Going Backward Quickly, Very Very Quickly

I started playing golf seriously last September my first job after getting a membership was to play 3 rounds in a week and a half so that I could submit 3 cards before the winter mats were introduced. Started off as most people do pretty badly scoring over 120 then by my 3rd round I was under 100 which I was pleased with and was awarded a handicap of 27 not to bad for someone who had played golf just over a handful of times.

  

From then on things moved slowly over the winter played quiet regularly with consistent results between 97-105 but not much improvement in scores even though I felt my game was improved drastically. When the summer came back around I was prepared and played a lot of golf over the early part of the summer and quickly broke 95 then a week later broke 90 things were going great but unfortunately due to commitments was unable to play in many qualifying comps hence my handicap remained unchanged.

  

I decided to get myself a track able handicap so started to input scores on here and things just went downhill from there I entered my first 3 scores and they were the worst golf I had played all summer and I ended up with a handicap of 26.3. I was not deterred and just thought it was a blip and I would soon get it down with a few good rounds not the case I am now back to the start and have not broken 100 for quiet some time now even last week when I got 5 pars and still ended up over 30 I have had a swing of nearly 20 shots on my scores over the last 2 months

  

I have had lessons and at the minute the pro is pulling his hair out with me he says I hit the ball like a 10 handicapper, but when I’m on the course I am a complete Jeckel and Hyde I can’t seem to control my self my swing it’s either sublime or ridiculous tops, fats slices duck hooks I’m just glad I’ve learned to chip and put otherwise I would be recording scores of over 120.

  Has anyone else gone backwards so far that they can’t see any way back or is it just me I know with me it’s a mental thing more than an ability thing but at the minute I’m really struggling to enjoy playing golf with things as bad as they are.

I went through a similar thing a few weeks back Gary.  Felt like I was back to when I first started playing and was playing like a hacker.  I had a think about what I was doing and nothing seemed to be the cause.  Then I realised I was playing twice a week after work (18 holes) and once at the weekend because I wanted to get as much golf in as I could before it got too dark to play on an evening.  The result was I was playing because I felt I had to rather than because I wanted to. 

I was getting to the course and while I was getting my stuff out the car thinking "I'm not really in the mood for this".  I wasn't enjoying it and realised I was 'golfed out'.  I took a break and didn't play for a week and the next time I went out I was really relaxed and refreshed and looking forward to playing.  The result was I started off with a 315 yard drive straight down the middle and played much better all the way round! 

In short, stop chasing it and trying to force the good golf back.  Have a break, forget about it, and next time you play do it because you want to play golf, not because you want to fix the problems you're having.  You'll enjoy it more, relax and the improvement will come. 

I agree with Chris's comments. Usually find the same thing happens with myself. Played 4 days on the run a few weeks ago with each round getting progressivly worse and then an enforced break of 10 days saw my following round to be the best of the year. You know you can play better than your current form and as a result I feel your trying to force the issue. Try keeping 1 thing in your mind which is to swing easy. Let the club do the work. The more you force the club then the worse the result can be. Swing to about 80% of your potential and you may find that you'll be straighter and stay out of trouble which can only help and see your scores tumble. This is what I do after a bad run of holes which is why some of my rounds are awefull on the front 9 and then I remember to swing easy with a far more respectable back 9 as a result. Works for me. No harm in trying it. Good luck with finding the cure.