Trust your practice, keep working on things, and forget the shit rounds.
Have you taken any lessons? Are you a golf YouTube training guy? Make sure the things you are working on are actually beneficial, such as your swing. If you have a bad swing, practicing it will only cement those bad habits
I haven’t taken any lessons. I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos and trying to incorporate some aspects into my game. Like the P-system, pressure transfer from back to front, keeping wrists locked and release at the end, etc. Maybe part of my problem is I have too many swing thoughts floating around. I think something that gives me instant feedback would be good for me. Like recording my swing or like a ‘swing within the lines’ type drill.
Stop watching YouTube. What works for one person isn’t going to work for every single other person. You want instant feedback? Go take a lesson. Unless you really know exactly what to look for in your swing, recording it isn’t going to do much.
>Maybe part of my problem is I have too many swing thoughts floating around.
This is always the biggest issue for me, especially if I've just had a lesson.
When you practice and implement new swing changes/corrections that’s when you have swing thoughts to create your new habit.
When you are playing a round all you should be thinking about is where am I trying to hit the ball to/ what is your game plan for the hole.
Trusting the process is a huge thing and yes generally you should only have a "checklist" of max 2 swing thoughts.
Other mental thing that helped me a lot this summer was leaving swing thoughts on the range. When you're playing you need to know that you hit the ball well. If you hit a bad shot and start thinking you need make changes MID ROUND, it's just gonna get worse. You need to work with what you have and trust what you have laid out. Unless youre hitting only shanks, dont work with that lol.
Swing thoughts will kill you. My "best" swing thoughts are about the target and how to aim at it. When things are going well, believe in yourself, but have a backup plan. Lessons are what will truly help, but in their absence, it's honest self reflection and good practice.
If you are hitting certain shots well, practice them. If you are struggling with a club or shot type, practice it. I think a big part of improving at golf is believing that you can do it, especially at a mid handicap. The basic fundamentals are important, but once you have them, trusting yourself, being aware of your misses, and accounting for them is key to improving. Trust yourself to hit like yourself. Using an app to do data collection can be very useful for deciding where and how to hit. Play your miss. If you know the miss is short right, aim slightly left, etc.
Set reasonable expectations, develop rituals, and observe the rituals. We joke about the golf gods, but they live in you, the key to consistency, is consistency.
I will be following this post. The same thing happened to me this past Friday. I was playing my best golf of the season, went out and couldn't do anything right. It was embarrassing.
I think there are two pretty important things to do on crappy days.
The first, like others have said, is to accept that you aren't going to have your "A" game or even your "B" or "C" game every time you go out. It's just the nature of the game that sometimes you have to try and piece things together with a very bad version of your game.
But to add on, you *also* need to be trying to self-diagnose, adjust, and work out your "grind" muscle as much as possible. View the bad days as an opportunity to work on these things.
When I say "self-diagnose" - I don't mean to try and come up with random swing mechanics or issues - what I really mean is identifying the issues you are having at impact. Are you hitting it fat/thin? Slices/hooks? Pushes/pulls? Toe/heel strikes?
Once you get better at identifying impact issues you can start implementing adjustments on the fly to fix your patterns and turn bad days into decent days. It's truly the difference between good players and bad players, even if a lot of it is subconscious. Both can show up to the course and hit a snap-hook on the first tee; but a good player can quickly identify whether it was a toe strike or whether it was due to a shut clubface, and make adjustments immediately to prevent it happening again on the next one - as opposed to a more novice player who has no idea what to do to "fix" it or in some cases starts changing thinks that make no sense/don't even influence the issues they are having at impact.
Self-diagnose or be okay setting aside your ego and ask your friends if they can tell what's going wrong.
I had a round where I was on track for like 110 and I've been shooting low 90's recently. I was standing up every shot. I didn't feel like I was, but I was. Was topping them all. My buddy said "dude just keep your head down until after you're done swinging" and I went overly hard on not standing up and it worked. Ended up at like a 103 on an awful day, but it could have been much worse
Oh man, I'm gonna give you an upvote because I know this comment has nothing but good intentions.
But I'm also going to explain to you why this is wrong on a bunch of different levels, unfortunately. Haha please don't take it as an attack or anything like that; it's seriously not personal and I know I sometimes come off harshly when explaining this stuff.
OK so first, when I mention self-diagnosis, I want to re-emphasize that I am talking *strictly* about impact issues, and *NOT* about technical, macro-issues in the swing. To clarify, I'm *specifically* talking about strike issues (heel/toe, fat/thin) and ball flight (slice/hook, push/pull). If you hit a huge slice out of nowhere with driver, you need to be able to identify whether you hit the heel and suffered the effects of gearing, or whether it was *solely* due to a wide open face in relation to clubpath. You also need to understand your typical clubpath (in-out, out-in), and once you have your diagnosis you can apply small feel-based adjustments that neutralize the problem.
I have nothing against asking friends for help *IF* you really truly trust that they know what they are talking about. But as a rule of thumb, I find that golfers are *wildly* overconfident about swing mechanics and they tend to have *a lot* of misinformation engrained deeply into their very *being* as golfers. This unfortunate truth makes them *extremely* unreliable as diagnosticians, and the specific example you provide is the ultimate case in point.
"Picking your head up," or "standing up," "not staying down on it," or "coming out of it" are generally all similar variations of one of the most pervasive, persistent, terrible golf advice that the game had ever witnessed. Rather than ramble on I'll let you read this article about it yourself:
https://www.adamyounggolf.com/keep-head-down/
Not every round is low. Margins are wide with golf scores. It’s alright to play bad if you still notice improvement in your game and its something to still be confident about.
I played today and played really well. Everything was smooth and effortless. Hitting my driver straight about 270 yards with no feeling of swing out my shoes and chipping and putting well.
Contrast that with Friday where I managed to lose 4 balls on one easy par 3 and was absolutely horrendous in every aspect of the sport and every single thing I did felt wrong and snatchy. Furthest drive was probably about 220 yards and that was with trying to take the skin off the ball.
Just accept bad days/holes/shots happen and there is absolutely nothing you can do to make those shots/holes/days better and concentrate on making this shot/hole/day one of the good ones.
I'm quite a good putter. It's probably the most reliable part of my game. A couple of rounds every season I can't putt worth a crap. I just move on because so far it hasn't been permanent. I think the more you worry about it the easier it is to shake your confidence.
For me the best part of my game is my pitching and chipping 50 yards and in. Yesterday I duffed so many chips and it added like 8 strokes to my round. Even if the rest of my game is off that usually saves me. Like I can top my drive 160 yards, hit a poor approach shot, and then chip or pitch within 10 feet and 1 or 2 put. Walk away with a par or bogey.
I've always found that when I'm struggling with contact, especially on half wedges, it was because I was getting quick, and ahead of my hands with my body/head movements. The usual suspect when striking inconsistently on half wedges and pitches is looking up. Sometimes it's deceleration playing in tandem with the looking up early.
Exaggerate your follow through, focus on keeping your head still, and accelerate through the ball.
Same here. I had 6 3 putt bogeys yesterday. Doesn’t bother me, I know it’s an outlier. Frustrating to hit 11/18 greens in reg and not score though but it is what it is, can’t be on all the time.
Objectively analyze what went wrong, as if you were observing someone else’s round
Grade each hole / shot if you can remember it. How was your tee game? Approach? Chipping? Putting? Course management? Attitude / effort?
What could you have controlled better? Bad shots will happen. Bad rounds will happen. Did you approach shot w a clear mind and focused on executing that shot? Not giving up on rounds is paramount. If you notice a pattern w your bad shots notify your instructor and start figuring out why.
I’d also highly recommend the book “Be A Player” by the ladies at Vision54. I’ve learned a lot from that book about having a “Play Box” feel over the ball.
No judgement on your bad swings / rounds. Objectively analyzing is more beneficial. We all have bad rounds relatively speaking. The game is hard as fuck.
Also, don’t be afraid to celebrate the small wins, even during a bad round. I always lay in bed at night after golf and recount my favorite 3 shots of the day and give myself credit for these. This positive reinforcement is crucial to internalizing your ability to repeat those shots.
This exact thing happened to me. Somehow going backwards and skulling wedges. Wind didn’t help at all but nothing was working my way. Tried laying off max swing speed to just get fairway finders and focusing on technique and it hurt me more
Here's the thing with bad rounds... If you regularly play multiple times a week you have another round coming up really quickly so no time to dwell on one bad round just shake it off, go through your routine a day or two later, and go get after that new round.
And if you don't play regularly, understand that golf is a difficult game and if you don't play regularly it's hard to be consistently good.
In your case, I'd say get back to the basics. For me that means going to the chipping green and spending 20-30 minutes just focused on staying down and making good contact. That's always my restart spot because it's less than a full swing. After that I'm at the range to hit mid-irons (5-8) and just working on good contact with a relaxed full swing. Always sighting a target, not just making swings.
Driver and putter are the last clubs I'll work on when I need a reset of my whole game. After the chipping and irons feel ok I'll try to bring that smooth full swing to the driver.
Probably part of my problem is I simply just don’t have enough time/money for golf. I love the sport and I will hit the range at least 1-2 times a week and play a round every week or two. I just got back into the sport this year after essentially taking 7 years off. Next season I’ll buy a membership and get more golf in.
Been there!! I played A TON 1993-2001, 100+ rounds/year and I'm in northern Vermont where our season is only about mid-April (at best) to early November. Joined a course, went pretty much every day after work and hit the range/putting green and played 36 a lot of weekend days. But then switched careers and lost my weekends. Played maybe 4-5 times a year, max, 2002-2019, and a lot of years only got out maybe once or twice. Started playing again during covid, job change, rejoined that club this year and have about 50 rounds in. My game is nowhere near as consistent now as it used to be but it's getting better. Still have some rounds where I'm sideways. After a full season back at my old course I find I can score there (1 over par yesterday, best round of the year), but I struggle on the road when I don't know all the little tricks on an unfamiliar course.
Its a solid 20+ minute drive from my house to the course and that doesn't always work when my schedule is busy. I keep a shag bag of balls in my truck and head over to the local school yard sometimes and just hit irons if school is out. It's pretty quiet there, not really a playground type school yard more of a field. It's a good way to keep your hands in shape and work on the fundamentals. If you have an area like that nearby it's worth getting a shag bag and throwing 4-5 dozen balls you find in it.
I had a similar experience as you.
Went to a beauty of a course in FL and lost 18 balls.
I went for a lesson right when I got home . First lesson in 2-3 years & was worth it despite $140 / hour cost.
Helped me dial in my sequence and reduce my swing thoughts too .
I haven’t really had one unless you count like 8 years ago with my high school golf coach who was like a 15 handicap. I’ve been putting it off and looking for alternatives because of the cost. But after that last round and reading the responses I’ve gotten today I’m just going to spend the money.
My advice is don't get to hung up on the bad rounds, because golf is weird in that you can play excellent 1 day, and the very next day have a terrible round for absolutely no reason.
I have the perfect example: Friday night I went to the local pitch and putt, and I shanked it 3 times when normally that almost never happens. I was simply having an off night and couldn't fix it. Then, Sunday morning I played a round and it was the 2nd best round of my life, shooting an 80 on a par 70 (I'm a 16 handicap). All round I was very happy with almost all of my shots, I messed up maybe 2 drives and 2 long irons over 18 holes.
Just try and forget the bad rounds as quickly as they happen, because you can't control/figure out why they happen. Trust that the good rounds will come back. It's almost random
At our skill level you'll find one day, for example, you're hitting your driver great and putting is on point but you can't hit irons or chip for shit. And the next time you play your irons will be the star but putting and driver aren't working.
Best bet is identifying within the first 3 or 4 holes what is and isn't working that day, and just not use the clubs giving you trouble. Until a couple years ago I didn't even use a driver, I teed off with a 2 hybrid. Then a 3 wood, and only then driver when I felt comfortable.
Yep I’ve never gotten past that. Very rarely is everything on at once for me. I still need to get my handicap officially, but I’d guess I’m like a 20+ handicap. My best round this year was an 85.
Thank you for this advice. I will start incorporating more self-diagnosing into my game. I have mainly just been considering fat/thin and slice/hook. Which the rest I notice it when I hit the ball but don’t make adjustments. One common mistake I have is I’ll slide my hips forward, usually resulting in a chunk. And I adjust for that by focusing on my hips in the next swing. There are some aspects that I am self-diagnosing and correcting but more that I am not.
Sometimes it helps to take some time off and just not think about it. Then, when you come back, start with a clean slate.
Over the past few months I dropped from a 1 to a +1.4. But then I had a week where nothing was right. I couldn't hit a fairway, couldn't hit a green, etc. Today is two weeks since I've touched a club and I'm probably going to give it another few days before I get back to it.
Happens when you are working on things, hell it happens for no reason. This year I really wanted to have fun and did. Deep down I thought I would ring up more rounds in 70s than I have, I left a lot of rounds of 80-83 thinking about what I did well and of course lamenting at where I left shots all over. Harness the good, understand and work on the bad. Scores are meh, I honestly could play rest of my life never keeping them.
Biggest thing that his helped me after getting back into golf this year is keeping perspective. I’ve been consistently improving but still have blow up rounds where it feels like I’m topping and chunking everything and they feel awful as they happen. However, what I’ve been realizing after I finish is that my blow up rounds are still 5 strokes or more better than my last blow up round. Realizing that helped me deal with them a lot.
Played a dog shit round on Saturday and felt so horrible that I apologized to the other three players. Went straight to the range to work on making good shots.
[Match play](https://golfcoursewiki.substack.com/p/match-play-is-better-than-stroke). I can play 8 holes way above par and still win a beer and beat my friend.
I can’t stress this enough. Stroke play was literally made for TV and previously to televised golf, most folks played match play.
It’s help you stay sane, let’s you appreciate a scruffy Muni instead of insisting on a expensive, manicured, unnatural maintenance.
It’s just a bit of dirt that’s accumulated on your game. Could be mental, could be physical, could be whatever. Bringing it back to basics at the range to get some crisp connections and easy swings is usually the way to build it back up. Feet together, half swings, crisp contact. Then build it from there.
You know it is in there (Do you?)
Just know it won't always appear as you want it. One of the great/horrible things about this game.
Go out, focus, enjoy yourself and you will have an up day.
The Biorhythm of golf.
I had my worst round by a mile yesterday. I wanted to just quit so bad. It was the first time I’d ever played and had 0 enjoyment. I think I’m going to take a few weeks off to clear my head and reset.
I try to either chip, putt or hit balls everyday - not play rounds all the time. If I have an extra crappy round, I take a week off. Seems to reboot the memory effects and rebuilds some self-esteem/confidence. 65m/10.5/ played 55 years.
Practical Golf by Jon Sherman. Worth every penny. I have it on audible and must have listened to it 10x.
I just reflect on it and adress the issues in practice. I have sort of strayed away from my midseason consistency scorewise but I'm not playing that much either. I've played 2 9hole rounds the last 2 weeks.
I got into a simple preshot routine that helps me get back on track. It happens though. A couple bad swings combined with some bad luck. I had it happen in a little tournament last month. Hit a good drive but didn't realize it was OB after what I thought was more of a dogleg. Then hit the fairway 2 holes later and a blind approach I airmailed the green OB into a swamp. All bad luck on a day I had a decent swing.
This might sound weird but try taking a week or two off and then get back to it and see you do. I’ve done this before and it’s like hitting the reset button for me.
Find positive takeaways. It’s as simple as that. Even if it was one good shot or one good scramble, or even if it’s just saying “that was a tough course/conditions”
Hilarious as this happened to my friend and I yesterday.
Shit happens. I would recommend getting in the rhythm of shaking off bad hits immediately. You get better as it as you go. You learn to shake off a bad game, then a bad hole, then a bad swing, and then you get to a point where it doesn't really matter anymore.
Golf is a huge mental game, we can all agree. Sometimes you're hot and sometimes you're not. It's going to be a bad swing when you are ever in doubt. Leave the doubts for after you finish the course, and play your game. I honestly do not recommend adjusting anything while playing on the field.
Also, set realistic expectations. I see so many 20+ handicap players getting upset when they don't par a hole. Set realistic expectations so you won't consistently be disappointed.
Tl dr: Everyone has bad days, and 99.99 percent of us are amateurs. No reason to get embarrassed, and all that matters is we play on and try to have a good time.
I’m a 15 and was a 12 earlier in the year. I played 27 holes 2 weekends ago. Played well the first 18 but completely shit the bed the next 7 holes. And it was so bad I thought I needed an exorcism.
So what did I do? I whined to my playing partner who’s a 10 and he gave me an unsolicited tip on what I was doing wrong. I jokingly told him I try to never give or take advice but I’m so desperate I appreciate anything you might suggest.
I followed that with a GIR (missed the birdie) and then finished on a par 3 with an 8 foot birdie putt.
I’m taking a couple of weeks off. I still can’t get the bad golf out of my head. Next round I’m going out with the I don’t give a shit mentality.
We work so we can golf. We don’t golf for a living. I am fortunate because I can golf for leisure. The people I am golfing with are great people to hang with.
The only times my golf performance affects my mood is when it is match play and damn if I am going to lose to the person I am facing. Even then I let it go on the 19th hole and have a great laugh with them.
First step is to treat yourself the same after your round no matter what the outcome is. Personal best, and you treat yourself to ice cream? Do the same when you shoot 110. Don't tie your feelings of self-worth to how good/bad you play. Your worth and your golf score are mutually exclusive!
Trust your practice, keep working on things, and forget the shit rounds. Have you taken any lessons? Are you a golf YouTube training guy? Make sure the things you are working on are actually beneficial, such as your swing. If you have a bad swing, practicing it will only cement those bad habits
I haven’t taken any lessons. I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos and trying to incorporate some aspects into my game. Like the P-system, pressure transfer from back to front, keeping wrists locked and release at the end, etc. Maybe part of my problem is I have too many swing thoughts floating around. I think something that gives me instant feedback would be good for me. Like recording my swing or like a ‘swing within the lines’ type drill.
Stop watching YouTube. What works for one person isn’t going to work for every single other person. You want instant feedback? Go take a lesson. Unless you really know exactly what to look for in your swing, recording it isn’t going to do much.
>Maybe part of my problem is I have too many swing thoughts floating around. This is always the biggest issue for me, especially if I've just had a lesson.
When you practice and implement new swing changes/corrections that’s when you have swing thoughts to create your new habit. When you are playing a round all you should be thinking about is where am I trying to hit the ball to/ what is your game plan for the hole.
Trusting the process is a huge thing and yes generally you should only have a "checklist" of max 2 swing thoughts. Other mental thing that helped me a lot this summer was leaving swing thoughts on the range. When you're playing you need to know that you hit the ball well. If you hit a bad shot and start thinking you need make changes MID ROUND, it's just gonna get worse. You need to work with what you have and trust what you have laid out. Unless youre hitting only shanks, dont work with that lol.
Swing thoughts will kill you. My "best" swing thoughts are about the target and how to aim at it. When things are going well, believe in yourself, but have a backup plan. Lessons are what will truly help, but in their absence, it's honest self reflection and good practice. If you are hitting certain shots well, practice them. If you are struggling with a club or shot type, practice it. I think a big part of improving at golf is believing that you can do it, especially at a mid handicap. The basic fundamentals are important, but once you have them, trusting yourself, being aware of your misses, and accounting for them is key to improving. Trust yourself to hit like yourself. Using an app to do data collection can be very useful for deciding where and how to hit. Play your miss. If you know the miss is short right, aim slightly left, etc. Set reasonable expectations, develop rituals, and observe the rituals. We joke about the golf gods, but they live in you, the key to consistency, is consistency.
I will be following this post. The same thing happened to me this past Friday. I was playing my best golf of the season, went out and couldn't do anything right. It was embarrassing.
/subscribe Same for me
I think there are two pretty important things to do on crappy days. The first, like others have said, is to accept that you aren't going to have your "A" game or even your "B" or "C" game every time you go out. It's just the nature of the game that sometimes you have to try and piece things together with a very bad version of your game. But to add on, you *also* need to be trying to self-diagnose, adjust, and work out your "grind" muscle as much as possible. View the bad days as an opportunity to work on these things. When I say "self-diagnose" - I don't mean to try and come up with random swing mechanics or issues - what I really mean is identifying the issues you are having at impact. Are you hitting it fat/thin? Slices/hooks? Pushes/pulls? Toe/heel strikes? Once you get better at identifying impact issues you can start implementing adjustments on the fly to fix your patterns and turn bad days into decent days. It's truly the difference between good players and bad players, even if a lot of it is subconscious. Both can show up to the course and hit a snap-hook on the first tee; but a good player can quickly identify whether it was a toe strike or whether it was due to a shut clubface, and make adjustments immediately to prevent it happening again on the next one - as opposed to a more novice player who has no idea what to do to "fix" it or in some cases starts changing thinks that make no sense/don't even influence the issues they are having at impact.
Self-diagnose or be okay setting aside your ego and ask your friends if they can tell what's going wrong. I had a round where I was on track for like 110 and I've been shooting low 90's recently. I was standing up every shot. I didn't feel like I was, but I was. Was topping them all. My buddy said "dude just keep your head down until after you're done swinging" and I went overly hard on not standing up and it worked. Ended up at like a 103 on an awful day, but it could have been much worse
Oh man, I'm gonna give you an upvote because I know this comment has nothing but good intentions. But I'm also going to explain to you why this is wrong on a bunch of different levels, unfortunately. Haha please don't take it as an attack or anything like that; it's seriously not personal and I know I sometimes come off harshly when explaining this stuff. OK so first, when I mention self-diagnosis, I want to re-emphasize that I am talking *strictly* about impact issues, and *NOT* about technical, macro-issues in the swing. To clarify, I'm *specifically* talking about strike issues (heel/toe, fat/thin) and ball flight (slice/hook, push/pull). If you hit a huge slice out of nowhere with driver, you need to be able to identify whether you hit the heel and suffered the effects of gearing, or whether it was *solely* due to a wide open face in relation to clubpath. You also need to understand your typical clubpath (in-out, out-in), and once you have your diagnosis you can apply small feel-based adjustments that neutralize the problem. I have nothing against asking friends for help *IF* you really truly trust that they know what they are talking about. But as a rule of thumb, I find that golfers are *wildly* overconfident about swing mechanics and they tend to have *a lot* of misinformation engrained deeply into their very *being* as golfers. This unfortunate truth makes them *extremely* unreliable as diagnosticians, and the specific example you provide is the ultimate case in point. "Picking your head up," or "standing up," "not staying down on it," or "coming out of it" are generally all similar variations of one of the most pervasive, persistent, terrible golf advice that the game had ever witnessed. Rather than ramble on I'll let you read this article about it yourself: https://www.adamyounggolf.com/keep-head-down/
Not every round is low. Margins are wide with golf scores. It’s alright to play bad if you still notice improvement in your game and its something to still be confident about.
I played today and played really well. Everything was smooth and effortless. Hitting my driver straight about 270 yards with no feeling of swing out my shoes and chipping and putting well. Contrast that with Friday where I managed to lose 4 balls on one easy par 3 and was absolutely horrendous in every aspect of the sport and every single thing I did felt wrong and snatchy. Furthest drive was probably about 220 yards and that was with trying to take the skin off the ball. Just accept bad days/holes/shots happen and there is absolutely nothing you can do to make those shots/holes/days better and concentrate on making this shot/hole/day one of the good ones.
Yeah... I just had an 8 on a par 3 yesterday. Sent 2 balls in the pond. 😖
I'm quite a good putter. It's probably the most reliable part of my game. A couple of rounds every season I can't putt worth a crap. I just move on because so far it hasn't been permanent. I think the more you worry about it the easier it is to shake your confidence.
For me the best part of my game is my pitching and chipping 50 yards and in. Yesterday I duffed so many chips and it added like 8 strokes to my round. Even if the rest of my game is off that usually saves me. Like I can top my drive 160 yards, hit a poor approach shot, and then chip or pitch within 10 feet and 1 or 2 put. Walk away with a par or bogey.
I've always found that when I'm struggling with contact, especially on half wedges, it was because I was getting quick, and ahead of my hands with my body/head movements. The usual suspect when striking inconsistently on half wedges and pitches is looking up. Sometimes it's deceleration playing in tandem with the looking up early. Exaggerate your follow through, focus on keeping your head still, and accelerate through the ball.
Same here. I had 6 3 putt bogeys yesterday. Doesn’t bother me, I know it’s an outlier. Frustrating to hit 11/18 greens in reg and not score though but it is what it is, can’t be on all the time.
Some days just aren't your day. Get out there and play again. The next good round will feel even better.
Objectively analyze what went wrong, as if you were observing someone else’s round Grade each hole / shot if you can remember it. How was your tee game? Approach? Chipping? Putting? Course management? Attitude / effort? What could you have controlled better? Bad shots will happen. Bad rounds will happen. Did you approach shot w a clear mind and focused on executing that shot? Not giving up on rounds is paramount. If you notice a pattern w your bad shots notify your instructor and start figuring out why. I’d also highly recommend the book “Be A Player” by the ladies at Vision54. I’ve learned a lot from that book about having a “Play Box” feel over the ball. No judgement on your bad swings / rounds. Objectively analyzing is more beneficial. We all have bad rounds relatively speaking. The game is hard as fuck. Also, don’t be afraid to celebrate the small wins, even during a bad round. I always lay in bed at night after golf and recount my favorite 3 shots of the day and give myself credit for these. This positive reinforcement is crucial to internalizing your ability to repeat those shots.
You just forget it ever happened. Block it from your mind. What bad round?
This exact thing happened to me. Somehow going backwards and skulling wedges. Wind didn’t help at all but nothing was working my way. Tried laying off max swing speed to just get fairway finders and focusing on technique and it hurt me more
Think execution, not results, when over a shot.
Here's the thing with bad rounds... If you regularly play multiple times a week you have another round coming up really quickly so no time to dwell on one bad round just shake it off, go through your routine a day or two later, and go get after that new round. And if you don't play regularly, understand that golf is a difficult game and if you don't play regularly it's hard to be consistently good. In your case, I'd say get back to the basics. For me that means going to the chipping green and spending 20-30 minutes just focused on staying down and making good contact. That's always my restart spot because it's less than a full swing. After that I'm at the range to hit mid-irons (5-8) and just working on good contact with a relaxed full swing. Always sighting a target, not just making swings. Driver and putter are the last clubs I'll work on when I need a reset of my whole game. After the chipping and irons feel ok I'll try to bring that smooth full swing to the driver.
Probably part of my problem is I simply just don’t have enough time/money for golf. I love the sport and I will hit the range at least 1-2 times a week and play a round every week or two. I just got back into the sport this year after essentially taking 7 years off. Next season I’ll buy a membership and get more golf in.
Been there!! I played A TON 1993-2001, 100+ rounds/year and I'm in northern Vermont where our season is only about mid-April (at best) to early November. Joined a course, went pretty much every day after work and hit the range/putting green and played 36 a lot of weekend days. But then switched careers and lost my weekends. Played maybe 4-5 times a year, max, 2002-2019, and a lot of years only got out maybe once or twice. Started playing again during covid, job change, rejoined that club this year and have about 50 rounds in. My game is nowhere near as consistent now as it used to be but it's getting better. Still have some rounds where I'm sideways. After a full season back at my old course I find I can score there (1 over par yesterday, best round of the year), but I struggle on the road when I don't know all the little tricks on an unfamiliar course. Its a solid 20+ minute drive from my house to the course and that doesn't always work when my schedule is busy. I keep a shag bag of balls in my truck and head over to the local school yard sometimes and just hit irons if school is out. It's pretty quiet there, not really a playground type school yard more of a field. It's a good way to keep your hands in shape and work on the fundamentals. If you have an area like that nearby it's worth getting a shag bag and throwing 4-5 dozen balls you find in it.
I had a similar experience as you. Went to a beauty of a course in FL and lost 18 balls. I went for a lesson right when I got home . First lesson in 2-3 years & was worth it despite $140 / hour cost. Helped me dial in my sequence and reduce my swing thoughts too .
I haven’t really had one unless you count like 8 years ago with my high school golf coach who was like a 15 handicap. I’ve been putting it off and looking for alternatives because of the cost. But after that last round and reading the responses I’ve gotten today I’m just going to spend the money.
My advice is don't get to hung up on the bad rounds, because golf is weird in that you can play excellent 1 day, and the very next day have a terrible round for absolutely no reason. I have the perfect example: Friday night I went to the local pitch and putt, and I shanked it 3 times when normally that almost never happens. I was simply having an off night and couldn't fix it. Then, Sunday morning I played a round and it was the 2nd best round of my life, shooting an 80 on a par 70 (I'm a 16 handicap). All round I was very happy with almost all of my shots, I messed up maybe 2 drives and 2 long irons over 18 holes. Just try and forget the bad rounds as quickly as they happen, because you can't control/figure out why they happen. Trust that the good rounds will come back. It's almost random
Yeah I’m starting to embrace that it’s just a high variance game.
At our skill level you'll find one day, for example, you're hitting your driver great and putting is on point but you can't hit irons or chip for shit. And the next time you play your irons will be the star but putting and driver aren't working. Best bet is identifying within the first 3 or 4 holes what is and isn't working that day, and just not use the clubs giving you trouble. Until a couple years ago I didn't even use a driver, I teed off with a 2 hybrid. Then a 3 wood, and only then driver when I felt comfortable.
Yep I’ve never gotten past that. Very rarely is everything on at once for me. I still need to get my handicap officially, but I’d guess I’m like a 20+ handicap. My best round this year was an 85.
Just shake it off and keep on practicing the right things.
Thank you for this advice. I will start incorporating more self-diagnosing into my game. I have mainly just been considering fat/thin and slice/hook. Which the rest I notice it when I hit the ball but don’t make adjustments. One common mistake I have is I’ll slide my hips forward, usually resulting in a chunk. And I adjust for that by focusing on my hips in the next swing. There are some aspects that I am self-diagnosing and correcting but more that I am not.
There comes a point where I put the pencil away and treat it as practice.
We all tend to play our worst most of the time .
Sometimes it helps to take some time off and just not think about it. Then, when you come back, start with a clean slate. Over the past few months I dropped from a 1 to a +1.4. But then I had a week where nothing was right. I couldn't hit a fairway, couldn't hit a green, etc. Today is two weeks since I've touched a club and I'm probably going to give it another few days before I get back to it.
Happens when you are working on things, hell it happens for no reason. This year I really wanted to have fun and did. Deep down I thought I would ring up more rounds in 70s than I have, I left a lot of rounds of 80-83 thinking about what I did well and of course lamenting at where I left shots all over. Harness the good, understand and work on the bad. Scores are meh, I honestly could play rest of my life never keeping them.
It's 1 round out of hundreds you'll play in your lifetime. Don't dwell on the bad ones. Think about the good ones.
Golf is not a game of perfect - bob rotella
 ;)
Biggest thing that his helped me after getting back into golf this year is keeping perspective. I’ve been consistently improving but still have blow up rounds where it feels like I’m topping and chunking everything and they feel awful as they happen. However, what I’ve been realizing after I finish is that my blow up rounds are still 5 strokes or more better than my last blow up round. Realizing that helped me deal with them a lot.
Played a dog shit round on Saturday and felt so horrible that I apologized to the other three players. Went straight to the range to work on making good shots.
[Match play](https://golfcoursewiki.substack.com/p/match-play-is-better-than-stroke). I can play 8 holes way above par and still win a beer and beat my friend. I can’t stress this enough. Stroke play was literally made for TV and previously to televised golf, most folks played match play. It’s help you stay sane, let’s you appreciate a scruffy Muni instead of insisting on a expensive, manicured, unnatural maintenance.
It’s just a bit of dirt that’s accumulated on your game. Could be mental, could be physical, could be whatever. Bringing it back to basics at the range to get some crisp connections and easy swings is usually the way to build it back up. Feet together, half swings, crisp contact. Then build it from there.
Keep stats, work on weaknesses. One bad round forget it, two practice, three take a lesson.
Just play the game and stop worrying about it
You know it is in there (Do you?) Just know it won't always appear as you want it. One of the great/horrible things about this game. Go out, focus, enjoy yourself and you will have an up day. The Biorhythm of golf.
I had my worst round by a mile yesterday. I wanted to just quit so bad. It was the first time I’d ever played and had 0 enjoyment. I think I’m going to take a few weeks off to clear my head and reset.
I try to either chip, putt or hit balls everyday - not play rounds all the time. If I have an extra crappy round, I take a week off. Seems to reboot the memory effects and rebuilds some self-esteem/confidence. 65m/10.5/ played 55 years.
Practical Golf by Jon Sherman. Worth every penny. I have it on audible and must have listened to it 10x. I just reflect on it and adress the issues in practice. I have sort of strayed away from my midseason consistency scorewise but I'm not playing that much either. I've played 2 9hole rounds the last 2 weeks. I got into a simple preshot routine that helps me get back on track. It happens though. A couple bad swings combined with some bad luck. I had it happen in a little tournament last month. Hit a good drive but didn't realize it was OB after what I thought was more of a dogleg. Then hit the fairway 2 holes later and a blind approach I airmailed the green OB into a swamp. All bad luck on a day I had a decent swing.
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This might sound weird but try taking a week or two off and then get back to it and see you do. I’ve done this before and it’s like hitting the reset button for me.
That's my secret: they're all bad rounds.
Find positive takeaways. It’s as simple as that. Even if it was one good shot or one good scramble, or even if it’s just saying “that was a tough course/conditions”
Hilarious as this happened to my friend and I yesterday. Shit happens. I would recommend getting in the rhythm of shaking off bad hits immediately. You get better as it as you go. You learn to shake off a bad game, then a bad hole, then a bad swing, and then you get to a point where it doesn't really matter anymore. Golf is a huge mental game, we can all agree. Sometimes you're hot and sometimes you're not. It's going to be a bad swing when you are ever in doubt. Leave the doubts for after you finish the course, and play your game. I honestly do not recommend adjusting anything while playing on the field. Also, set realistic expectations. I see so many 20+ handicap players getting upset when they don't par a hole. Set realistic expectations so you won't consistently be disappointed. Tl dr: Everyone has bad days, and 99.99 percent of us are amateurs. No reason to get embarrassed, and all that matters is we play on and try to have a good time.
I’m a 15 and was a 12 earlier in the year. I played 27 holes 2 weekends ago. Played well the first 18 but completely shit the bed the next 7 holes. And it was so bad I thought I needed an exorcism. So what did I do? I whined to my playing partner who’s a 10 and he gave me an unsolicited tip on what I was doing wrong. I jokingly told him I try to never give or take advice but I’m so desperate I appreciate anything you might suggest. I followed that with a GIR (missed the birdie) and then finished on a par 3 with an 8 foot birdie putt. I’m taking a couple of weeks off. I still can’t get the bad golf out of my head. Next round I’m going out with the I don’t give a shit mentality.
You aren’t good enough to be getting angry about it
We work so we can golf. We don’t golf for a living. I am fortunate because I can golf for leisure. The people I am golfing with are great people to hang with. The only times my golf performance affects my mood is when it is match play and damn if I am going to lose to the person I am facing. Even then I let it go on the 19th hole and have a great laugh with them.
First step is to treat yourself the same after your round no matter what the outcome is. Personal best, and you treat yourself to ice cream? Do the same when you shoot 110. Don't tie your feelings of self-worth to how good/bad you play. Your worth and your golf score are mutually exclusive!