Rocky patch

I’ve been playing golf for about 2 years now but I’ve been on a mission the last 8 months or so to really improve and get my handicap down. Have been on a programme of 6 lessons (had 5 so far) and been practicing regularly. After a few months I saw my handicap come from 18 to 12 in the course of 5 or 6 comps, won a couple of medals. My target was to get to 9 by the end of this season.

All was going well until the last couple of weeks. Last 3 or 4 rounds have been really poor, seems that when I lose my confidence in one area of the game it affects everything else. I’ve had a session with my pro and he seems to have identified the problem in my full swing so at least I know what to work on to improve. In his words “it’s a long term process”.

Have any of you seen similar set backs? How did you find you stopped the rot? Guess I’m looking for reassurance!

It can be pretty frustrating when you’ve committed a significant period of time to improving at it feels like you’re going backwards!

its very important to try and "compartmentalise" different areas of your game and try as much as possible not to get drawn into the sum of the parts.
for example i played really badly with my irons last weekend but took comfort in the fact that i had 28 putts instead of my average 33/34. i still made progress of sorts and had something to be positive about.
if you try to treat the game as being 5-7 different mini battles
(driving, pitching, putting, mid irons etc) then your score will take care of itself.
i used to be obsessed with my score rather than my play... for example when i was on the 6th green with a 4 footer i would be concentrating on trying to stay +1 rather than trying to make the put. one of Rotellas books taught me to treat a round as being 6 different 3 hole competitions rather than one 18 hole slog and this really helpled me alot and stopped me getting too tense. at the time i was playing off 6 so it was handy to be thinking that +1 for the 3 holes was around "level".

Thanks, hend. My chipping and putting has been pretty good throughout this period so I can take positives from that. I'm definitely guilty of letting one bad area of my game affect another.

You have to accept bad spells, its part of any sport. It wouldn't be any fun if we were good all the time.

Rocky patch!.Seems to have been going on for years as far as individual play is concerned.Have not scored 36 points in last couple of years playing off 12.Last two weekends 6 and 7 over after first 3 holes and out of it.Something missing in many areas,concentration,fitness(bad feet)eyesight possibly,alighnment.After saturday when I non returned on the 12th I felt I had wasted 41/2 hours of my life.I do agree with the 6 x 3 holes method but its tough when you are starting so badly.
Roll on saturday!

SR is asolutely right - golf (as all sport) is cyclical even for the professionals. The secret is to reduce the gap between the worst and the best and still score when playing badly. How often do we shoot the lights out, think we've got it cracked only to sink to an all time low next time out? When it all feels like it is falling apart, stick to your routine and assume that that bad shot is a "one off". (This gets tricky when the "one off" is every shot!!)