Improving your game and dropping your handicap...

[$2 Nassau]

...anyone ever get "stuck in a rut?" I'm kind of in one now, been floating around a 15-16 handicap for about ayear now. Started playing around 3 years ago, went from a 30 to a 15 pretty quickly by just eliminating all the mistakes I was making out there. Now, it's getting harder to eliminate mistakes and I can't seem to get over this current hump, my handicap has actually gone up a little.

Anyone ever experience this? What did you do to get over the hump?

[SiberianDVM]

How much do you want to improve? How much time and money do you have to devote to it? For most of us, if we can practice an hour or two per day, we can get maybe 4-6 strokes off, once we reach that plateau.

For the really obsessed, I give you Tom Coyne's Paper Tiger. I really cannot recommend this book too much. In 12 months, practising every day, all day, he:
hit over 75,000 range balls
hit over 100,000 golf shots
spent over 120 hours in sand traps
hit 15,000 four foot putts
played 5,418 holes of golf
lost 38 pounds
spent 215 hours in the gym
spent 36 hours on the trainer's table
spent 43 hours one on one with Jim Suttie
spent 7 days learning from a sports psychologist
digested 37 books, 24 magazines, 42 videos, 3 CDs & 2 audiotapes
gained 34 yards off the tee
shaved 15 shots off handicap
reduced stroke average from 87.0 to 72.9
spent $52,000

And he still wasn't pro level!

[ezra76]

Buy a new driver...

I've been stuck this past year after going lower on an easier course last year. Still, I had to make decent shots to score and use some course management. For me it's been getting back to basics and trying to build a more consistent swing. that's getting me back down in the 80's full time. I've hit tons of short wedge shots and feel like I've sort of built my swing back up club by club, wedge to driver. Not really huge changes, just implementing basic fundamentals, grip, turn, weight transfer, swing plane, staying connected throughout my swing. It's a longer term process and I kind of like the fact it's not instant. It's fun to see a little glimpse and then little by little the pieces start coming together.

I highly recommend getting a lesson or 2 if you don't know what to work on. I spent a couple hours with a guy who is a Hogan nut and between his instruction and "5 Lessons" I know what I'm trying to accomplish and have a map to get there.

[Pa Jayhawk]

I did pretty much the same thing. Went to around 15-16 in three, then when I moved up here and bought new clubs and stopped playing us much and there were no decent ranges convenient, mine ballooned up as high as 24. While I had cut it down under 20 again, it was not until the very end of last year (4 years later) when we joined this course last September and I started playing alot more golf that it got back down to around 14-15. Then this year I again got new irons a few months ago and it went back up to around 19, but it has started falling again.

Do you still play the same amount of golf? That was the key to my problems. Although for me there is a thin line between too much and too little. If I play rounds 5 or more times a week, I start to lose focus and my game suffers as well. So if I want to play more than that, I will take days that I don't keep score and practice, trying new things and hitting several shots, which seems to help.

[Shea_Butler]

chipps, pitches n putts is where its at... thats what i had to work on to break eighty this year, spend an hour before you go out (assuming you have time) practicing with your favorite greenside wedge from all angles at every practice pin, once you get two of the three balls within three feet move to the next one, so on n so forth, developes great feel for the round at hand and over time in general

[ezra76]

Originally Posted by Shea_Butler

chipps, pitches n putts is where its at... thats what i had to work on to break eighty this year, spend an hour before you go out (assuming you have time) practicing with your favorite greenside wedge from all angles at every practice pin, once you get two of the three balls within three feet move to the next one, so on n so forth, developes great feel for the round at hand and over time in general

That's a good idea. I see a big difference in my short game when I get it warmed up first. I may play in the afternoon Sat. with Twofast. I think I'll try showing up like an hour early and utulizing that practice green. That thing is lightening fast downhill and they don't care if you chip. I see a lot that say "no chipping". Not sure what's up with that? Maybe dip$hit's blading flop shots into the clubhouse? I always aim away from the clubhouse if I'm going to flop one.

[tannerman200]

I'm the same way. When I get to the course early before a round and chip and putt I play better.

[gunning4u]

Most ranges I go to suck, poor yardage markers and most people I see just bang away with long irons and woods, I don’t see too many people trying to hit short shots. I’m lucky I have a great range that has a practice academy that I can go to and work on my short game and wedges. It’s a regular range but has two practice holes off the side and a putting green where you can work on chipping and putting. When I go practice I get a 75 ball bucket and I warm up hitting about 1/3 of the bucket with just my 58*, 56* and PW. Then hit my driver and then irons. When I’m done with the bucket I go over to the chipping green and spend about 20-30 min hitting balls from 40 yards and in. Then I go over to the other practice green and work on my wedge game some more from 120 and in. I take my range finder with me and mark off yardages from the pin @ 50, 75, 100, and 115, and hit about 5 balls from each marker, go up and putt the balls out. Then I will play out the two practice holes hitting 3 balls on each hole one is a 171 yard par 3 and the other is a 310 yard par 4. I will play those out until I play them out with an average of par or better with all three balls. I go out later in the night when there’s not too many people are out around 7:00 and practice until dark about once or twice a week, I also try to get a round or two in a week. This practice routine has helped out a lot; but it takes a lot of time.