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HAHAHA After reading that last statement about hitting everything to the right, I may have a fix. This IS my main problem I can play 2,3 maybe10 rounds, and no problem. then I hit 1 of these Well, then it may end, or more than likely I will hit some more. I may not be able to hit a straight ball??????????????? I can do this practicing also. Hit 3-4-500 good then.??????????????? Anyway, I taped my hosel, and it showed I was shanking it. At times I did hit it on the face, but I hooded, or turned over the club and STILL shanked it!!!!!!!!! Now, I moved away, or just addressed the ball with the toe about even with the inside of the ball. I think that I was compensating for the angle of the arms/hands at address. In other words, I was reaching out, straightening the swing and shanking the ball?? Just try a few easy swings and see. World of difference to me. Friends told me I was shanking, and I thought **!!! Figured I just was coming over the top/ wide open club? A lot of great advice here. I like the PA PLAYA reply. Hope this helps. I know that stoping ***, and finding out WHY is an accomplishment

I was going to suggest something similar - get a grass broom - one that looks a bit like a traditional witches broom - and start off by swinging it as much like a golf club as possible - turn all the way back and through. The grass provides good air resistance and it is impossible to swing it without rhythm. It promotes good muscle memory and when you swing a club try and feel the same tempo - you'll surprise yourself with the results. It's always my "go to" drill when things go awry - as they do more often with advancing years!!

I dont really believe in walking away from the game for x amount of time. If you do come back and its gone, great. If it ever comes back, you are back to square one again.

However, being Christmas, if you do feel like a break its as good an excuse to get away from the game for a little, spend time with the family, enjoy your food and drink, just forget about golf.

I have started coming over the top a little recently, and have found a few things. Firstly after a week at work my back is stiff and takes some serious stretching to get back to swinging the club in comfort. Secondly, I am trying to focus on Harvey Penicks 'magic move' where at the top of the backswing you smoothly start to transfer the weight to the left and return your right elbow to your side (in one movement), thus dropping the club on the inside. Moving the weight to your left foot should also stop you hitting the ball fat, another Harvey Penick lesson (guesss what book I got for my birthday ).

Nick Faldo said in one of his videos that once you get the club shaft back to parallel to the ground, you can hit the ball as hard as you like, the key is getting it to this point.

Anyway, whether you decide to work on it, or have a little break, do whats right for you and enjoy christmas

Stu

Way too many swing thoughts...the reason I am going to take a break is that it is not a small problem or two, my game has totally gone away and it is not due to coming over the top, tempo or improper weight transfer...I believe it is mental and physical to a lesser degree (dog tired)...like I said before, I practice short game quite a bit but managed to leave two putts crazy short...my irons are 3-4 clubs short of their normal distance when I manage to hit them...just really strange all around...I'm leaving playing and full swing practice alone (did manage 2.5 hours on the green today chipping and putting...better results thankfully) for a bit and come back fresh...

heh bro .. i can understand you totally ... my swing was(is) gone too !
my problem was that due to a thigh strain on my left leg, i wasn't able to transfer my weight properly , resulting in me shanking 90% of the time.. the 1 time i try to go on to the greens, it's christmas morning .. and wat i did was to put all my weight to my left on address and hit the ball.. that works in getting the ball to go straight but i lost distance like crazy ..

luckily , the short game is still there (you put most of your weight left when you're aiming for the flag anyway ) and i got away with a decent mid 80 score..

this thigh strain has been bothering me for like 2 weeks now.. it's really just a dull pain and i never thought it would bother me and i spent a long time really couldn't figuring out what's wrong and i keep on going to the range to try to work things out and nothing seems to work for the past 2 weeks till 2 days before christmas, a fren pointed out my problem for me..

now, i try to resist going for practise untill the thigh gets better .. it's frustrating otherwise..

anyone else knows how to give me some drills to do the weight transfer thing properly ? (swing with feet closed , slow full swing ..i tried a lot .. )

I've been in this situation many times and to solve it i just focus on the fundamentals like grip and tempo

So I had a lesson yesterday...the instructor is one that I have been to before and has helped a great deal in the past...worked on takeaway, weight shift and downswing transition...it always amazes me the amount a trained eye can see and effectively change in a short period of time...to say that I am healed will only be proven on the course after a good bit of work, but I am on the right track anyway as I hit some of the best shots I have hit in the last 2 months during and directly following the lesson...the important part is that I hit them in braces of 10 rather than one here and one there...2 days left to close out my goals for 2006!

glad to here you getting back, seems most of us have that spell from time to time.

Try playing with a trusted friend as your caddy. Let you caddy tell you what to hit and how to hit the shot. Also, let your caddy read the putts and follow their directions to the tee. It sounds like you are questioning your own judgement and you need some reassurance to get back on track.

Went to the course today feeling good, did a full stretch then hit some nice chips and putts for about 20 min before heading out...
shot an even 100 with 1 gir and 2 pars and just felt terrible over the ball...almost to the point of being mildly panicked as nothing felt right regardless of how many times I would reset my setup...
I was looking over this thread and it is morbidly facinating...like watching a train wreck...mentally that is where I am right now and was bound up to the point that I was unable to hit the ball with an iron over 150 (my usual 8 iron choked down 1 inch)...I am going to practice what I was taught, review the fundamentals, etc....but I have never had this happen before where my game has come apart to where I am feeling like a rank beginner with no feel whatsoever in my hands...wish I had a better report as no one wants this thread to come about to a happy ending more than I do...I like your idea Pistol, its just that right now I can't consistently hit a wedge, let alone a 7 or 5 iron and I really don't know why...

Big, just so you know that you're not alone in your struggles....

I spent the past two months eagerly awaiting my xmas gift from my wife -- her blessing for me to embark on a golf trip to Ocean City, MD with a few friends. The trip is a winter getaway, between Christmas and New Years. Four days of golf at some of the best courses in OC.

The first day started out normally, but near the end I was struggling a bit. No big deal...

Wednesday was a tad worse. It was at that point that I realized I wasn't swinging hard enough. LOL... So naturally, things were only going to continue to deteriorate, but at an even much quicker pace, and it did.

Thursday came, and after realizing that swinging harder on Wednesday just wasn't the proper treatment for my ailments, I took more club and swung easier. Still, nothing felt good. I found myself uncommitted standing over the ball, and the lack of confidence showed in every aspect of my game. The short game that had somehow provided some means of a safety net the first two days was suddenly gone.

Just when you think it can't possibly get any worse, it does. Last day of the trip, final round at a very impressive course, minutes before my tee time. THE ROUND I've been looking forward to for all these weeks, and I find myself wishing that we had just checked out of the hotel early and headed home. This was not going to be a pretty day, despite the wonderful 60* temps, sunshine, and excellent playing conditions. First hole, first tee box, and I proceed to send an entire sleeve of balls to their watery deaths. That was just the beginning of the end, so I'll spare you all of the sentiments that you've become familiar with yourself the past few weeks.

My xmas gift turned out to be nothing more than frustration. Everything else about the trip was great, besides the golf. But to spend that many days looking so forward to it finally happening, then to just no-show like I did... I know your pain.

I'm looking forward to not touching a club for the next few days. ;)

Happy New Year!

My prediction is that after the first of the year you'll both eventually venture out to the home track and hit the ball as well as you ever have...why?...because you'll just be trying to hit golf shots and not trying to fulfill any self-imposed goals. Performance on demand is possible but for the very few. My advice is to just hit good golf shots, take your game with you wherever you go. Don't let a special venue or personal goal be your motivation to play well or be your measure of success. Just remember that golf comes from within and when you're not hitting it well you're offered an opportunity to learn something about yourself...and if you truly learn it then you'll be that much closer to mastering it and ensuring that you never (well, hardly ever) revisit that particular problem again (whether it's a swing flaw, brain cramp, confidence issue, etc.).

I often think about how, when I was a little kid, the golf course seemed like a much more pastoral, magical experience than it does now. It's a trade-off...before I cared about my caliber of play/score it seemed like the grass was greener, the smells sweeter, the sounds more lilting, etc. But there comes a point when, if you really want to play better, you must filter out your environs, at least temporarily, and enter a concentration bubble and focus on executing the shot, just like you've done hundreds of times before. Forget about everything else, including score, personal goals, prestige of the course I'm playing, cruddy last shot, cruddy last hole, cruddy last round, etc. In order to pull the shot off I have to temporarily forget about the beauty of my surroundings and the difficulty of the hole/course and just focus on me and the ball. There comes a point where you must become less of an artist and more of a mechanic...and mechanics necessarily view beauty differently than artists. Once the shot is executed, you've done your job and you can analyze/revel in the results and smell the roses until it's time to perform again. To me, one of the hardest things in golf is to turn it on and turn it off...gather your concentration and purpose for the shot at hand, relax, execute it, then turn it off and enjoy the walk, not to forget that you're golfing and yet not to obsess or over-inflate the importance of it, only to arrive at your ball and muster the focus once again. That, more than the physical demands of the game, is what wears you down, imo.

But, I digress. Golf is hard enough...don't put undue pressure on yourself to perform, that's all.

Shade

I had all the same problems, until I realised I was casting. Uncocking my wrists at the top, causing shanks and pulls, and completely killing my game and confidence. I couldn't hit a wedge either. It's embarrasing hittng wedges 45* off line. Makes you look like you've never played before.

I just focussed on 'the truck pulling the trailer', making sure I held my wrist cock longer, leading into the ball with the butt of the club. Now I'm playing the best I've ever played, hitting 266 metre drives (292 yards), which is about 30 metres more than I was before, and haven't hit a shank in three rounds (it was killing me before).

It can't surely be totally mental. You must be doing something consistently wrong, and there must be an answer somewhere. The short putts will just be because the other fault is causing a lack of confidence. Your problem may be nothing like mine, but it sure has similar symtoms!

Well...I am about as frustrated as a person can be...took a week off, last two rounds 106 and 99...went to the range today and hit the first 10 balls just like I wanted to then-nothing...I was shanking and topping so badly I was afraid for the others on the hitting line...literally 90 percent of the bucket went like this, even when I started doing little half swings (who shanks a half swing!?!?!?)... I was paired with a guy who had been playing 5 months yesterday for 5 holes...he beat me soundly over that stretch by at least 5 strokes...HELP...

I had a great round of golf last week,the weather has,nt been good so course a bit waterlogged,my friends suggested matchplay as opposed to stroke play,i got a par 4 at the first and one of my friends who got a 6 suggested the matchplay,whoever gets worse score at first has to mark all the scores,so surprise ,surprise he suggests we don,t count scores,i enjoyed the game as matchplay took away the pressure,you can get an 8 at one hole and the game ain,t over,golf is a very mentally orientated game,i quit 28 years ago and regret it,my friends got below 90 and i was stuck at 90,28 years later it took me only a year to hit 80,the club is an extension of the mind and body,i get free emails from a site which gives me tips on the mental side of golf,the main theme around is this,focusing on the result will destroy the process,enjoy the process and the result will take care of itself,i would say stop counting score for a few weeks,playing to the scorecard can destroy the golf game,get round the course and if you hit 80 bad shots and 20 good shots,come off that course after patting yourself on the back for the good ones,throw the bad shots in the bin,when you hit a good one then imagine the cameras clicking and the gallery erupting,golf is a game of confidence,if i beat myself up then i play worse,give yourself positive reinforcement,nick faldo went through a patch where he had too many swing thoughts and he said he had to fight it,driving = experimentation,golf course = no swing thoughts,i went through a bad patch last year because i wanted good golf instantly,this meant i was thinking and working with too much at one time,say for instance you learn that slow takeaway is better,practise this for a month,forget about wrist break etc,practise one thing for a few weeks,then move onto another,you can,t hit a golf ball whilst your mind is running over things,this causes the mind and body to be out of sync,the only time for thinking is when you line up.what club will i use,where do i want the ball to go,check grip then alignment,then switch off focus,let the swing be connected as one thing and trust yourself and do the swing you practised in a relaxed fashion,concentrate on the process and let the relaxed swing take care of the outcome,best of luck and hope i hav,nt ranted too much,search for books and site about the mental side of golf and i can,t emphasise too much about recording those good 20 shots,forget the score,get home and tell the wife about the killer putt you made or the perfect drive,or the chip that nearly went in,focusing on bad scores = negative bio feedback resulting in a negative spiral,focus on good shots = positive bio feedback + confidence and more good shots.