[Bob_Huntley]

An off-topic question, but one that needs answering.

What do you do when your game completely goes in the toilet? I played The Preserve a few days ago and shot a couple short of a hundred, after a very snappy 79  at CP the day before. Since then I have compounded the rout by duplicating the same type of number. I go to the range and could win the super-super senior Open but perform like a dunce on the course.

Dr. Katz, step forward and minister to a sinner.

[Mike Benham]

Bob,

I'm sure many will reason that you should not worry about your score, fret about your swing, but to enjoy the moment in the sun (assuming no fog or cloud cover).  Take in the smell of the wilderness, the sounds of the crashing surf, the architectual beauty of the surroundings.

I would like to simplify your dilemma ...

"the worst day of golf is better than the best day of work"

Respectfully submitted,    

Mike (office bound and becoming claustrophobic ...)

[Mike_Sweeney]

B,

Take your 4 favorite clubs + putter and a Sunday bag over to Pacific Grove early or late in the day and play 2 or 3 balls a hole without pencil. Swing away and try to put a few in The Ocean.

If that fails, have a putting contest with Neil .

[DTaylor18]

I like a variation of Mike's theme.  Go play some course that you don't care as much about, or just a fun place where you're not conerned with score or history.  Just go out with the attitude of not caring at all and just enjoying a relaxing day. Often that will rekindle the game a bit.

[A_Clay_Man]

Stay off the range!

Golf the course. Throw down another ball if you KNOW your next, will accomplish the intended shot.

Play the land!

[bg_in_rtp]

I usually do two things when the golf gods stop smiling in my direction:

1) go the range and hit nothing but wedges to unspecified distances.  it helps you get your feel back when you stop thinking about a specific yardage.

2) play 9 holes from the shortest tees possible.  something about having short approaches and birdies putts helps get your confidence back.

[rgkeller]

Back to the basics.

Posture, ball position, alignment, grip.

Braced back leg, keep the knee flex.

Finish into a balanced position with weight on front leg.

Swing and move, no hit.

[ForkaB]

Bob

Take a page from baseball wisdom, and play yourself out of your slump.  As Adam says, DO NOT GO TO THE RANGE!!!!  Ranges are evil places where only the mistakenly obsessed find any solace.  If all else fails, copy and print out rgkeller's simple 11 point check list above, put it in your wallet, and when you feel like practicing, look at it and head straight for the 19th hole for a mind-cleansing and refreshing cocktail.

Your faithful savant, etc. etc.

Rihc

[Joe Hancock]

Bob,

Go fishing for a few days. That'll put the feel back in the hands....

Joe

[W.H. Cosgrove]

I've got a pro I work with on a pretty regular basis.  When I run out of either ideas or patience, I just go for a tune up.  Really it is just an opportunity to get something else to think about.  

I take 3-4 lessons every year beginning in March and finishing up in the fall.  All of this keeps from painting myself into a swing corner that is too hard to escape.  

If you problem is that you've just gotten stale, go for a walk, leave the clubs alone for awhile or take a trip!

[Dan King]

Bob,

Rcih's advise is reasonably sound, but I'd skip the checklist and even thinking about practicing and work on the final part of his advise. We need to get together for golf, skip the round and head right for the 19th hole. We can just slam some down and talk (in my case lie) about how good we used to be.

I've never been in a slump on the 19th hole.

Dan King

"Frank, either you have to get better soon or quit telling people I'm your teacher."
 --Dave Marr (to Frank Gifford)

[Mike Nuzzo]

the answer is in your question...

you should never leave cp

isn't that the point of this site?  find what is good and stick with it.

... oh, and don't swing so hard ...

Go Yanks!

[bg_in_rtp]

if only Hogan had known that he was "mistakenly obsessed", he could have saved himself all those bloody hands on the range.  

[Jeff_Stettner]

Bob:
Invite me down to play with you and we'll have a match. You'll shoot 64 again...

[Bob_Huntley]

Jeffrey,

My dear boy, you are always welcome, as you know. Just seeing your wind up is so painful to this old bod that I wonder how the orthopeadists in Oakland have not retired by now, having sent their children to Harvard on your ten cents.

Come down and help me out.... of course I want ten strokes!

[GeoffreyC]

Bob

Come back east for the next four months. When you have endured a winter of no golf you will forget all those bad swing thoughts and start anew.

[Rick Shefchik]

Good point, Geoffrey -- Those of us who live in the frozen north have to fight our way out of a slump every spring. Since we've been doing it for years, however, it doesn't seem like such a big deal. Bob, just assume you took 5 months off due to winter and go out and play like it's spring. Your game will come back to you.

[Joe Hancock]

Rick,

I always hit more greens in reg in the spring....I forgot all the bad stuff during our long season...

Joe

[Neal_Meagher]

Bob,

I know a thing or two about being in a slump: I've been in once since April 1975.

However, I happen to know that you and I share a common vice in the form of a perfectly made gin and tonic.  Therefore, take 10 days off from even touching a club, go to your nearest and most trustworthy purveyor of fine liquors and purchase a Hendrick's gin made of essences of.............cucumber.  A bit daft making gin that way, but isn't golf equally daft?

[Patrick_Mucci]

Bob Huntley,

See the ball.

Be..... be the ball.

This to shall pass

[TEPaul]

Bob:

Here's my solution. Don't avoid the range at all. Go out to the range and wash your mind of all technical swing considerations and start practicing going from one end of the spectrum to the other. In other words just starting hitting real fades, then straight shots and then draws. Regenerate any of your old (move the ball flight around) "keys" that worked for you in the past if you have to but don't get too technical about how you do that--just do it--hit those wide spectrum shots.

Again, wash your mind of all technical swing thoughts and as My Dad used to say; "Let the ball be your teacher". I'm confident you sure do know how to go from one end of the spectrum to the other and move the ball's flight around.

So just go to the range and do that and as you're doing it, again, wash your mind of swing thought technicalities and think you're 14 years old again.

I'll guarantee you your slump will pass!

If you're having putting problems the very same thing applies. Just wash your mind of all putting mechanics, read the putt and just hit it from here to there without a single putting mechanics thought--only just getting the ball from here to there (hole)!

You can pay me later!  

[David Wigler]

Surprisingly Stettner is the only one who picked up on Bob's hidden meaning - Sorry to out you Bob.  Clearly Huckaby is on his way to a match against you and hearing about this slump, he will feel more guilty than usual and give you even more strokes.  I can feel Huckaby's wallet lightening all the way across the country.  

[Evan Fleisher]

I still think the best advice is to "play your way out of the slump"...I've had some major driver problems over the past few seasons, and all the range work did not seem to help very much.

But...releasing myself from the technical swing thoughts ON THE COURSE has helped tremendously in developing a better feel for my swing and the confidence to ezecute better shots when "the lights are on".  I still hit some doinker shots now and again, but recovering and getting the trian back on the tracks has become easier.

Play your way out of it, Bob!

[A_Clay_Man]

I don't care if it's a set-up for more strokes, I disagree with Tom Paul.(for once)

Playing shots at the range on the Monterey Peninsula is the biggest waste of time. Why? Because there might be two whole level lies on the courses there. Juxtaposed to the ranges which I'm sure are all laser leveled.

Dan King- You recently posted a thread with a similar vien. Did you find your spirit? Are those kids sucking it out of you?
Follow-up please?

[Lou_Duran]

A friend of mine once counseled me about continuing to do the same things for a longtime without achieving the desired results.  Perhaps change is in order.

Some desperate types commit themselves to lessons, physical fitness, developing the mental game, new clubs.  In your case, Sir Huntley, it seems to me that your medicine may be as simple as a new club.  CPC is nearby, and recent experience there suggests that it might be the cure for all ills.  

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