Why do I suck @ golf for 1/6 of my round?

Boba · June 22, 2006

Mental? Swing plane? Nerves? WTF?

I know it might have something to do with the mushy stuff between my ears. But seriously I am pretty solid but I could be awesome. I play to a +.8 at an easy local track, If I played more at a "real" course I would be around a 2 or a 3. I have had some funny rounds lately where I will make 4-5 birds but I will blow up on some holes when I play like a total hack & make a couple big #'s or I will get on a bogey train & cant get off. I try to think positive, focus on the target, play safe shots but a blocked drive, a punch shot to the green side rough, an average pitch to 4 feet & a high side lipout usually makes for a 5 every time. I hate 5's. This monday I was 2 under after 12 with 4 birds on the card, then six holes & 5 bogies later the card says +3. Sunday I was seven over going into 14 (2 dubs, 3 bogies) then POW! 3 birds Salvaging A +4. Even my best round had some funk in it. -5 with three eagles, three birdies & 4 bogies. So What gives? I Talk to my swing coach about the blow ups & he says when my swing goes south I shut the face, get steep & pound the club into the ground which causes more spin than I can control. So I know how to hit it good & you shouldn't play with me in a skins game, but I suck in medal play because of my big #'s. How does faldo go & make 18 pars in a row? No cliche's please, I know em all.
:friends:

Ducky · June 22, 2006

How does he make 18 pars in a row? Obviously it is consistancy. How does he achieve consistancy? A lot of repetition.

I remember reading in an article somewhere that when he was in his prime he would hit anywhere from 3000-6000 balls a day. Of course, this figure could be incorrect as I can't find the source.

What is your practice routine like?

Boba · June 22, 2006

Between playing 2-3 times a week & practicing the days I don't play, including shortgame practice. I would say around 2,400 a week. That is more than anyone else I have ever come across. I already have back pain 6,000 is more than I can handle.

villa · June 22, 2006

It is a cliche but it is all about repetition.

Next time you're practicing work on a pre shot routine. Nothing complicated, just something you can do everytime you stand over a shot. Trust me it works and if you listen to any of the top teachers or pro's they'll say exactly the same. This will help you calm down when you get too excited and it'll give you the confidence you need if you've just made a bogey.

The majority of the game is played between the ears and this is a good way of erasing any doubts.

I heard a quote from one of the top players on tour that it's like a pitcher in baseball. They decide what they want to do, they get set up and they fire. The golf routine doesn't need to be any more complicated than this. We take a bit more time deciding what we want to do taking into consideration distance, lie, wind, shape, club etc but once we've decided we can feel the shot with our practice swings we just setup and fire.

You can obviously play so just work on it and gain confidence in it. Good luck mate.

Boba · June 22, 2006

It is a cliche but it is all about repetition.

Next time you're practicing work on a pre shot routine. Nothing complicated, just something you can do everytime you stand over a shot. Trust me it works and if you listen to any of the top teachers or pro's they'll say exactly the same. This will help you calm down when you get too excited and it'll give you the confidence you need if you've just made a bogey.

The majority of the game is played between the ears and this is a good way of erasing any doubts.

I heard a quote from one of the top players on tour that it's like a pitcher in baseball. They decide what they want to do, they get set up and they fire. The golf routine doesn't need to be any more complicated than this. We take a bit more time deciding what we want to do taking into consideration distance, lie, wind, shape, club etc but once we've decided we can feel the shot with our practice swings we just setup and fire.

You can obviously play so just work on it and gain confidence in it. Good luck mate.

Thanks for the reminder. I have played some great (low bogey count) rounds actually pretending to hit a shot & visualize my ball holing out. Then stepping up and hit the same shot I just "hit", a mental mulligan of sorts. Dave Pelz just published an article in golf magazine with the same concept. I knew I was on to something 3 years ago. I have a tournament this weekend & I will put that to use until I get a slow play violation. Thanks villa.

Liger · June 22, 2006

Your visualization and focusing on the target is great---keep that up. Your problem is that you are expecting to blow up on a few holes now, so as long as you think that way, you will continue to blow up on a few holes every round you play, and I don't care if you hit 6000 balls per week, you keep that garbage in your head, you own it and will act on it.

You want to get better? Read this carefully... right now you don't believe you can shoot par or under every time you play. You believe you will throw up a few times a round and play the rest well. Change your thinking. Fast. Secondly, don't mess with your swing. You have a great swing that works great. Hit no more than 25 balls per day, two per club at two different targets and simulate game time conditions with your focus on the target only. That's what Jack did.

Beating balls is USELESS at the stage you are currently playing on. Go to the practice green and hit all the putts and chips and pitches you want. Get AWESOME from 6 feet. Don't F with your swing, change your thinking. And lastly, you are not spending enough time planning for how to play your round and then sticking to the plan. Don't be like Phil on 18 and get stupid. Make a plan and stick to it. You really are way better than you are currently. Trust yourself and let go of results. Plan, focus on the target and make pars. The birdies will come. Keep me posted on your progress.

Johnny · June 22, 2006

Between playing 2-3 times a week & practicing the days I don't play, including shortgame practice. I would say around 2,400 a week. That is more than anyone else I have ever come across. I already have back pain 6,000 is more than I can handle.

Wow that is alot... compared to me. I'm guilty of the samething... 3-4 holes of bogey/bogey+ golf and then back to pars and an occasional birdie. I blame my sore wrist..waiting for new heads and then I'm going graphite in most of my irons (except for wedges).

Boba · June 22, 2006

keep it coming guys, In regards to "right now you don't believe you can shoot par or under every time you play." I do but if I have a bad start & get 3 over through 3, I have a lot of work to get back to even. When I don't care anymore on the last 5 or so holes is when the birds usually come. The rounds in which I get to a good start are the rounds when I have lower scores.

"You believe you will throw up a few times a round and play the rest well." I believe as did jack that every round has some bad & good in it. If my birdies out race by bogie/s then I will have a very solid round. But you are right. Pia Nilsson talks about "54 vision". I definitely don't have 54 vision unless the course is around 6,300 yards.

2,400 balls a week is an estimate. I allow for 75 shots a round +/_ 10 (hey what are you laughing at, adam scott shots an 80 once in a while :friends: ), about 250 shots in a shortgame area, about 100 full swing shots & another 100 on the putting green(50 wheels of death from 3 to 6 feet and finally 50 working on lagging) Not 2,400 full swings a week that is loco.

jmc · June 23, 2006

Your visualization and focusing on the target is great---keep that up. Your problem is that you are expecting to blow up on a few holes now, so as long as you think that way, you will continue to blow up on a few holes every round you play, and I don't care if you hit 6000 balls per week, you keep that garbage in your head, you own it and will act on it.
You want to get better? Read this carefully... right now you don't believe you can shoot par or under every time you play. You believe you will throw up a few times a round and play the rest well. Change your thinking. Fast. Secondly, don't mess with your swing. You have a great swing that works great. Hit no more than 25 balls per day, two per club at two different targets and simulate game time conditions with your focus on the target only. That's what Jack did.
Beating balls is USELESS at the stage you are currently playing on. Go to the practice green and hit all the putts and chips and pitches you want. Get AWESOME from 6 feet. Don't F with your swing, change your thinking. And lastly, you are not spending enough time planning for how to play your round and then sticking to the plan. Don't be like Phil on 18 and get stupid. Make a plan and stick to it. You really are way better than you are currently. Trust yourself and let go of results. Plan, focus on the target and make pars. The birdies will come. Keep me posted on your progress.

DAD? Is that you? I kinda just got a shiver.

It's really hard for me to disagree with this line of thinking. I honestly believe that people who are afraid to be stung by bees are more prone to get stung. Why? Because they believe they will? Regardless of the philosophy...

Some of the best rounds I've ever played have been when I screwed the pooch bad on the first few holes. The reason why, I believe, is because I just become a more instinctual golfer. I don't try to get cutesy with shots. Instead, I think, I waggle, I hit. I don't sit there and think of the most imaginative shot ever. I play to where I most likely will miss the ball and then hit to that part of the fairway/green. I lost 4 balls last week and shot a 79. Go figure. I was done after I lost 2 balls on the 2nd hole. What happened? I started shooting lights out and making birdies out of nowhere. Why? Because I no longer feared what the worst shots would be. I already took a snowman, I knew it couldn't get any worse.

My big problem is my short game. So the advice to practice chipping/pitching/putting is the best advice. You can bomb it, and you can make it close to the green, but that's where the real difference is. Can you get up and down? Can you get yourself down in 2 from 45 feet?

This is great advice Liger... I'm gonna print that out and put it on the wall by my bag...

littlepoison · June 25, 2006

THIS IS A THREAD THAT EVERYONE SHOULD READ AND INTERNALIZE!!!

There is some unbelieveably sound advice in here :yahoo:

Boba · June 26, 2006

Crap I did it again. Played in a tournament today started off with a bogey, several holes later I make a bird to get it back to even then nothing but pars until the 13th hole where I sucked it back off a slope to have 60 feet for birdie. Made it. I'm going to 14 with momentum thinking that I can kick some @$$ & maybe make some gift certificate $$$ :yahoo: . Off the tee the hole is about 400 yards with an elevated green & playing about 430. There are some tall trees to the right of the green, so I decide to lay up so I don't get too close to the trees & have to flop an eight iron 130 feet in the air. I catch a 3 iron a little on the toe so I have 210 in, a normal 3 iron flies 220, a nuked 3 carries 230. I figure I will hit it at the last tree on the right & let the wind bring it back to the flag. I hit it pure, solid compression It starts @ my tree & works back to the flag. perfect execution. My playing partner says "Uh. that's the wrong green." "Our green is over there behind that big bush to the right." :yahoo: I had just stuffed a 3 Iron to 6 feet & now I have 180 yards into the wind. Using my Trigonometry skills of looking back down the fairway & figuring the 150 marker makes a perfect isosceles triangle with me & the pin. I choke down on a 7 iron to keep it out of the wind &... Short. perfect stinging 6 irons go 180 with no wind, 7 iron as you can imagine didn't quite get there. I pitch it past the pin & hit what felt like 50 putts I make a nice Quad & slaughter my round. I still suck.

RagingAardvark · June 26, 2006

Pia Nilsson talks about "54 vision" (birdie all par 4's & 3's and eagle par 5's) I definitely don't have 54 vision unless the course is around 6,300 yards.

Actually, Vision54 is that you can birdie every hole. On a standard par-72 with 2 par5s per side, eagling both of those and birdieing the 3s and 4s would net you a 50. 54 is just 72-18(birdie on each hole).

Anyway, golf is probably the most mental game I've ever played. OK, bike racing has a big mental side, but NOTHING like this. I like all the advice up above. Funnily enough, I seem to play my best golf (best striking rounds anyway) with my wife. Why? Because I am so relaxed. She used the analogy of having a mule to hang around a race horse. It keeps him calm and he stops freaking out, wasting energy and doing dumb things (no, I don't hink I'ma race horse!) :yahoo: Anyway, visualization is a very powerful tool. Be sure to use it. Oh, and also, it's ok to screw up, but you have to be able to just shrug it off and move on.

oldgoalie · June 26, 2006

keep it coming guys, In regards to "right now you don't believe you can shoot par or under every time you play." I do but if I have a bad start & get 3 over through 3, I have a lot of work to get back to even. When I don't care anymore on the last 5 or so holes is when the birds usually come. The rounds in which I get to a good start are the rounds when I have lower scores.
"You believe you will throw up a few times a round and play the rest well." I believe as did jack that every round has some bad & good in it. If my birdies out race by bogie/s then I will have a very solid round. But you are right. Pia Nilsson talks about "54 vision" (birdie all par 4's & 3's and eagle par 5's) I definitely don't have 54 vision unless the course is around 6,300 yards.

It sounds to me like you have a hard time grinding it out when things go against you. Maybe it is too much focus on what you are going to shoot for the round and too little focus on the holes ahead of you.

Quick story:

I was playing with my buddy who is a pro and we were playing a tough track ~7000 yards, slope 140, and I was playing well on the front and shot +2 and he played poorly and shot +3. Needless to say, I was happy. On the back, I let things get away from me and shot worse but never really noticed what he was up to. I knew he made a few putts, but he ended up shooting -2 on the back for +1 overall. Pretty respectable given his start. He never really looked like he was playing different, not trying to force it or take too many risks, just played every shot. I got excited about breaking 80 on a course where I only had once and let it get away from me.

I asked him what he was thinking and just said he knew he was better than the number he put up on the front keep doing what you doing when things aren't going your way. Play every shot and every hole, don't worry about the total or where you stand.

Since then, I have tried to focus on what I am doing now and have been able to pull some good rounds out of some bad starts (6 over front, 2 under back with 2 birdies and an eagle).

It is obviously a lot harder to weather adversity and put together a good round than to charge out of the gates with birdies, but if the birdies come late or early, don't pack it in.

Maybe the reason you play better at home is you know there are opportunities to score and make up shots. Try playing a "worst ball" in practice where you hit 2 and play the worst of the two shots. It will help you grind.

Just my 2 cents.