r/golf • u/Successful-Tea-5733 • 17h ago
Swing Help Tips on becoming more consistent?
I've been playing for 20 years this year, have never broken 80. Shot 80 on the nose in 2022 and decided my goal for 2023 was to break 80. Didn't happen, hasn't happened yet. I have been taking lessons and they really have helped me stop thinking about a lot of the small stuff. I can hit every shot. I went to the range Sunday, hit several balls with my 9i, hit them all almost perfect. I can hit my driver 300 though I would say I am typically 275ish. And that's plenty.
My problem in consistency.
Like on sunday, hole number 1 I sliced my tee shot OB after having hit several perfect shots on the range. I hooked my tee shot on number 4. But then on Number 7? I nearly drive the green on a 330 par 4. Hit the ball perfectly and hit it exactly where I aimed. Then number 8? Banana slice. Number 12, long par 5 I hit it dead straight and then hit the green in 2. Number 13? short par 3 and I hit it short in the water... and so on.
And this is a course I am a member of, I play 3 times a week so it's not like I don't know the course.
I understand that even the best in the world hit bad shots. But my bad shots are BAD. And again it's just inconsistent. Is there something anyone has found in similar circumstances that helped them be more consistent for 18? When I play, on number 1 if I hit a good tee shot I usually say "1 down 13 to go. Like, I only need to hit 36 good balls in order to score dedcently but I just seem to have too many goof ups every round.
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u/paddzzz 17h ago
Do you try to murder the ball every swing? Have you tried a round where you swing everything, no matter what, at 75%? How's your chipping and putting?
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u/Successful-Tea-5733 17h ago
I think that may be part of it. But I think it's also dangerous. I played Friday and hit one really well where I wans't trying to kill it. But then I took that same approach to thet next tee and absolutely sliced the ball off the face of the earth.
My putting is honestly lights out. And not tooting my own horn, I almost never 3 putt. My chipping is good from 20 yards in. But I struggle with the 40-60 yard shots.
When I look at my scorecard, all of my doubles and triples come from bad tee shots. Either with driver, or on a par 3 I miss the green badly and have to drop. It should be the easiest shot to hit consistently, the ground is flat and I'm on a tee so I feel like I am missing something somewhere.
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u/Fragrant-Report-6411 17h ago
Everybody struggles with 40-60 yard shots. Don’t leave yourself those shots.
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u/hopefuldonkeykick 15h ago
This so much.
If you have a distance that kills you, play the hole backwards to avoid that distance? Can't score from 40-60 out? Then you're never hitting a club that leaves you that distance unless you screw up the shot before it.
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u/mvbighead 17h ago
This is my struggle as a high HC. And it isn't so much murder, but I find a slow steady pace getting me good shots, which gives me confidence. So I get to the next shot, and want to add more to it. Find that next bit of oomph... and somewhere along the way through some shots, I thin one or don't close the face or or or.
Rotation, weight shift, and those things I find myself falling out of throughout a round. Rotation more than anything I often find myself falling back to old tendencies and staying somewhat flat footed. When I remember to do everything, things go much better.
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u/likethevegetable 17h ago
Dude, consistency is the name of the game. It's not your problem, it's literally everyone's.
The low hanginging fruit is doing everything that happens before the swing consistently. Routine, shot planning, grip, set-up, heck even stretching and diet. Then you work on getting a repeatable swing. Then you practice it over and over.
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u/Successful-Tea-5733 17h ago
Somewhat related, I actually remember The Haney project years ago, Ray Romano also an avid golfer who had never broken 80. He didn't on the show but I think he has since. Anyway, I think of this when I shoot an 81 or 82. Like he has more money and resources than I do and still struggled to break 80.
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u/Responsible_Ant6833 17h ago
i remember that show ray was all over the place off tee just like you described. for me the biggest thing was learning to leave the ego at home and club down when my swing feeling off. a bad drive with a 3-wood still leaves me in play but a slice with driver is OB and round over on first hole
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u/Ok_Captain8907 17h ago
If you are comfortable with all the shots, I find its easier to sacrifice distance for the score. I know i hit my driver 265-275 but if i miss hit on less forgiving holes then I am OB. so i will grab a hybrid usually and carry it 215-225 on some holes and accept a longer approach but it lets me have complete confidence off the tee. I guess what i mean is i score low when i commit to every shot, confidence in the swing helps the whole round
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u/Successful-Tea-5733 17h ago
I really don't hit my 3w well, and I have a hybrid 3 but it launches the ball in the air so hitting that may leave me short of many of the fairways.
I really do hit my driver well most of the time. But of 14 tee shots, 6 of them are just completely uncontrolled and I don't really know what I'm doing wrong.
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u/Fragrant-Report-6411 17h ago
6 drives out of 14 that uncontrolled is not hitting your driver well.
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u/Jasper2006 17h ago edited 17h ago
That's a recipe for not breaking 80! Barely half your drives are playable. Get a lesson and work on that. It's just impossible to play decent golf when you don't know where your driver is going on nearly half the holes.
You might also experiment with a 'fairway finder' driver swing. When I HAVE to hit a ball straight, I practice and am pretty reliable with a kind of 'stinger' driver. I choke up (driver is 44.5" so I'll be playing it maybe 43"), tee it a bit lower, and take what 'feels' like a 3/4 swing. I don't swing easy, just shorter. It comes off low, which helps, and I get maybe 240 or a little less (260 median on typical drives).
I also find that what helps me most off the tee (really for all shots....) is picking a very specific target. So 'tree trunk' or 'right edge of that roof' versus 'left side' or 'down the middle'. Then I just fix that very specific TARGET in my mind as my swing thought. It's pretty incredible how often that works out, and how often when I hit a bad one I do NOT have a specific target. If your line is vague like 'middle-ish of the fairway' it's kind of hard to fix that in your head...
I also find that picking a specific target helps my commitment to the shot.
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u/Random_Effecks 17h ago
Sorry but if 6/14 shots are completely uncontrolled that's not hitting well. Personally if it's not 9/10 shots going with the correct shape and dispersion then it still needs work which is lessons and range time.
I don't use clubs that's at less than 8/10
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u/South-Umpire-486 17h ago
course management. you don’t always have to hit driver. on holes that don’t fit your eye, tee off with a fwy/hybrid/iron. keeping the ball in play is most important when trying to avoid blowup holes. sounds to me like your main issue is consistency with driver. so instead of teeing it up all 14 times, only use it on long par 4s and par 5s. especially if you play the same course
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u/DarkHelmet2222 17h ago
Course management. Avoid the big mistakes. If you can shoot in the 80s regularly, you know what your misses look like, so you can plan your shots to stop your primary miss from getting you in huge trouble.
Sounds like you fade/slice quite a bit. You can't recover from an OB shot, so on holes with OB right, make absolutely sure you don't go there. Aim more left, take a shorter club, whatever. Main thing is you want to be able to recover from a mistake.
Same deal with approach shots. Look for where the most trouble is, and avoid it. If the hole is on the front and there is a bunker (or even worse, water) on the front right, you need to aim to the middle/left of the green. A faded shot will end up both right AND short, so plan to give yourself either a long putt or a relatively easy chip. In that scenario, aiming to leave the ball short and left of the green is also a good plan, leaving yourself a nice easy chip.
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u/Appropriate_Yak_745 17h ago
I'm on the same journey and something I am trying is every time I hit a bad shot (or putt), I take a beat & see if I can diagnose what I did wrong. Was it alignment, was it aim, was it not completing my backswing, was it not weight shifting properly ... you get the idea.
I notice that for any given round, I tend to have the same couple of issues causing wayward shots and if I can detect them early and be intentional, it tends to help.
It has at least eliminated those rounds that I used to have sometimes where I honestly felt like bailing at the turn since nothing was working. Now I can most of the time turn things around ... until the next issue crops up a few holes later :)
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u/D-Train0000 17h ago
Double down on fundamentals.
Grip, set up, sequence from the top, impact position, tempo, balance.
Even Scotty Scheffler has a rubber molded grip trainer meant for beginners on a practice iron.
At the advanced level we work on getting the feels of these down to fine points.
I call them advanced fundamentals. Because you shot 80 you need to graduate to stuff people work on that are more advanced than you.
Some advanced fundamentals are, grip pressure, ground force, low point, foot work, adjusting weight and stance for speciality shots.
Really realize that a good repeatable swing comes from these fundamentals. We have around 8 positions from set up to finish that we look at. And we look fundamentally at them first.
There ya go
Good luck. Keep grinding!
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u/Orangejets22 10h ago
Read or listen to the Four Foundations of Golf - will change your entire perspective on what's good and bad - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61313202-the-four-foundations-of-golf
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u/Legal-Description483 17h ago
You have to really focus and lock in on every single shot. The moment you don't, very bad things happen.
I'm in exactly the same boat.
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u/Current_Department73 17h ago
grip and stance are probably the biggest difference players can control but don't
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u/Acrobatic-Ad-7133 17h ago
Sounds like you’re losing a lot of strokes off the tee. Have you considered taking a shorter/safer club off the tee? Especially on those shorter par 4s or 3 shot par 5s?
This year I bought a driving iron to play off the tee. I normally hit it like 240-255ish. But, I hit it straight as an arrow. On an average round. I might miss 2 fairways with this club. But I rarely ever take a penalty
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u/orangetree151 17h ago
Get as comfy as you can when playing. And when you get comfy, play with that comfort. Don’t overthink shots, but try and flow. When you hit a bad shot, forget about it. Loads more holes to score on. You’ll first break 80 with a 77 or 78 most likely, too much P on the 79 and you’ll blow it. Break 80 once and you’ll easily do it again - it’s a psychological breakthrough you need now, not a golf swing mechanics one.
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u/Vegetable_Panda_8072 17h ago
Your mental game and your preshot routine are usually always the biggest gap for any player. If you don't have a consistent preshot routine that happens before every shot that triggers you to focus on a specific target you'll never be a consistent golfer. Visualizing your shot and trusting that and removing swing thoughts is a huge thing. Can't recommend "Golf is Not a Game of Perfect" more highly. Great book that tons of pros and high level players live by. Your mind is the most important factor of playing great golf.
Case in point is Scotty, the dude can hit it terribly some days and still shoot great scores and he does this all the time. Same with Tiger. He did not always have his A game and won tons of tournaments with great course management and pulling the driver out of the bag.
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u/smoothiejr 17h ago
At the range its better to hit like 2 or 3 clubs to get a better sense of how setup and swing feels affect the contact and ball flight. Imo hitting 20 sw/7i/driver balls is better than like 5 balls with every club. On the course breaking 80 is all about keeping the ball in play, not 3 putting the greens you hit, and giving yourself a makable putt at par on greens you miss
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u/Seattle_fan_ 17h ago
Your story is unique for sure. It’s obvious that hitting more fairways is going to change everything.
I broke 80 three times this year. Have been playing on and off for about 35 years. Never really played all that much until this year and now it’s 3-5x/week. Added a bunch of length to my tee shots and the game is completely different.
One of the sub 80 rounds I had a birdie and a par after back to back missed fairways. Drives went right and both were in the trees BUT deep. Hit PW 150 over the trees and got my GIRs. So, really you don’t need to rope in that tee shot all that much. Convert just a few more fairways, be in a few more misses where recovery is possible and you’re turning chicken shit into chicken salad basically. There’s one par 5 at my home course that I started keeping track of how many times I’ve parred without ever being in the fairway and it’s a lot.
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u/trailglider 16h ago
There's not much information in the post, there are a few clues that make me think of a few things.
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If 6 of 14 drives are uncontrolled, you have a serious driver problem. I would shift the focus of your lessons to developing a fairway finder. Even if you end up with what feels like a 3/4 swing punch cut or something, you'll still probably hit it 250 or so, which is plenty to play to scratch on a 6400 yard course. It's fine to cut loose if there's a hole with no consequences, but you can't break 80 if you're regularly putting yourself into recovery situations off the tee.
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Do you hit off mats at the range? If so, you may not be hitting the nearly perfect 9 irons as good as you think. Also, hitting several shots in a row at the range with any club will give you a false sense of how well you can hit it. It's really important to change up your club selection at the range unless you're working on a specific technique issue.
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On your iron shots, are you trying to hit it to the middle / fat part of the green, or are you trying to hit it close to make birdies? Are you basing your club selection on the averages you're actually seeing on the course, or on what you see at the range? Irons are all about control, not distance. You want to choose a club and target where you can make an average / mediocre swing and give yourself the best chance to be putting. Birdies are great, but boring pars and bogeys are much more important for breaking 80.
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u/twylight777 16h ago
hit the sweet spot on driver > speed for now - gear effect can make the golf ball go crazy off line. The other thing is flipping wrists - get a coach. I bet you have a baseball or hockey wrist flip in there with every shot being crazy, but strong.
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u/SituationSoap 16h ago
Based on your post, I would really recommend Golf is not a Game of Perfect by Bob Rotella. Your quote about hitting one good drive and immediately thinking of the other 13 good ones you have to hit is specifically addressed in that book.
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u/GreenWaveGolfer12 16h ago
I would highly recommend taking a long honest look at each aspect of your game. If you are hitting that many poor drives on a course in a single round then your driver just needs work. Figure out a swing with a one-way miss and that has a more consistent delivery. The inconsistency you're talking about is stemming from swing flaws. Identify and fix those and the misses will get smaller and less frequent.
Hitting a bunch of 9 irons in a row at the range is easy. It's an identical lie each time and hitting them sequentially means your body adapts to the right rhythm and swing for that club very easily. On a course where you are taking 5 minutes between swings with different lies for each and almost never hitting the same club twice in a row that's a whole different story. So practice like you play. Take a swing with one club then switch clubs and hit a swing with that. Hitting the same club repeatedly is for when you're working on something in your swing and you need to keep other variables constant so you can focus on the swing thought/change. Or it's for warming up and dialing in distances or getting loose.
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u/mwordell 15h ago
You don't need to hit the ball 275/300 to break 80 at all. Do you have a club/shot where you know you'll find the fairway? If you know your 6i can keep you out of trouble 24/25 times, use it! Use the fairwayr finder club/shot on any hole where trouble could burn you.
Are you playing to your miss? Meaning...if your miss is a duck hook, maybe play a little more to the right (if you are a righty).
Breaking 80 is about minimizing damage more than than scoring birdies. If you miss, play for the bogey instead of the hero shot.
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u/Administrative-Low37 8h ago
If you're losing strokes off the tee then it's time to dial it back a bit. That might mean more irons or woods or hybrids off the tee. But it could also mean much shorter drives with the driver. So you can hit the occasional 300 yd drive, but you're usually around 275. Try hitting it 225, or 250 at the range. Find out what distance you can actually consistently control. Do that and you'll break 80, but you won't be satisfied.
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u/freebasefilms 3h ago
Next time you're supposed to play go to the chipping green instead. Practice for 3 full hours doing all manner of shots, chips, flops, bunkers, runners etc etc. You must become a wizard.
Sound boring? Well then, that is why you are inconsistent.
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u/TheZona 17h ago
Practice more. That’s the only thing that builds consistency.