Ahhh there is that word, consistent. On a Saturday or Sunday morning, i never really know which one of me is going to show up. I get out there and practice and it looks and feels great on the range but then i get to the course and Bam. One day i feel like i have been practicing forever and it could be the very next day and i feel like i have never picked up a club before. So my question is, how do you get to the point where your are hitting more consistent. I have been going through the mental side of things and working on that so i don’t really get down on myself when i have a bad shot like i used to. And i know i don’t feel the confidence every time i get up to a shot. So i keep on practicing and work on my lessons. I just wish i could get to the course and know which personality was going to be playing for the day. Until then, i will just go out and enjoy just being out there, one hole at a time.
Looking forward to some responses on this. I am in the same boat as you. I notice it more from one round to the next. It seems like I can shoot high 70s just as easily as I can shoot high 90s. And that is all playing courses that I know very well. The most frustrating part to me though, is the consistency within one round. On a recent golf trip where we played 4 rounds, 3 of those rounds my scores were 10 strokes different from one 9 to the other (example: 38 front, 48 back), sometimes its the opposite as well, so i dont think it is a mental thing when I have a good round going.
Wow if i could break 90 i would be elated. But i will get there, i know i will.
It will happen before you know it!
Consistency in golf is a unicorn. It just flat doesn’t exist, even at the tour level. To me measuring consistency in golf covers a range. For me 95% of my rounds are between 71 and 77. Continually shooting in your range and then finding a way to lower that range is the key.
100% agree with you here. My range of 20 strokes is what frustrates me. I’m sure if I looked at all of my scores this year the true range would be much less than 20 strokes. But it still happens too often for my liking.
I agree with the consistency of rounds as you say, but for me what i am searching for is to know that i can hit a certain club a certain distance and be comfortable with it. Unfortunately because i don’t feel that way, i cant really predict my distances with my clubs yet. I mean if i take my 7 iron and could hit it in the range of 150 (realizing that i may not do that every time with a bad shot) at least i would know that 150 is a guidline to go with. I just purchased the black launch meter and am going to be using that on the range with practice so hopefully i will get a better picture of my range for my different clubs.
This is perhaps the most confusing question of all, and why the game can drive us mad. This issue is relative to each player, and their skill level. For a scratch golfer, shooting an 80 might feel like an absolute disaster, and that is their version of “Jekyll and Hyde.”
If you’re not making any major strategic or mental errors, it just boils down to improving your skill. As you gain more experience by practicing and playing, the goal is to narrow those gaps in your performance. So you want to make your bad rounds not as bad (if that makes sense). Basically, I try to answer that question in many different ways in some of the articles I write. But no matter how good you get, you are going to have days where you feel like nothing is working. That’s just golf!
Don’t know anything about you or your game, however you are probably ahead of the vast majority of golfers with your thinking. You have identified an issue and have implemented a plan to achieve the goals you want. This game is beautiful but it is not easy. Keep plugging away and you will get there.
keep practicing, you can do it!!
The secret sauce of consistency at any level is to stop thinking about consistency. Just like shooting for a certain score or a certain number of putts, making a goal of “consistency” winds up being a “result” focused goal where many of the factors are beyond your control. A consistency-based mindset forces us to compare the current shot to the last shot and predict the next shot based on all that information. This is where we then start to trying make adjustments mid-round (or even mid-swing!) which tend to be very counterproductive. The best mindset is to treat each and every shot as a distinct event, uninfluenced by what came before or what will come after (which is true). Approaching each shot like this will wind up leading to more consistency noticeable AFTER the round because you are more likely to produce “your swing” rather than trying to fix something. The lower scores can then come from practice on improving that swing.
I use the Step Drill for warm-up. Helps me feel rhythm & tempo. Sets a positive & comfortable swing tone. I also hit a few chips looking for solid contact, feel and tempo.I think a lot of people try to do too much, too soon.
I remember when Brendon De Jonge made the cut at Quail Hollow by shooting 80 on Thursday and then 62 on the Friday…
If the pros are that inconsistent what chance have we ever got…
It’s a myth
What’s the step drill?
Consistency means a bunch of different things to me… my scoring is pretty consistent (low 80s), my putting is pretty consistent (bad) and my swing is pretty consistent…
That doesn’t mean my game is consistent… Jon and Adam talked about it on their podcast, but sometimes you just need to adjust to the swing you brought to the course.
I usually play a small fade, if I lose one right on the third hole, I aim a little further left and focus on my swing… i can adjust to a bigger fade if it’s just the way I’m swinging that day…
If I don’t feel comfortable with driver, I’ll move back to either a 3/4 swing or a 3 wood… get a couple shots in the short grass and reassess.
My second to last round I played before admitting I was injured, I couldn’t finish my turn… everything was ten yards short… I didn’t force it, I just added a club and shot exactly on my handicap (81)… I tried to force it the next day and likely aggravated my injury further and shot a 95 finishing triple triple… I could have salvaged the round with a 3/4 swing… and probably be back on the course (I have a small cartilage tear between 4 and 5 on my spine)
Learning to be consistent is one of those things that gets better with time and practice… your handicap lowers as you get more consistent.
There will always be blow up rounds and phenomena rounds, but figuring out how to get yourself around the course on an ok day is a skill that you can learn.
I think consistency comes down to adjusting to whatever you are doing that day instead of fighting it, making good choices by focusing on making less errors and recovering from errors or misses well… of the three, I think good decision making will lead to the most consistent scoring as you have less “coin flip” shots that can save world cost you a stroke.
Just like a lot of people that posted here, consistency is a loaded and relative term. One thing I do consistently is golf every week. Pros definitely have their ups and downs and as some have said, if they can’t shoot below par every round, then we stand no chance. That is one of the great things about handicap and that is we have a range that we shoot within. As your range starts to fall so doesn’t your handicap.
The more you practice the better feel you are going to have over the ball. Ask anyone that plays only once a month or a couple of times per year. Then as the people that play more than 3 times per week. The people that step up to the ball on a more consistent basis will be more consistent with all the aspects of golf: pre shot routine, setup, and the actual hitting of the ball. The more you do the more consistent you will get. Then there lies the problem of getting into bad habits, but that is another story.
If the best players in the world shoot a range of scores, then we will also shoot a range of scores.
Good point, there’s something to be said there that consistency is a by-product, not really a goal or focus area in itself.
If being inconsistent counts as consistency I’m winning. I think the only place you really need to be consistent all of the time is the putting green. Everything else will come and go depending on how your body is feeling that day. It could be something you don’t even realize is going on with your body that your brain knows is wrong and you subconsciously compensate. However a consistent putter stroke, the least taxing thing for your body will save you stokes every time.
It’s a pretty loaded term but here’s how I break it down for myself.
Striking Consistently. I don’t think anyone is satisfied with their ability to hit the ball exactly how they want every single time. What has helped me is to have a consistent pre-shot routine which you use both at the range and at the course, and try to get in the mental frame of mind on each shot (decide on the shot, visualize it, and commit to doing it). Finding the right teacher can help quite a bit and finding parts of your swing that are making it harder/easier to hitting a good shot consistently (e.g body movement, wrist movement, etc). Practice helps, especially if you can add in some randomness to mimic a course setting (e.g. hit driver, iron, wedge as opposed to 50 swings with your favorite club).
Scoring Consistently This is hard to improve but what I’ve been trying to do is use as much introspection and data as possible both to help my strategy and focus on areas of improvement. The easy stuff is equivalent to “Q: Why can’t I lose weight? A: You eat pizza 4 nights a week”; at what point do the wheels come off the bus during the round and why. Limiting the downside allows you to recover. Are there triggers that put you in trouble? How long does it take for you to shake it off? I’ve constantly fought both the “why didn’t i just chip out and keep playing for bogey” and the “carrying the last hole forward for 3-4 more blow up holes”. For me, the mental side is clearly holding me back so I’ve been focused on trying to dispassionately learn from a bad outcome (did i use the wrong club or wrong target line? did I swing incorrectly? did I put myself in the wrong mental state?) and then move on and use that as a learning experience.
Mental Consistency I think all of us have mental barriers holding us back. One course I play has a short par 5 on direction and a long par 4 coming back and I score more 4’s on the par 5 than the par 4. I suspect that the data would show even PGA pros fall victim to the “what par should be” when they play a 500yd par 4 at the PGA championship, etc. Long ago, I heard a story of a college coach making all the players play from the front tees to see who could go low and had the mental fortitude to play the course, not the scorecard. Breaking 100, 90, 80, 70 the first time is freaking hard and so is sinking a 4ft putt when you know there is $5, $1, $.25 on the line. I have a lot to learn in this category, but pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and putting yourself into pressure situations can help. Having some perspective helps a lot here – as a guy in his 50’s, I’m never going to dunk a basketball or pitch a no hitter, but every weekend, I can be “that guy” that crushed a drive on 16 or knocked a 50ft putt to save par or chipped in a birdie to steal a skin off your buddies; just being put in that position is a real blessing.