From a +2.4 to shooting 90s - Complete and total loss of my game this year

Last summer, I was playing the best golf of my life. I was a legit +2.4 handicap. Fast forward to this summer, I could barely shoot 85. I have no idea what happened, but it was a total collapse. I completely lost my game.

My swing was never pretty. I was blessed with good hands and rhythm. I could get the ball to do what I wanted, if I had feel and rhythm that day. I lost that and my game went down hard. I think I began to suffer from full swing yips. I began to be afraid to even make full swings because I literally had no idea where the ball was going. I was so frustrated playing that I literally quit. I didn’t want to play and I didn’t for over a month. I didn’t touch a club and I didn’t even think about golf. Then, I decided to rebuild.

I’m friends with some local pros. I decided to reach out to them and get help. I wanted to build a swing based on fundamentals and not timing. I’ve seriously started over like a beginner. New preshot routine, setup, grip, etc... I’ve been working really hard doing drills. Baby steps and attention to details. I understand that some things, like my vijay Singh stykevrught hand release, are just part of my golfing dna because I’ve been doing it that way for over 20 years.

It’s been an incredible journey. I broke last week for the first time probably 6 months, shot 75. I thought I’d cry. I’m not ready to show my before and after swings just yet...still working a few bad habits that still get me. I’m just encouraged to be able to tolerate playing again. I had seriously thought I was done for good.

Best of luck. I've had that little thought wayyy back in my brain that this could happen to me.

If you're for real, a +2 to then barely breaking 85, then no s**t no one gets out of here alive. Might as well take up bowling...

I'm not buying it. You're better than that.

Wow, what a story! Sounds painful to me... I'm glad you're moving back in a better direction. Golf is such an elusive thing, it just is. It can't just be controlled altogether yet we also do learn to play...

I never have been anywhere near as good as where you performed - 7 seems so far to be about my standing index. But one thing I have learned is a decent match between my feels, my motion and my beliefs about how my swing should work. From reading your post, it sounds like you had great feel but that the 'idea' of your swing wasn't there - that's the thing I rely on when my feel/rhythm/timing vanish. It would not surprise me if you returned to a high level of play after this process. Great hands and rhythm are great assets. My guess is it will take a little while because internalizing new feels and grasping how things fit together in a different pattern ... takes a while.

I feel for you OP. Stay tough. This story proves how much this game is between the ears. You didn’t have a physical injury. You’ve had several mental injuries that are blocking the path now. Smart in my opinion to start from scratch and make a new path around that scar tissue. I don’t know you. But If i were you I’d Chanel that anger. Every bad shot , get more determined. You know you can get back. You didn’t lose the ability. Just the confidence. That can be earned again.

Wow. +2.4 is seriously competent golf. So much so that I would consider a +2 shooting 13 over par a FAR more serious problem than a 10 cap shooting 25 over, especially if consistently this bad.

I think there are golfers out there that shoot better than their swing suggest simply because they just have it between the ears. You once knew how to consistently get the ball from tee to fairway to green and then in the hole. Seek some mental coaching first and foremost. Then at the same time a good coach that can help simplify the mechanics as much as possible.

You have an advantage that most of us don't in that you know you can do it because you have done it before.

Reading this makes me wish I didn't. It's like listening to someone tell me about their panic attack and I start thinking about having one or watching Rick Ankiel sail multiple pitches to the backstop and then someone hand me a baseball with 40K standing around me.

Fix your swing, huge fluctuation means mechanically you probably weren't great to begin with

Great to hear you're on your way back to good golf!

How strange to completely lose your game like that, hopefully a winter of hard work and you'll start putting some good scores together again

Not surprised to hear of this type of tale, never seen a 70's shooter with poor rhythm & tempo. Never seen an 80's with rock solid one. Played with perhaps a dozen guys who break 80 on a bad day. The one constant to them all is solid R&T and it's with every club. Why I personally fail to cement this lesson, I'll spare you my indulgence.

Been through that a bunch cause I'm prone to injury... Then you try and come back after a bunch of months off and the par golf I usually play aint there. One thing I can lean on is the fact that I completely built my swing so I just go back into rebuild mode all over again when it happens. I have some main swing ideas I really like now so can just rebuild off of them. Just be patient but 100% confident that you can be even better then before...

I'm very curious what your main miss/flaw was once things went wayward.

I have been going through this over this season. 2-3 seasons ago, I was typically between even and maybe 4 over every time I teed it up hovering around scratch and sometimes plus. This season I’ve gone completely brain dead and rapidly approaching a 4. Shooting 75 takes everything I’ve got these days. Not sure what the deal is, but my plan is to take a few lessons, write this season off, and come back and get it next year.

Happened to me about 9 years ago. Took a while to diagnose, thankfully for you, instruction has improved dramatically. I basically got underneath/stuck after having a very rotational delivery for years. While it sucks that it destroyed my game, I’m better now than I ever was, have a much better understanding of the swing, etc.

Sorry to hear that happened - sounds like you've got some things figured out and on the way back, probably stronger than ever!

Same here. Some how I've contracted the over swing syndrome that I can't get rid off.

If it were me, and I'm serious, barring any kind of personal issues (divorce, job problems, money problems, drug/alcohol problems) I think I'd go see a neurologist to make sure something isn't going on in my brain.

I think the only way to lose feel and rhythm is to become analytical and start thinking about swing and positions, basically taking the athleticism out of the swing. That, in my opinion, is disastrous if you want to play golf at a high level.

Sounds like you are on your way back, best of luck.

Kinda skeptical, a +2.5 should have some serious short game... u forget how to chip and putt too?

I’m worried I played bad this year because I listened to all that advice you posted in the instruction forum last year.

Just kidding, I feel for you and have been there. It will take some work, just need to re-wire some pathways in the brain with positive mental strategies, and you also really need to engrain a shot you can absolutely rely on so you can be sure you’ll get around the course in a decent number. You’ve been there before, you can get back.

> @Red4282 said:

> Kinda skeptical, a +2.5 should have some serious short game... u forget how to chip and putt too?

Remember when Tiger forgot how to chip?

It happens, hell I made a thread on here years ago about totally losing it, + side to firing off 80’s-90’s and just straight up losing it all.

Smylie, is that you?

I'm afraid to even read this lol. Well but it sounds like you are on the way to be an even better golfer since better mechanics matched with your hand eye coordination gifts should mean greater things and lower scores!

> @"Oz Max" said:

> Smylie, is that you?

Yeah for any skeptic how wayward things can go, we have Smylie. PGA tour winner (+7 or better) to struggling to break 80.

> @Krt22 said:

> > @"Oz Max" said:

> > Smylie, is that you?

>

> Yeah for any skeptic how wayward things can go, we have Smylie. PGA tour winner (+7 or better) to struggling to break 80.

>

For that to be true, you either gotta have a complete mental breakdown, just dont care or there just wasnt a solid foundation with the golf game and the great golf was a flash in the pan.

> @fore_life said:

> > @Red4282 said:

> > Kinda skeptical, a +2.5 should have some serious short game... u forget how to chip and putt too?

>

>

> Remember when Tiger forgot how to chip?

>

> It happens, **** I made a thread on here years ago about totally losing it, + side to firing off 80’s-90’s and just straight up losing it all.

>

Tiger was a headcase and his golf game decline was completely mental, and caused by his outside golf craziness. I can see playing bad and shooting a round or two in the 80s but suddenly unable to break 90? I just dont understand. Are you now shanking it?

> @Red4282 said:

> > @Krt22 said:

> > > @"Oz Max" said:

> > > Smylie, is that you?

> >

> > Yeah for any skeptic how wayward things can go, we have Smylie. PGA tour winner (+7 or better) to struggling to break 80.

> >

>

> For that to be true, you either gotta have a complete mental breakdown, just dont care or there just wasnt a solid foundation with the golf game and the great golf was a flash in the pan.

>

I’m sorry. But I have to break in here.

This game is sooooo layered with skill , circumstance and mental acuity. Sure. A complete mental breakdown might be an ok description.... but it’s not in the way I think you mean. It’s not an outwardly visible tantrum , or fit. It’s just a loss of focus to the point of no longer caring. Or not having the ability to care or regain enough focus to slow down and score again.

I myself enjoyed a tournament low of 65 two christmases ago in a small club event. Then followed that with a nice 92 in the opening round of the county AM the next spring. And i felt good going in. then Went 79 75 the next two days. And I’m currently pushing for a scoring average under par. I’m not a guy you’d watch hit balls and think could shoot 92 if a truck hit me before the round. But I’ve had it happen each year since then at least once in real comp. it’s an out of body experience , and if you haven’t experienced it. Count your blessings. I was told the same “ if you 3 putt that much you can’t have a solid stroke “. And “ you must be a vanity cap “ is my personal favorite.

At any rate all those nuggets of wisdom are bullshat. It can happen to anyone.

> @Red4282 said:

> Kinda skeptical, a +2.5 should have some serious short game... u forget how to chip and putt too?

Common Fallacy, chipping and putting can't save everything. When your misses get wider and wider, when all penalty areas on the course are suddenly 'in play', you're no longer scrambling to save par. You're marking your ball, reading the putt and making downhill 8-footers for double after a penalty stroke. Speaking on behalf of a Friend.

I can certainly see this.

Our club champ's swing makes no sense to me yet he's fairly consistent with it and made it to the PubLinks championship at Bandon Dunes a few years ago. Almost every shot he bounces the club into the ball even with driver. Wouldn't take much to turn him into a 15 cap if he got a bit out of sync.

> @bladehunter said:

> > @Red4282 said:

> > > @Krt22 said:

> > > > @"Oz Max" said:

> > > > Smylie, is that you?

> > >

> > > Yeah for any skeptic how wayward things can go, we have Smylie. PGA tour winner (+7 or better) to struggling to break 80.

> > >

> >

> > For that to be true, you either gotta have a complete mental breakdown, just dont care or there just wasnt a solid foundation with the golf game and the great golf was a flash in the pan.

> >

>

>

> I’m sorry. But I have to break in here.

>

>

> This game is sooooo layered with skill , circumstance and mental acuity. Sure. A complete mental breakdown might be an ok description.... but it’s not in the way I think you mean. It’s not an outwardly visible tantrum , or fit. It’s just a loss of focus to the point of no longer caring. Or not having the ability to care or regain enough focus to slow down and score again.

>

> I myself enjoyed a tournament low of 65 two christmases ago in a small club event. Then followed that with a nice 92 in the opening round of the county AM the next spring. And i felt good going in. then Went 79 75 the next two days. And I’m currently pushing for a scoring average under par. I’m not a guy you’d watch hit balls and think could shoot 92 if a truck hit me before the round. But I’ve had it happen each year since then at least once in real comp. it’s an out of body experience , and if you haven’t experienced it. Count your blessings. I was told the same “ if you 3 putt that much you can’t have a solid stroke “. And “ you must be a vanity cap “ is my personal favorite.

> At any rate all those nuggets of wisdom are bullshat. It can happen to anyone.

>

Thats completely different from whats being described here. You had a bad day or two, but rebounded with respectable scores. Unable to BREAK 90 suddenly is what OP and myself are referring to.