to get in on some time with him, but honestly, I've never really had a "teacher" and am almost a completely feel type of player.

as a +2.8 at one point you should know what your routine was before? I feel this is a mental block if anything. You know what it takes to score, maybe you arr thinking way too deep into the technical portion of your swing and how bad practice is effecting you. I feel like the practice is still helping you with the feels maybe you don't have intention with your practice but my guess is just having the club in your hand and watching the ball react is still helping.

I would start simple and work on sequence or rhythm. See if that helps with anything

Obviously if your completely lost then it would be best to have another set of trained eyes

Keep grinding and stay positive!

I am sure about two things,

1. I was a +2.8 and really didn't practice much. I would hit balls two or three times a month outside of warming up and play two or three times a week. This was all a product of my big muscle only swing.

2. Then I started hitting it lower and was reverse pivoting horribly and had a two way miss. I was lost until my GM, a buddy that is a +2 and our teaching pro all confirmed it.

Rhythm and timing are always big parts of my playing, but even on swings that were in rhythm I was still hitting the ball way too low and when out of rhythm I hit it in both directions, where as before out of rhythm was either straight or whatever shot I was trying to hit. Straight and draw to hook or straight and fade to cut. When it was bad, out of rhythm shots trying to cut I could hit a 20+ yard draw.

I had two separate good players tell me I was doing to reverse pivot boogie, then asked our teaching pro to tell me how bad it was, so I know I was doing it. I never get mad or show a pile of emotion on the golf course, but it has been hard when I was shooting 69-75 consistently to now shooting 78-84 consistently. I feel like I have started down the correct path. My rhythm was horrible yesterday and I shot 38 and only hit one really good shot. My misses weren't missing by 40+ yards and I was pin high on every clear iron shot (except on 18, hitting out of a fairway bunker and in between clubs. Caught it perfect and wind started howling behind me as I hit and I sailed the green). I really am feeling better, I even skipped my groups trip down to Kiva, FL due to how bad I was playing and how much betting they do down there.

I will tell two stories. My buddy first

He's been a solid 2 in the past and lost his swing. Very steep. Very strong grip. LOW LOW ball flight. Wicked short game. Philly Mick lob wedge game machine with a Crenshaw like stroke

Got one lesson last year that changed his life. Teaching pro from at my club, ex Euro tour player with 5 majors under his belt, told him to work on hip rotation back and firing thru the shot. He picked up 25 yards with each iron and 40 yards with his driver in 4 weeks. A major swing flaw had crept in

Rule that out with a top pro

Driveandputt machine, your story resonates with me. Very similar to my story

Putting and driving always my strengths.

How old are you and how many years ago was college golf?

Thanks for sharing and good luck on your way back!!! I have seen guys who play a cut getting a little lost if path continues to steepen over the years. Golf is the best because we all have a unique journey.

43 currently, college golf was 22+ years ago.

Well after hearing my GM and good friend that is a + both tell me I was reverse pivoting I videoed my swing and, yep. It was bad. Then our teaching pro had just finished up a lesson and I asked him for a quick look to tell me how bad it was. He actually laughed. He said after one swing....."Let me guess, you are hitting it very low, and bad shots are producing a two way miss. Bad enough with your driver that two bad swings one could go 30 left and the next could go 30 right?" I almost cried and said, yeah, that pretty much sums it up. He got me into a better position at the top of my swing, took some pictures and at impact and took some pictures. I am working on getting into those positions more frequently. Then learning how to take those and apply 3/4 and three finger shots, knock downs and the like will come later.> @cardoustie said:

> Driveandputt machine, your story resonates with me. Very similar to my story

> Putting and driving always my strengths.

> How old are you and how many years ago was college golf?

I am 51 and played successful college golf at ages 23-25. So my dream college golf year was 27 years ago

My cap has eroded slowly over the years from a tourney scratch to a guy that can shoot 68 to 84. I could be a 1.8 mid season or a 5.5 early or late. Now a lot of my fluctuating is due to the severity of the home track. I have a second home course this year which is more "playable" so that should be interesting

I got too steep.

Starting changing it and got way more consistent

What I did:

Had to get way shallower and rotational on partial shots.

Had to learn to only miss left with the driver and never right.

Have learned to fade a tee ball with a 3w and a driver if I have to on certain holes

Added a couple of hybrids. Some days a seven wood.

Worked my buns off to find 3 woods I could hit off the deck and off the tee

Learned to sync my arm swing better with my body turn (keep the club in front of me as they say)

Way more practice with wedges. Half shots and pitches.

Way less practice on what I am solid at ... driving and sand play and putting

May not relate to you but really focused in on iron specs. Swingweight, lie angle, length, # of wraps etc etc. (I lengthened my short irons which made a huge difference). Also moved to graphite so save the elbows and hands

It sounds like you are on top of it. I am in the same boat. Breaking down my swing into little tiny pieces . Writing everything down. Got tired of Having it one week and then the next do not.

I am at the point where 1. I feel I am my best coach. 2. I need to know exactly what causes this and then causes that. 3. Once I am trending down and know how I got there , then I will include my swing coach. If he wants to go another direction I will either tell him no or just listen to his advice and try to add it in to my current routine. Coaches forget what they teach you anyway because they don’t take notes and they teach so many people. You have to remember .

I think you are on a good path, keep it up, I read your post and it is intelligent. Only you know you. Add the coach later on , but remember what got you there before his advice. It’s like gathering rare coins, you have all the coins you’ve had, that coach might have 1 or 2 new ones to put in your collection.

Best of luck to you! You got this!

A couple more tidbits.....

My home track is brutally tough, the GSGA loves to hold amateur events there. I believe we have had more events there than any other club in Georgia. MY handicap travels VERY well, as does everyone from my club. 7108 and 75/141 from the tips and 6574 72.8/135 from the next box up. There are only 6 approach shots where you are level with the green, and you might still be on an up slope or down slope or side slope. There are some severe slopes on and around the greens and our greens run as fast as East Lakes do. Funny story, the Srixon tour rep is a member at our club and had Rocco Mediate out last year to hit some clubs and balls. One of our members won the Georgia Senior am and finished second in the GA senior open and knew Rocco a bit. Upon asking Rocco what he thought of the course and greens Rocco said that other than the majority of US Opens, our greens were faster than anything he played on tour. Now, I understand the Senior tour events greens may very well be slower than most PGA events, but it was still cool.

Back to my problems.....Well, I have toyed around with bag setups and the like. I think I am settled on everything and their settings. I play my short irons longer in length, to about where my 7 iron is about "standard", and everything else above it is shorter. Basically I play roughly 1/4 increments through the bag off of the 7 iron. I put lead tape on my irons until they feel "right", I don't pay attention to the swingweights when building (within reason) and couldn't care less except as a reference point after they feel good. I have my own mitchell bending machine, shaft puller and the like so I definitely pay attention to my clubs specs.

As much as I hate to say it, I think the Tour 65 shaft in my Ping is the best fit I am gonna find. 3 wood and 5 wood are UST Mamiya Black models, my 2 iron has a recoil in it, and my hybrid has a tour shaft in it (can't remember the weight) Irons I am playing the KBS tours through my wedges.

Any updates on your game?

Where in East Cobb are? I am there as well.

I went through something very similar. About 2 years ago I bottomed out and went looking for some answers. I started a rebuild about 1.5 years ago and seem to have found some consistany again. A lot of it is coming to the self realization that things are bad, usually you need to hit rock bottom with your game. Also, gettign old and having kids doesn't work well for your golf game. When you play, or practice, 3-4 days a week, you can work on a lot and figure things out. When there are big gaps in play, bad things creep in and you just want to get out an play.

Went thru this and still dealing with a bit of residual on the wedges. There is nothing more frustrating in golf than knowing what "I used to do" and having to work like a ditch digger to get some form of it back. Like Obee said, "you've got this".

The good......

my wrist issues seem to be solved, minor surgery and going away from monster grips have helped there. I think this was a major part of my problem.

The bad......

i haven't played or practiced much since November, only one round and one range session after surgery. i went to Scottsdale for the WMPO and played three rounds. I had 3 good nine holes out of 6, unfortunately, I am not sure if the bad nines were from rust(understandable due to lack of play), hangovers(it was during the WMPO), or just bad golf.still inhabiting my body. Also there was the fact I hit driver on every non par 3 hole, and if I was playing a standard for score round I would have hit driver maybe 6 times each round.

i feel my rounds there were from rust, getting over wrist issue, hangovers, and having played only one round with new irons. I made some really good swings and finally started to figure out my distances with the new irons.

I live near Lassiter high school. Currently a member at two clubs, but considering my wife nor kids have any interest in playing the harder course, and it is much farther away from work I will probably drop it. I will stay on at Indian Hills.

I think if you were a good player in the past, have good action, and know what you are doing wrong, generally those type of players can get back to playing good golf again in short time. They can be generally a few good mental thoughts and/or minor changes from playing good golf again. Golf is so fickle and humbling though, you always have to stay on top of it. I'm going through something similar, but from an arm injury. In the process of trying to back, but game is starting to trend in the right direction.

It is funny the OP says he hates using a mallet. Lol. I am a traditionalist as well and had to revert to the claw grip because of the yips last few years. Absolutely hate the grip, but only grip I can put decently with. Putted my best with left-hand low grip in the past, but can't hit putts even remotely close to hole with that grip anymore. Arrgghh. Lol.

Well, well, well. I am not back, but I actually hit the ball like I am not completely lost. 1 over par 73, even on the par 3's, 4.3 on the par 4's, and 4.5 on the par 5's. 31 putts, 61% GIR and 72% FIR. Only hit one really bad drive, I have mostly cured my alignment issues (which technically should be the easiest thing to fix), alignment issues mainly caused my reverse pivot. The one bad drive was bad alignment that caused a reverse pivot.

Am I cured? Hell no! I have to work and work, but at least my wrist isn't hurting, I am hitting the ball on the planet with the driver, and hitting greens again. Of course my putting wasn't great, because well, I have been working so hard on the full swing, but as it gets back I can work on my putting/chipping/pitching a little bit more.

To top it off joining a new club has made my wife happy. My old club was great for me, but the course was HARD. She couldn't even play it as a beginner, and my oldest son had issues because of the difficulty too. New club is much more family friendly as well which she loves, the last club was friendly, but was more of a golf club rather than a country club. I haven't met many of the good golfers yet, but I have met a bunch of fun golfers.