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hi all,
well, the title says it all...MY SWING IS BROKE!
it all started the other day, i was playing a round at a course i just don't like...
i began hitting some balls on the range, trying to loosen up. all was good, ball flight seemed stangely well for me (high handicapper). i did notice two things. one, i wasn't cocking my wrists...i felt i was doing the tiger swing ( but i wasn't trying to...honest), and i was thumping the mat more than usual. anyhow, i didn't think anything of it at the time and proceeded to begin my round. well, it all went to heck then. every swing was fat, and when i made contact with the ball it shot out to the right. i know the latter is due to an open club face but i have no idea why i'm hitting it fat.
about a year ago, someone gave me a tip that helped with fat shots. they told me to feel as if i'm skipping a stone on a lake, in referance to my swing. i took that to mean, i should come off my back swing (ie start my swing) with my left knee. that has helped, but now not even that is working. it's very disheartening, my goal for the year is to break 90. i've been close before, but this set back is starting to worry me. if anyone has any idea what's going on, please let me know. if there's any other info i can give, please let me know....i'm really looking for help here!! thanks in advance.

i forgot to mention, strangely ever since i've develped this, my swing and grip feel very awkward with the irons. chipping and putting feel great...but anytime i need to make a full swing...it just feels wierd. ugh!

I wish I could help you. It could be so many things. I have a friend I play with regularly who will have a round occasionally where everything goes severly right or he shanks. There is nothing he can do to change it on those days and there is nothing you can tell him to make it stop. Of course the club starts feeeling weird in your hands before a full swing. It is probably because of your dread in taking the next shot. By the way, my friend will usually come back the next week and the problem is gone without consciously changing much of anything. Not that he is hitting the ball great necessarily but the out of control shanking goes away. You have some fundamental flaw that on most days you can save the swing with some unconscious adjustement you make on the way down to the ball. Getting it going the wrong way though and blammo! All I can say is: Lessons.

If chipping and pitching are good, perhaps you are dipping your head on the full swing.

- or -

Fat shots are indicative of "hanging back" on the back foot during your downswing. Hanging back also shows up more on full swings. On your iron shots put 60 percent of your weight forward at setup and make sure on the downswing that your hands lead the club head. Concentrate on making a good weight shift on the backswing and then the downswing.
You wrote you are leading with your knee. This is good but only if you stay balanced. As soon as the knee gets ahead the rest of you body becomes disconnected and you club is out of position at the point of contact. In this case the dreaded fat shot.
Hope this helps.

Oh so many things can go wrong with golf. That's why it's so challenging. And to add to the cliche, it's all in the head. The less confidence you have, the more problems you will have. Work on the on the range until it feels good. On the course, just hit the ball and enjoy the company that you have. I drink silly when I play with one particular friend of mine. And forget about the game. When I play alone (or paired up with strangers) I play well to shot 80's and 90's. And of course on the range I hit like pros. The question is why can't I bring my range game to the course, it's in my head I guess.

One bad day doesn't mean your swing is broke, especially if you usually shoot in the 90s.

Us 20+ handicappers don't typically have the most repeatable swing to start with, and one little extra swing flaw for a day can easily make for a very bad round. But whatever it is is just as likely to be gone the next time you play as to still be there.

I can think of 2 things that may be big contributors ... not playing enough, and hitting off mats. Have you been playing much recently? Or is this one of the first rounds of the season? It's very hard to even maintain a level of play, not to mention get better without playing at least twice a month. And the better you get, the more you have to play to maintain your skill level. Think the pros take 2 months off and come back hitting it just as well as before? No, they spend a week or 2 practicing every day to get ready.

You shouldn't be surprised at all to have a horrible round if you haven't played in a while.

And try not to hit off mats. Especially if you have a tendency to hit it fat. You can make a fat swing and still hit the ball well off a mat. This is probably part of what happened ... the good results off the mat from a bad swing reinforced that swing. If you hat been hitting off grass, you would have seen the bad results, and probably been able to make at least some kind of improving adjustment (conscious or not).

Overall, don't get discouraged. If you believe you have lost your swing, you most likely have, but only because you believe it! You will do much better if you just forget about it and expect to hit the ball well each shot. Now positive thinking alone obviously won't give you a perfect swing, but negative thinking will mess up any swing.