The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Well, the season is winding down, and I am still just wandering around in the lost golf world of a game that has gone south. My game continues to flounder in the high 70’s and low 80’s range with little hope of this changing until the calendar changes and a new season begins.  So as I look back on this disgusting season and try to break it down, I really can not put my finger on one particular part of my game that is the real culprit. Let’s look at it any way and see where some of the problems did lay.

One of the things that was not an issue was driving the ball and distance.  At 66 years of age you might think that  would become an issue but my distance  off the tee was as good as ever and my irons were still the same, distance wise. An equipment change  late last golf season caused some iron issues but even going back to my old irons may have helped me hit my irons better but really did nothing to help improve my score.

Putting is always an issue when you are not scoring well, but lately even with my putting being the best it’s been over the last 4 weeks, it has not had a major impact on my scores.

Trying to find the answer has always had some negative impact on my game.  Usually I come up with something that has some merit.This year the things I have tried seem to have had even  a greater negative impact on my game. Even trying to go back to the shoulder control swing which worked so well  for me over the course of a 2 year period was a basic disaster.

The chip yips in the short game were still an issue this year but I  have been battling them for the last 4 years and was still able to shoot some very good golf. Even on days where the chip yips were missing in action did not help my score all that much. Just a couple of rounds ago, not only did I have the yips, but the shanks reared their ugly head on shots around the greens.

The bad hole and the very bad shot became a factor this year.  I proved the rule about it’s not where your good shots go but where your bad shots go.  Some of my bad shots, simply put, were unbelievable.  From being any where from 50 to 75 yards off line to barely hitting the ball 50 to 75 yards. I had 5 rounds this year that were in the 80’s that got adjusted down to the 70’s during the handicap season. The most was when I really shot an 84, but because I had some really bad holes was adjusted down to 77. I had one 9 and one 10 this year without any penalty strokes.

The basic stats went something like this, 5 rounds in the 90’s  more rounds in the 80’s than in the 70′ by 2 to 1. My best score to par was 2 over which I did once.  I had about a handful of 75’s and 76’s  with the rest 77 and above.  I played my usual amount, as I just played my 107th round of the year yesterday. So what does this all mean? As they say in the movies I’ll be damn if I know. I have always been of the philosophy that there is a reason for everything.  Maybe in some strange way this is leading me to the answer.  At times I have felt that the answer is to take up bowling again, as I was pretty damn good at that. There can’t be too many rounds left in the golfing season this year but you never know in Western Pa. Maybe it will come like a lightening bolt and I will have a year where no score is over 75. When is the next Star Wars movie coming out?