How long did it take you to find consistency?

dan_ep82

Just as a matter of interest how long did it take you to reach some level of consistency , as in you can play the same (less the odd bad day,week) for a few months?


I feel like I'm close but I still have some absolute wreckers of weeks in between some solid golf, usually just as I'm starting to play my best and feel like I'm starting over again.


What was the hardest thing to overcome ( different lies, par3's, driver etc) ?

GCW

dan_ep82 wrote: »

Just as a matter of interest how long did it take you to reach some level of consistency , as in you can play the same (less the odd bad day,week) for a few months?


I feel like I'm close but I still have some absolute wreckers of weeks in between some solid golf, usually just as I'm starting to play my best and feel like I'm starting over again.


What was the hardest thing to overcome ( different lies, par3's, driver etc) ?

About 5 years. Course Management + mental approach = consistency for me. Concentration goes then tempo goes then game goes to pot.

Senna

I'm playing golf around 20 years, I'll let you know when I find it.

yettie1701

If I knew the answer to that one I'd be a wealthy man. For what it's worth what I've learned about golf is that it comes and goes. You go through periods of playing well and then periods of total muck. I'm playing brutal for the past 6 weeks and played the best golf of my life before that. But you just have to suck it up and keep playing away. It can literally turn around in two shots. I suppose it's a confidence thing. Just enjoy the good golf and try and enjoy the little bits of good golf when it's not going as well for you.

lester76

I find my form comes & goes tbh. No 2 days are the same in this game, its why we keep coming back..

newport2

yettie1701 wrote: »

For what it's worth what I've learned about golf is that it comes and goes. You go through periods of playing well and then periods of total muck.

And on top of that, those periods can last anything from 2 holes to 2 years !!

I think a part of the reason the consistancy issue exists is that we're always chasing to be that bit better than we are. We occasionally hit it, but never all the time. I could consistantly play to 3 shots worse than my handicap, but I'm always aiming for 3 shots better. Hence I think I'm inconsistant until I improve by 3 shots. Then rinse and repeat. It never ends.

Anatom

I think I've always been consistent - consistently bad!

Seriously though, a good round for me is to have a couple of pars and perhaps, just once in a while a birdie. Looking back at my results so far this year, there are an average of about four pars per round, with perhaps one birdie thrown in. Where I'm getting better is at reducing the number of three-putts and the number of balls I heft into the water (there's lots available in PH!).

What's strange though is that the pars/birdies seem to come at different holes each time. For example, I went through a period of having a par on the first two holes in PH. To the point where I was even getting a bit blasé when I stepped onto the tee box. Now though, I get a version of the yips standing over my second shot on the par-4 second, and I haven't parred it in weeks....!

One week I'll score well on the low indexes and do something completely stupid on the easier holes. The next week, I might stay sensible and lay up etc., but will then mess up an easy putt and don't score on the same hole. Its maddening...

John Divney

I only got a consistent swing after trawling around the internet, books, high speed video of myself, and fully understanding what needed to happen to get a good impact.

The fight only starts there, figuring how your body can do it, this is where great golfers and the hacker depart. Then you do drills like 9 to 3 till you get rid of your bad golfer instinct. (Treatable but never goes away, it's in the blood)

Consistent scoring comes from playing every week, bad swing or not you get into a zone, get a set short game, acceptable bunker and putting.

You don't need good mechanics or a good swing for par and bogey to be the only scores on the card.

Birdies are not going to happen though unless you really make a choice to get better mechanics.

dan_ep82

Sorry, missed the replies on this somehow.

I understand consistency is something that comes and goods, but for me I seem to have more bad days than average and even less good days.

FixdePitchmark

Do you ever at our level - amateurs, ever get consistency ?

As other have said, if you are someone chasing improvement all the time - by definition you will not get to consistency.

There are golfers who are happy where they are - and they are more likely to be consistent.

As we have said in other threads - there is a choice faced by most golfers - what sort of golf do I want to be - I can totally understand someone going , I'm happy playing this as a game - it is not life and death , I love golf - I enjoy playing off 12 - for me that is not impacting on me time wise.

So what do you / I want ?

I feel - I could be consistent off about 9 now.

Lower take serious work for me.

To get to a stage where I could be comfortable off 9 was about 3 years - mad stuff - this game is just too hard (for me) if I'm being honest.

dan_ep82

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Do you ever at our level - amateurs, ever get consistency ?

As other have said, if you are someone chasing improvement all the time - by definition you will not get to consistency.

There are golfers who are happy where they are - and they are more likely to be consistent.

As we have said in other threads - there is a choice faced by most golfers - what sort of golf do I want to be - I can totally understand someone going , I'm happy playing this as a game - it is not life and death , I love golf - I enjoy playing off 12 - for me that is not impacting on me time wise.

So what do you / I want ?

I feel - I could be consistent off about 9 now.

Lower take serious work for me.

To get to a stage where I could be comfortable off 9 was about 3 years - mad stuff - this game is just too hard (for me) if I'm being honest.

I'd love to play to a low HCP, but honestly it would be a bonus compared to just being able to strike the same (there abouts) most days. 1 day I couldn't hit the ball wrong and the next day I mightn't be able to get it off the tee.

I don't need to land it on the flag, or even on the green, everytime, just get it near it.

I suppose its a confidence thing

John Divney

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Do you ever at our level - amateurs, ever get consistency ?

As other have said, if you are someone chasing improvement all the time - by definition you will not get to consistency.

There are golfers who are happy where they are - and they are more likely to be consistent.

As we have said in other threads - there is a choice faced by most golfers - what sort of golf do I want to be - I can totally understand someone going , I'm happy playing this as a game - it is not life and death , I love golf - I enjoy playing off 12 - for me that is not impacting on me time wise.

So what do you / I want ?

I feel - I could be consistent off about 9 now.

Lower take serious work for me.

To get to a stage where I could be comfortable off 9 was about 3 years - mad stuff - this game is just too hard (for me) if I'm being honest.

Totally feel the same and am off 9 too, after about three years.

I know what my swing should look like, how it should feel, at every stage.

But my brain, does not care. To be a great ball striker I'd have to override my brain through unrealistic hours of practice to get true consistency.

However I have put the work in to have a baseline to always get back to, so I don't have to try changing things drastically when bad form hits, and forget all the hours and searching for a way that works if I get my body to do it.

Before I would try things out of desperation that had no basis for other than I didn't know why I was not striking the ball well.

Then the band aid falls off and you are trying something else.

You need a baseline swing to always be trying to emulate, it never will be perfect but it's the only way to keep the brain and body on the same page.

spacecoyote

Agreed Fix, consistency is next to impossible at amateur level (i suppose it's a relative term based on your handicap level), and the handicap system is reflective of that.

So a cat 4 player is getting .4 off for every stroke that they beat the css by, but only gets .1 back for every round worse than css-4. So you need only one decent round to cancel 4 terrible rounds, whereas a cat 1 should generally be a more consistent golfer so it's +/- .1

To me, the only time I've really played consistently is in a period before I've dropped handicap levels.

I started at 22, and before I got my first cut I propably had about 2 months or so of hitting buffer every week. i was super consistent at that level, no 0.1s, but couldn't make the breakthrough & get cuts either. Then I made a jump down to 19 . a bit of adjusting, then had similar scenarios, and same at pretty much each handicap level on my way down.

I don't put enough work or time in to my golf at the moment to make serious inroads. Just looking now & I've only played 14 qualifying rounds this year:

3 beating css
11 0.1s

So I haven't hit my buffer once that's not consistent golf to me.

Played with a guy who was playing off 4 earlier this year. According to him, if you're putting 1 day a week into your golf you'll go backwards, 2 a week to stay sideways & at least 3 if you want to see a definite improvement

FixdePitchmark

Yes space - we sort of came around to a figure of about 12 hours a week into your game (on another thread) to get places - it is massive.

I'm very very lucky in that I work shift and have way more time to put in than most - I often think how impractical that is for a 9-5 man. It isn't realistic.

I'd be unusual - in that I was coming from a very poor base of a swing - very disconnected and over The Top.

If you put in hard work with plenty of lessons - I'm hoping and beginning to think - that you start to understand your game better - that means after say 10 lessons - you start to know how to give yourself a lesson.

Then if you are not getting places yourself - one lesson with pro, your back on track

That means that 10 hours at the start when you did not know what you were doing - was just a waste of time. Your practice with time becomes more efficient - better logic to it. you can spend an hour at a range with drills that work for you - and in an hour fix yourself. There is not a chance you could do that at the start.

So with this game - to improve and get consistent, you could argue it is just a bit impractical.

You'd want to really really love it.


(Edit)
to add to above - I remember at one stage going to a range - before I ever had any golf lesson in my life and hitting way over 50 drives in a row (lol) - how daft is that .

Now if I hit 6 it would be about it - at least 30 % would be wedges now. And the bucket size would be 1/2 and take as long - but would (I'm guessing) like doing 10 of my old range sessions quality wise.

stockdam

I agree that you need to be playing about three rounds a week plus some practice to see some good improvement.

Consistency needs to be defined as no amateur is consistent.

If I consistently hit my drives 220 yards with 10 yards of fade and did similar for all my other clubs and could consistently get up and down from within twenty yards and had a repeatable putting stroke then I'd be an excellent amateur. In fact I'd possibly be one of the best in Ireland. I'd not be the longest and I would struggle to hit long par fours in two but I'd be a great grinder and would be very hard to beat. I wouldn't be the next McIlroy but I'd be very consistent.

dan_ep82

Ive taken 4 lessons so far and can definitely see the improvement, its just holding onto it thats the problem.

Anytime I go to the range I call into the pro and he takes a quick look and gives me a drill to work on after hitting a few with each club (10ish) but usually less with the driver

John Divney

stockdam wrote: »

I

If I consistently hit my drives 220 yards with 10 yards of fade and did similar for all my other clubs and could consistently get up and down from within twenty yards and had a repeatable putting stroke then I'd be an excellent amateur. In fact I'd possibly be one of the best in Ireland. I'd not be the longest and I would struggle to hit long par fours in two but I'd be a great grinder and would be very hard to beat. I wouldn't be the next McIlroy but I'd be very consistent.

Think you underestimate how good the top Amateurs are. Up and downs are a given. Also 275 would be short for them, they' also can get their 7 or 6 iron in on a long par 4, we are using low irons/hybrid/woods.


The pressure they compete under is massive aswell, big amateur Opens .

It's like Gaa, at the top level it is only amateur in name.