Tag: Day to day golf

One of the many mysteries of golf is why our games change so much from day to day. You will hear many golfers bemoan the fact that one day their drives are great and their iron game is horrible. Then the next time out, the opposite is true. Everything is clicking from tee to green, and they cannot make a putt. Their putting is fantastic, but they can’t get a ball close to the hole. They are having a horrible time with their short game when it has been good for the last 4 rounds. Here is one that I have experienced when playing competitively. For maybe the last 3 to 4 rounds I have played going into a tournament, I may be driving the ball extremely well. Maybe it’s my iron game that has been spot on. Possibly, I have had 5 very good putting rounds. The day of the tournament, that best part of my game, becomes the worst part of my game. This part of golf has been brought home to me more now that I am retired and get to play a lot more golf. Since 1996, even when I was working, I managed to play 3 to 4 times a week and probably had around 2 range sessions a week. Now that I do not practice anymore, another part of this phenomenon has been brought into focus. Whatever the bad part of my game was the day before seems to go away on its own the next day. This happens even on the pro tour. Tour players’ scores will sometimes vary by 5 to 10 shots from round to round. After a round, they are seen on the driving range “fixing” the problem. It looks to me that going to bed and waking up solves the problem too. This may really be the biggest mystery in golf. Until somebody comes up with the reason this may happen, we have to find a better way of dealing with it.

Most of the time, we are looking to find ways to correct the part of our game that has gone haywire during the round. Instead of trying to do that, we should just make the best of it. The problem will most likely correct itself the next day. Some problems are bigger than others. Let us start with driving the golf ball. You will hit your driver 13 to 14 times a round. If your shots are having a particular pattern, just go ahead and play if you are making solid contact. If you are not making good contact, then change the ball position or open or close your stance. Sometimes what you do may not even make sense, but just go with the results. If your irons are the issue, then take some pressure off your iron game by going for the middle of the green until things seem better. If that doesn’t work, then again, ball position and stance may help you get better. You may wind up hitting nothing but low punch shots or your 7 wood from 150 yards and out. Sometimes taking more club than you think may work; taking less club may actually free up your swing when you go after the ball a little harder. This can be helpful toward the end of a round that you are playing well. Never underestimate fear and adrenaline. If your short game around the greens is giving you problems, then change the way you are playing the shots. Maybe go for the bump and run for all shots, even if that means not hitting the green on the fly. Go the opposite way and hit nothing but high shots, even when the high shot is not required. Getting closer or farther away from the ball may help. We discussed putting in the last blog, but the principle is the same. A grip or stance change may help the situation. The one thing you do not want to do is to try and fix your swing or technique. Whatever you come up with is not going to last anyway. You probably have misdiagnosed your problem anyway. The bottom line is you have to go with whatever game you have that day and do the best you can on the part that is misbehaving. Once the round is over, forget about it. It most likely will go away the next round. That is the good news about your game changing so much from day to day. The bad stuff doesn’t stay around either.

The best way to think when you start a round is to be ready for anything. Try to minimize what you are doing poorly and take advantage of what you are doing well. If you are driving the ball well, use it on holes where you might otherwise use an iron or fairway wood. If your fairway woods are bad, then use irons when you are over 190 yards away. If the irons are bad, then bunt that 7 wood 150 yards. If low punch shots seem to be working, do it. If trying to lift the ball up high in the air gives you good results, do it for every shot. If everything in your game is working smoothly, just say a little prayer and don’t expect it to happen tomorrow. Remember changing ball position and stance may do wonders. Do it quickly and see if results will change. If you are hitting better shots, continue until you stop hitting better shots, and then try something else. Remember you can hit a fade from a closed stance; Hogan did it all the time. Likewise, you can hit a hook from an open stance. There are no laws on the golf course, just results. It is not that you want expectations to be low; you want them to be nonexistent.