Do you have a "catastrophic" miss?

[MtlJeff]

What i mean by the title, because everyone has misses.....Is that do you have a miss, that when it happens to you, it pretty much ruins your round and takes even a few more rounds and range sessions to get it out of your head?

 

For MtlJeff, 4-5 years ago i had a major problem with a very weak push. Essentially my clubface came through open for a variety of reasons and it just ruined golf for me. I went from a 0 to a ~4 index and started not qualifying for things and shooting 83's in our CC. My "fix" became playing such a big draw (basically going 180 degrees in the other direction) that it was impossible for me to even hit a fade let alone a weak block/push. I fixed it to the degree that i got back to 0 and even a slight plus at times. But my shot shape was so crazy even playing partners in tournaments were like "dude, you gotta tone down that draw a bit man".

 

So i did....And had a great 2020, and started this season with 10 consecutive rounds of 76 or better. Than on the range before my last round--Happened again. Just a couple of shots, not a big deal....The round went fine. But it's in my head again.

 

Do you guys have a miss that haunts you like this?

[MelloYello]

To be frank, no. 

 

Not since the days I took up the game with a gigantic slice have I had much trouble with big misses. I've always been a consistent fader off the tee which I think helps. From time to time I start to hit a slight draw which I immediately erase with some dedicated effort on the range.

 

I hit my irons relatively straight with a little draw. With those, it's more a question of whether I'm hitting it flush. Sometimes the longer irons can get a little clunky. 

 

Never anything catastrophic thank God. 

Edited May 27, 2021 by MelloYello

[Baitkiller]

The dreaded closed stance. I would swear on anything I'm lined up on path meanwhile blocking everything out into the car park. 

[farmer]

Drop-kick smother hook.

[Exactice808]

Slice off the planet (Into the next fairway or at a house......I cringe see it fly to a house and it haunts me each time I see a house on the right side....).  Lately being more "cognitive" of "MY Swing" rather than trying to manufacture a swing.  I found 3 errors in my "own" swing.

 

1) Wrist open and closure.  I was fighting all natural tendencies. I have been trying to maintain a square face intentionally. Thus never "released" and face never had time to catch up or close, blocks rights and slices off the planet.

 

2) Extra long back swing with too much wrist hinge (trying to get lag etc blah blah)  Stop hinging wrist any further than parallel/90* hinge.  This has been the hardest to break as its a bad move I have had for years.  This is the root cause of my 2 way miss,  not enough wrist hinge it goes way left, too much wrist hinge it goes way right. (trying to find the sweet spot)

 

3) Holy MOLY off balance.  I had No Idea until 2 weeks ago, I NEVER realized I could not hold my driver swing finish, I have been so far off balanced it was ridiculous.  I have worked really really hard to keep my whole swing in balance from start to finish these last 2 weeks.  This has really changed my over all swing.  The ball flights are way more predictable because I am not moving around so much just to keep stable through the swing.

 

 

So luckily when something is off, I pay attention to one of the 3 above. What do you know one of them is off. I correct it and things straighten out. 

 

Hopefully you can zero in on a creeping issues, fix it and go back to good golf!

[Mcgeeno]

Very rarely I hit the dreaded double cross.

 

Aim down the right side (Lefty golfer) and hit a big power hook over whatever trouble I was trying to fade it away from.

 

Its definitely catastrophic but its also very rare at least.

[SNIPERBBB]

This march I had the toe shanks so bad in pretty sure it was just the paint on the side of the driver was all that made contact with the ball. Immediately after two rounds of that I got a spornia golf net. Usually this just hits me once or twice a year but for two rounds it was almost every other shot.

[Hawkeye77]

I'll simply supply this quote from Lawrence Of Arabia as a hint to mine, "I don't want to be part of your big push!"

Edited May 27, 2021 by Hawkeye77

[scooterhd2]

Once in a while I will lose all ability to hit the driver. Usually starts on the range where every wedge is magic, every iron is crispy, the 5 wood is a work of art, and then the driver is a duck hook. Over and over again. I hit too many trying to just see one go straight. I've fought this different ways, some days just never pulling driver during the round. Other times choking up. But once it happens it has been seemingly impossible to get rid of and the round is frustrating. Although on these days I somehow manage to be a scratch iron player and shoot no worse than my normal score. People ask after the round, what did you shoot. And I say 78, and they are mystified. Like bro, you cant even get off the tee, how did you beat me? 

 

For a while the only fix was to get a new driver. Was a mental reset. Lately I have learned that moving the ball way back in my stance helps. Hit low sub optimal drives, but at least gets me in play. 

[dvq9654]

1 minute ago, scooterhd2 said:

Once in a while I will lose all ability to hit the driver. Usually starts on the range where every wedge is magic, every iron is crispy, the 5 wood is a work of art, and then the driver is a duck hook. Over and over again. I hit too many trying to just see one go straight. I've fought this different ways, some days just never pulling driver during the round. Other times choking up. But once it happens it has been seemingly impossible to get rid of and the round is frustrating. Although on these days I somehow manage to be a scratch iron player and shoot no worse than my normal score. People ask after the round, what did you shoot. And I say 78, and they are mystified. Like bro, you cant even get off the tee, how did you beat me? 

 

For a while the only fix was to get a new driver. Was a mental reset. Lately I have learned that moving the ball way back in my stance helps. Hit low sub optimal drives, but at least gets me in play. 

 

This is my exact issue (minus the buying new drivers - I'm too cheap for that). I will lose all ability to hit a driver and/or 3 wood off the tee, and it's generally a low, duck hook. I hate it, because the round turns into a scramble-fest and doesn't feel like golf. I can often manage to salvage a round cause I'm pretty darn good at scrambling, but it's just a terrible way to play golf. 

 

My driver has gotten better over time and hopefully I'll eradicate the depths of the issue as I continue to work on it, but imagine it will be with me for at least the near term. 

[glk]

No but I loved the third person.  

[Ty_Webb]

Yes.

 

I occasionally get stuck on the way down. It feels like if I release it it's going to start 40 yards left and snap hook - not good. So I don't release it and it goes high, starts 30 yards right and goes substantially further right. It's an awful feeling and when it hits it sucks. It's generally speaking only with driver that it happens and I have a few "tricks" to handle it. It's not clear which trick will work on a given day and so if I hit it once it's normally 3 or 4 holes of hell before I can get it on the planet again. 

[aramirez24]

18 minutes ago, scooterhd2 said:

Once in a while I will lose all ability to hit the driver. Usually starts on the range where every wedge is magic, every iron is crispy, the 5 wood is a work of art, and then the driver is a duck hook. Over and over again. I hit too many trying to just see one go straight. I've fought this different ways, some days just never pulling driver during the round. Other times choking up. But once it happens it has been seemingly impossible to get rid of and the round is frustrating. Although on these days I somehow manage to be a scratch iron player and shoot no worse than my normal score. People ask after the round, what did you shoot. And I say 78, and they are mystified. Like bro, you cant even get off the tee, how did you beat me? 

 

For a while the only fix was to get a new driver. Was a mental reset. Lately I have learned that moving the ball way back in my stance helps. Hit low sub optimal drives, but at least gets me in play. 

I felt this personally. One day I'll figure out the driver and take that big step forward. At least until something else pops up.. 

[RainShadow]

Dead straight pull with the driver.

Decelerating  in greenside bunkers.

 

[Barfolomew]

Coming out of Rona and then snapping my Achilles in October and getting surgery Ive got a nasty draw going on with my irons.....  Never had the prob before always could play a straight, fade or draw on demand.  But the fade seems like work now like I have to over cut it for a baby fade.  I play a square club face but might try an open club face like I do with driver but the idea bugs as prob a band aid and not a real solution lol.... life long game I figure it

[tehuti]

Occasionally I get to missing a lot of 3-5 foot putts. If I miss a couple it just gets in my head, and then I am done.

[MattM97]

I used to have an occasional slice with all my clubs but after some work on my irons I now only really have a slice with my wood and a potential huge pull with my irons. Usually both don't happen and it's not often except the driver slice which I just go to my 3W which I can usually hit much straighter more often but the irons part kills me sometimes on par 3s and approaches. I usually get the distance right I'm just often chipping from sand or thick rough and boom a 5 or 6 on a 3 appears. 

[cavemeister]

2 hours ago, Ty_Webb said:

Yes.

 

I occasionally get stuck on the way down. It feels like if I release it it's going to start 40 yards left and snap hook - not good. So I don't release it and it goes high, starts 30 yards right and goes substantially further right. It's an awful feeling and when it hits it sucks. It's generally speaking only with driver that it happens and I have a few "tricks" to handle it. It's not clear which trick will work on a given day and so if I hit it once it's normally 3 or 4 holes of hell before I can get it on the planet again. 

I have this one...

[North Butte]

3 hours ago, MtlJeff said:

What i mean by the title, because everyone has misses.....Is that do you have a miss, that when it happens to you, it pretty much ruins your round and takes even a few more rounds and range sessions to get it out of your head?

 

For MtlJeff, 4-5 years ago i had a major problem with a very weak push. Essentially my clubface came through open for a variety of reasons and it just ruined golf for me. I went from a 0 to a ~4 index and started not qualifying for things and shooting 83's in our CC. My "fix" became playing such a big draw (basically going 180 degrees in the other direction) that it was impossible for me to even hit a fade let alone a weak block/push. I fixed it to the degree that i got back to 0 and even a slight plus at times. But my shot shape was so crazy even playing partners in tournaments were like "dude, you gotta tone down that draw a bit man".

 

So i did....And had a great 2020, and started this season with 10 consecutive rounds of 76 or better. Than on the range before my last round--Happened again. Just a couple of shots, not a big deal....The round went fine. But it's in my head again.

 

Do you guys have a miss that haunts you like this?

The miss that haunts me isn't a "very weak push". It is a dead-solid blocked shot that goes a long, long way. At least as long as a normal good shot but on a straight line 30-40 yards offline. I make a really deep turn, load too much weight onto my back leg and then fling my arms on an extreme in-to-out path holding on so tightly that the clubface is blocked wide open.

 

I play on a course with fairly wide playing corridors. At least for short hitters like me it's wide enough to accommodate your normal mix of slicer and hookers. But it's not wide enough for hitting a 7-iron shot that goes 160 yards and 40 yards offline. 

 

I know how to fix it, when it bothers me badly enough I'll get out in the back yard and get after my swing drills every day for a few weeks. Maybe go see my teaching pro (who just tells me to get back to doing the same drills, basically). A month or so of hard work and it'll go from 6-8 shots a round down to maybe one. But unless I practice constantly, after few months it's right back there turning my 85's into 95's. 

 

What I really wish I knew is how I managed a few years ago to somehow program that into my swing DNA. Up until about 2014 or 2015 I don't recall ever hitting that shot in my life. It just showed up gradually and invaded my golf game like a virus.

[stingerfade]

Shanks 

[jamgam]

At least once a round I can top the hell out of a tee shot.  Never top from the fairway but on a tee box my brain goes nuts

[2bGood]

Yes - a massive slice. My typical shot is small-draw and my usual miss is left. 1/200 swings this big slice comes out, when you aim right and then hit it 70 yards right of that - WOW. 

[Fairways_and_Greens]

Wait, you mean to tell me there are non-catastrophic misses?

[596]

Green side bunker with a house, clubhouse or parking lot straight ahead.  I've hit the clubhouse twice from the green side bunker with a sculled sand shot.  It effects the shot everytime I'm in that bunker.

[betarhoalphadelta]

No... I have a catastrophic make, apparently.

 

You're talking about something that you do, which then sets the stage for completely forgetting how to hit a golf ball... That's my story.

 

So a couple rounds ago, I was playing a 9 hole exec course with my son. Was playing beautifully (actually made a personal record on that course that day). 9th hole, I ended up in a rough position having to play my 2nd on a par with a high enough trajectory to get over a tree that I had to hit SW and even then had to hope the 90% air theory was true, but at a distance (about 125) that was a BIG reach for SW so I knew I had to crush it. This was hitting over a hazard as well, so there was some treachery involved too. I was flirting with "hero shot" territory here. 

 

Blasted it! Slightly right of the green, but pin-high and gave myself a relatively easy up and down for par, which I converted.

 

My next round? Couldn't put the club face on the back of the ball to save my life. Literally a "should I quit golf?" sort of round. Round after that? Middling-to-bad contact all round. I was able to grind through it because that's a very short course, but there was some ugliness...

 

Hoping something starts to come back together on Sunday when I play again, because I'm losing confidence in my already limited abilities. 

[2bGood]

1 hour ago, Fairways_and_Greens said:

Wait, you mean to tell me there are non-catastrophic misses?

Surely you said this in jest,😀 but even good golf is pretty much all non-catastrophic misses, with the occasional proper shot.

 

 

 

[MonteScheinblum]

If I never blocked a drive more than 20 yards right of a fairway, I never would have had to learn to teach golf.

 

I now know why it happens, I know how to avoid it, I can avoid it on any individual swing....but bad habits prevail when I don’t practice regularly or when I lose focus during a round.....and both of those issues are omnipresent.....lol.

[MtlJeff]

5 hours ago, glk said:

No but I loved the third person.  

 

You sound like my ex after that frat party she went to!

[pinhigh27]

in a past life with a more right path, my buddies would joke I was good for one 70 yd miss right every round 

[MonteScheinblum]

5 minutes ago, pinhigh27 said:

in a past life with a more right path, my buddies would joke I was good for one 70 yd miss right every round 

We are brothers from another mother.