God I am so frustrated with golf right now!
Some buddies and I are playing in a Topgolf league during the winter. I thought it would help me get in some reps during the off-season here in Colorado. But it has been more frustrating than anything.
Start out hitting the ball well
On a couple of nights I started out hitting the ball well. Good contact and distance, feeling really comfortable. Then all of a sudden, shank after shank after shank. Its like I’ve never played golf in my entire life. What the hell is going on? I don’t think I could hit shots that bad if I tried. Just weak wimpy shots pushed to the right going 20-30 yards, doesn’t matter what iron I am using.
Wasn’t hitting the driver or fairway woods at this point, maybe I need to switch it up when things go south.
Possible causes?
In some of my other articles I mentioned how I was correcting my bad slice. I realized I was coming over the top so now I’m working on coming under more with my swing, a more in to out pattern. Sometimes it seems to be working well, get a little draw on the ball but then wham, shank city.
I’m standing closer to the ball which might be part of it. Am I swinging out again and severely coming across? Is it a hozzle rocket? Beats the hell out of me.
Then at the end of the night, I start hitting the ball well again, another WTF? Is it cause I’m trying too hard to score well? Sometimes I think I aim too much at the target and that tenses me up?
Could it be alcohol? So when I normally play I do a wait and see on the course. If I start out playing well I don’t like to drink because that seems to make my game go south. But if I start out bad a beer or 2 usually loosens me up and I start to play better. I stop thinking and just swing. I usually have a couple at Topgolf, maybe next week I won’t have any to start with if I’m hitting well.
Could it be hitting the same club over and over? That usually only happens for me at Topgolf. At a usually driving range I try to change clubs frequently. Sometimes I’ll play the course I’m at in my head.
What to do now?
So where do I go from here? Not really sure.
Just continue my current path? Working on my swing plane. I could go get lessons. I could start over with my Zepp app to start a new plan or maybe kind of start over.
I should probably state my goal in golf. I’m not looking to be a scratch golfer I don’t really have the free time for that now. I’ve only shot in the 80s a few times. I would love to shoot in the 70s at least once. But my main goal is just to strike the ball well. I don’t need a 320 yard drive or hit it a mile like a lot of guys do these days. But some good solid contact on a regular basis with a chance to shoot some lower for me scores. But I’d take a day of good contact over a day of bad hits but a low score.
Things that I think could be my issues:
- Is my grip correct? – I made some slight changes to my grip. Right after I did that a couple of seasons back I was playing some of my best golf. That was also after I first started using the Zepp golf app, hmm.
- Where exactly should my back swing be? Should my club face be facing down or parallel to the ground at roughly a 90 degree angle.
- Once again, what is my wrist doing at the top of my swing? As mentioned in my Zepp review, I didn’t really like the video part but maybe I need to revisit that.
- How can I get better at ball contact and compress the ball? – Never really compressed the ball on my shots. I have a hand full of times, some on purpose some not. That might be causing me to shank, maybe having my hands too far forward?
- Do I need lessons? – I have various thoughts on lessons and they aren’t necessarily good, at least in my head.
Why I have avoided lessons – so far
So I have played golf for most of my life. I’m sure, definitely sure, I have bad habits’ that inhibit my game. Would lessons help that, probably. But here are the reasons I’ve avoided lessons:
- I go in and get a swing evaluation – OK fine. But that was for my swing that day. I feel like me swing is different every day. So what get fixed on day might not be off another day.
- Where to start with my game? Do I go all the way back to the drawing board and start with my grip and work through ever step that most beginners do. I think if I went in and got that advice it would kill any small sort of confidence I have. I’d like to go into lessons with just a couple of things to work on but I think I have a lot of issues to work on. Sometimes I think I should just completely start over playing golf left-handed, completely start from scratch, no bad habits’ nothing really and probably play a lot better.
- When will lessons ever end, never? I feel like my game would be a constant work in progress, no one is perfect I guess but I don’t want to pay for lessons the rest of my life. I see deals out there for lessons of 5 or 15 happening each week. Will 15 lessons help me or will more issues be discovered? More issues I’m afraid.
Conclusion
So at the moment, I’ve once again talked myself out of lessons. This is a constant dilema for me so I’m sure it will be reevaluated and possibly adjusted in the future.
I think I’m going to start over and refocus on the Zepp app I have. I really helped me back when I was in a dark spot with my game. Hell, I guess I’m at a dark spot again. I’ll see where that takes me. After I started playing well again I stop using it. I think I will try to utilize the video and 3D more this time. I had the Speedtraining sticks as well but I think I need to focus on good ball contact again. I plan to do a review of the Speedtraining later because I really think it works.
Comments on this post? Come across the same issues with your game. Have a word of advice for a hack like me? Leave a comment below.