Frustrated and can’t help it

I try and keep as positive an attitude as possible day after day while out there hitting (lot’s of times unsuccessfully) ball after ball. But, sometimes it just gets to you. Take the past couple of days: I have been working on the 8-iron 140 yard shot for about a month now and last week I played a round where ever single shot was straight and beautiful, but over the past two days I can’t seem to make solid contact while on the course. On the range, it’s not a problem, but on the course it’s thin, fat, pushed, sliced and hooked…

These times are an inevitable part of the practice cycle, and it’s good to keep an open mind and realize that good times are around the corner, but that doesn’t always help when you are out there trying to shoot a good score in hopes that you can get a 6-iron soon. Some times no matter what you tell yourself, it’s just a demoralizing game. And that’s golf, that’s what I love about it, that’s why I chose this sport and I now, more than ever, am determined to figure out what I need to do to make it to the next level. It’s not all fun and games, though. When you take something as serious as I take golf, it’s very hard not to get yourself down when things aren’t going as planned and you hit a slump period.

I’ve been practicing par 3s by playing “worst ball” lately. In this game, you hit two balls and then play from the worse shot of the two, continue this until you get both putts in the hole. This forces you to not only hit one solid shot, but make sure they both land in a good place, which is great for building consistency. On a lot of the holes I can stick both my shots within 20 feet of the hole and manage to two putt from there, but on some of the longer ones I’ve been having issues with my 140 yard 8-iron shots. One of them will inevitably stick a few feet from the cup but the other will be 20-30 feet short or left of the green. Here’s a good example:

One shot would have been an easy one putt, but I ended up shooting a 5 one the hole because my second chip came off thin and went over the green. It’s actually a really great game to see where you stand.

On days like yesterday, sometimes the only thing that you can take away from a round is a beautiful walk outside, but that is by far no consolation for playing poorly.. Still, glad it’s at least summer round here.

Personally, I’d trade a nice summer day for a blizzard and par any day.

8 Responses to "Frustrated and can’t help it"

luke says:

July 1, 2011 at 1:28 pm

dan,
iof you are frustrated i hope you will be good with your driver. i am a 14.8 in my third year now. up untill a few months ago i couldnt hit a fairway that often. i am finally hitting about 50%. but the driver is probably going to be frustrating im just warning you. you may be ok though because you are learning slowly and correctly, so good luck! i will be interested to hear about it.

also, i found out about this cause of teed off with brian katrek on pga network, satttelite radio. katrek brought you up yesterday on the air, i forget what he was talking about but he did drop your name!
dan says:

July 1, 2011 at 3:48 pm

Hi Luke,

I hear ya, am both looking forward to getting a driver and knowing that it will require lots of work so have my mind open to what needs to be done with it. Once we get to that stage we will first start working with it on the range for a couple of months maybe 30 minutes to an hour a day and then slowly bringing it to the course. Very exciting!

That’s cool that they were talking about the dan plan on Sirius, I’ll have to check it out.
Sam says:

July 4, 2011 at 9:02 am

Dan,

Just wanted to say that any golfer who reads this will “get it” and fully understand your frustration. It truly is an infuriating game. To boost your spirits, duffers like me look for that ONE good shot per round that will keep us coming back the next time, hoping for more. An 8-iron sailing 140 yards into the green that ends up a few feet from the hole definitely qualifies. So, if you’re hitting that shot fairly regularly you’re light years ahead of 95% of golfers out there. I definitely appreciate that it’s hard to keep that in mind while out there in the midst of the grind, but those of out here following the project do admire your progress and growing skill.

Keep at, we are fascinated to see how this progresses. Can’t tell you how much I admire the pure guts it takes to actually commit oneself to a project like this. Incredible. Don’t lose sight of that either!

Head down, left arm straight, all that jazz.

Best,

– Sam
dan says:

July 4, 2011 at 10:13 am

Thanks for that, Sam.

It’s often hard to take oneself out of the equation and allow for realism, but I do try and let it roll off my back…

Will keep this in mind. Thanks for the post!
Geoff says:

July 5, 2011 at 5:57 pm

Along with Luke (the first comment) my game is comparable (13.5 hcp) and making the move towards a 10 hcp figure this season. Practise is not all beer and skittles and takes discipline which is the unseen benefit that will assist a golfers game. I have just finished an 8 week training routine for coming regional tournaments. The end result is that six of the ten scores that my handicap is calculated on are in the 8 rounds during this period. Now I have a month of less practise before starting the next 8 week increased preparation routines.
dan says:

July 6, 2011 at 8:37 am

Hi Geoff,

what’s your 8 week training routine like? I’m very curious as to how others who are seriously trying to get better go about it. Glad you are having some down time between your two 8 week sessions, that’s just as important as time spent focussed.
Joshua Olson says:

July 16, 2011 at 3:40 pm

Are you going to start putting up some of your statistics? Even just some monthly %-ages would be great.
dan says:

July 17, 2011 at 1:42 pm

Hello again Josh,

I would like to put up some stats and am working with a man down in the San Fran area. We are not quite there yet, but after about another month of training I should have some numbers to put up that cover the past few months.. Hopefully will be able to report those soon.

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