I figured it out!!!

[warbirdlover]

The end of this summer I had three weeks of some of the worst golf I've played in years after some of the best I've ever played. Then at the very end I got back to playing good again. It was very disturbing while it was going on and it seemed in the past a bad shot would not be a big deal, I'd just go on but during that stretch a bad shot would just infuriate me and my game would just unravel.

Sitting back and thinking about it all I figured it out. I WAS QUITTING SMOKING DURING THE BAD STRETCH. When I hit a bad shot I didn't have the nicotine to calm me down. After I got over it the bad shots did not bother me as much and I went back to doing well.

It feels so much better when you understand WHY something like that happens. I'm now looking forward to a smoke free year of golfing in six months.

[DaveE]

That does make sense. Quitting smoking will screw you up for awhile.

Don't know what you'll use for an excuse next year though.

[twogreen]

I understand your misery perfectly. I am also trying to quit; and am using Nicorette gum as a crutch. Parking the gum inside the cheek has now become a part of my preshot routine.

Somehow, it has become ingrained in my mind that the gum should be on the left side of my mouth. I have actually hit bad shots when I realize, at the last moment, that the gum is on the wrong side. Just something that simple is enough to disrupt my concentration on shot thoughts.

[JEFF4i]

Well at least there's a reason that can be solved.

It's good your quitting though, that stuff messes you up.