I wonder if anyone can help

[nelly]

I have a huge problem with golf.
I can be on the range hitting balls all day long and the all go as i want them, straigh, draw, fade, high, low. But as soon as I get on the first tee on a course I seem to forget how to swing. It is a huge pain coz I know what I can play like but walking onto a course just seems to kill my game.
Does anyone else suffer from this?
What can I do about it?

Thanks

 

[King Par]

You can't do anything about it except get that same swing you do on the range, into your head. All you have to do is relax and realize that the swing you're about to do is like all the swing you've done before.

 

[zaphod]

find a low pressure local course and play alone. Even a executive or par 3 tract will do. Play some low pressure rounds to relax. It's PLAY golf not work golf.

good luck

 

[Bignose]

You need to practice pressure situations. Because at the range, you are loose and relazed, but then are tensing up on the course.

There are several drills you can do. I think that the "x in a row" drill is among the best. x can be anything: 30 3 foot putts, 20 chips within 5 feet of the hole, or maybe for your long game practice 10 perfect drives. Perfect in the sense that you get both good distance and your aim is dead on.

And, here's the real key to this drill: you have to start over if you make even one mistake. That is, if you are doing the "10 perfect drives in a row" drill, even if you screw up on #9, you have to start back over at 0. This is practice stressful situations, because you are not leaving the range until you can complete the x in a row. Once you are standing over the second to last shot, and the last shot, the pressure will be on not to screw up because you don't want to start over.

If you think 10 in a row would be too easy, make it 20, or 30. You just have to promise that you are going to stay there until you can do x in a row. You will keep buying buckets until you do it or they kick you off the range.

If you have a good friend to practice with, little betting games on the practice green are good to practice pressure situations, too. My buddy and I usually play for something small, like a 6 pack of beer or something like that. One of the ones we like is to target one of the shorter range flags, we each get 6 shots, and closest to the target gets a 6 pack from the other.

Finally, I haven't read it, but there is a book out there that claims to help with cases like this. It is called Pratice to Learn / Play to Win by Guadagnoli. You may want to check it out.

edited to add: something to consider further: do you have a lot of hand manipulation in your swing? The reason I ask is that when you are on the range, if you have a lot of hand manipulation in your swing, you have to time the firing of those small muscles in your hand perfectly to hit good shots, it is fairly easy to groove a swing and the timing of those small muscles. But, when you get on the course, because of the stressful situation the adrenaline starts flowing. And adrenaline's major function on the muscles is that they fire harder and faster. If your golf swing has a lot of hand muscles in it, and the adrenaline starts flowing, it is almost pure dumb luck to time those adrenaline-pumped muscles correctly. If may be worth taking an objective look at your swing and seeing/feeling if you have too much hand/small muscles movements in it. And perhaps working on a more core-driven large muscle-driven swing, one where the hands are more along for the ride. When the large muscles have adrenaline in them, they may fire more quicker too, but they usually won't completely ruin a golf swing, compared to a golf swing with small muscle movements in it.