Perfect on driving Range, but crack on course

[Ravina]

Please help. I go to the driving range a couple times a week and can hit almost any target at will with all of my clubs.

When i get onto the course, it doesn't matter if someone is playing with me or not, I just can't play. My body tightens up and it feels like I'm fighting my swing. I tell myself it doesn't matter on the course but it doesn't seem to work.

I can't get the relaxed feeling on the course no matter what I try.

Are there any videos, tapes, books, instructors, techniques to help get over this.

Please help.

[Titleist75]

A book called "Fearless Golf" :)

[Grass Roots Tour]

Try playing a course you know well while on the range.

Hit the driver on the par 5 #1 followed by a nice high 6 iron layup. Then pull out your wedge and stick one close to the flag. And go on to the next hole.

This is one meothod I use to help me get my drill swing to go with me to the course. Always keep a target in mind when practicing or it's pointless.

[btowngolfer]

i guess this happens to everyone. breath and focus, forget what's around you and get into the 'zone'. i would also find a cheap 9-hole and play often, to shake those jitters. also when you practice at the range try to take the box closes to the entrance with a lot of traffic. i find the noise helps simulate the first tee.

[JEBS]

Whe I am all wound up I usually count down from 20 (takes my mind off every aspect of the swing) and let my muscle memory take over.. or I tell myself "At least I am not working today!!"

[Twisted]

This happens to me all the time...... I'll be at the range and banging every drive 250+ and then when I know a girl or some guy next to me is watching I'll totally hack on my next shot. After that, it seems to throw my game off completely because I concentrate the mechnics of my swing. I find that if I don't think about it too much and keep hitting and playing the way you normal do you'll be fine. It's all a mental game.

[Desi2007]

As Grass_roots mentioned.....when you are on the driving range .....pretend that you are playing the 1st hole and execute all the shots that you need for that hole. IE 1st hole is par 4 400 yards..... hit your driver....lets say 250 yards......then hit your iron .......8 iron (or whatever you use) 150 yards to green. This is what padraig harrington usually does before a tournament. He plays the 1st 3 holes and the last 3 holes of the golf course he is playing. This way he feels confident that he already knows what shots to play.
The other thing I would do, when most people have the 1st tee jitters......dont try to kill you 1st drive.....i try to hit about 80% on my 1st drive concentrating on smooth rythmic swing instead of power.

[hogannut]

Please help. I go to the driving range a couple times a week and can hit almost any target at will with all of my clubs.

When i get onto the course, it doesn't matter if someone is playing with me or not, I just can't play. My body tightens up and it feels like I'm fighting my swing. I tell myself it doesn't matter on the course but it doesn't seem to work.

I can't get the relaxed feeling on the course no matter what I try.

Are there any videos, tapes, books, instructors, techniques to help get over this.

Please help.

i hear you on this one bro'. I suffer in the same way. It is particularily frustrating because you spend the time to practice, see some good results and when you have to apply them to the actual game it's like your swing just disappears.

All I can say IMO is this is mental, so if you want a book to read, go find a pyschology book, NOT an insturctional book.

However, make sure when you are at the range you hit at least SOME of the balls in a "game on" situation. What I mean is try to simulate in your mind how you would hit the shot on the course. Make sure you pre-shot is the EXACT same as you would do on the course. For me I try to picture in my mind the HARDEST tee shot I would play on a given course I have played or will be playing, and just concentrate on the shot and not necessarily mechanics and see how it works out.

Obviously I don't know, because I haven't seen your range routine, but if you are spending ALL of your time workign on mechanics then you aren't simulating what will really happen on a course. For example you don't lay clubs down on the ground when you play, or you don't stop yourself at certain points in the swing to check your positions. All of these things are important and maybe necessary to improve, but aren't applicable on the course.

My suggestion is the next time you go to the range put 2 dozen balls aside and use those last balls as a simulation for 5 or 6 holes that you may be playing in your next game. So if the first hole you would normally hit say a driver and then 7 iron, hit your driver and 7 iron.

Apparently Hogan did this a lot. Hogan is usually perceived as someone who did nothing but "practice". However before the actual tournament Hogan did not practice. What he did at the range is simulate each and every shot (excluding putts....maybe he should have done it with putting too!:eek: ) over the 18 holes and he would hit each and every shot at the range.

Try that and see what happens.....you've got nothing to lose!;)

[goodfellow]

It might or might not help, but I've discovered that I'm more relaxed about playing this year possibly because I'm going to the range less. The last couple of years I went to the range at least 2 or 3 times a week, was fine at the range and dreadful on the course. This year I've only been to the range twice and my game feels much more relaxed when I play. I will go back to the range to practice specific shots - short game needs help! - but I'm not just there slamming out drives.

[Desi2007]

At the range people tend to hit the same club in a row for a number of hits (balls). IE you grab your favourite iron (7 iron or whatever) and keep hitting it over and over. Obviously this is not a game situation. Everone tends to hit better at the range in this regard. However, if you switch from driver to pitching wedge and then maybe 4 iron then sand wedge and then 3 wood etc after each ball then you are practicing your setup all over again.

[goshawk]

On the range, there are no "consequences" for hitting a bad shot, other than teeing up another ball. On the course, a bad shot costs you at the very least one stroke, maybe as many as 3.
To get yourself as relaxed on course as you are at the range, you need to hit every shot as if you're on the range. Do your entire pre-shot routine before every single shot, even chips and pitches. Once you're on the course, you're just repeating what you did on the range. If you're relaxed on the range, going through the pre-shot will help you relax on the course. That's why you see tour pros back away when they're not comfortable over a shot. They go back through their pre-shot routine and this helps them to focus and relax over the shot.

[GOLFER8080]

Well, I was exactly the same and I kinda see myself in you until I change my mind set about golf. Nowadays whether I am in the course or range I only have one objective in my mind....... Relaxation. I dumped my old desire to be a better golfer. So relax, try to find pleasure in every shot. On the mechanical side, in the course, and it works wonder for me, after setting up correctly, and taking the club back, going down I keep my hips and shoulder quite ( maybe by feeling only) but my arm and wrist very active. I do not have the same power as compare to my learned swing from the pro, but I tell ya, it is always straight and get to the green earlier than my power hitters buddies.RELAX

[barfrock]

I know that feeling...
it is all a mental game... I have found more this year than any other that when i play with colleagues or friends, I am always worse than when i go as a single and get put in a foursome with people I don't know...
I guess I just tense up trying to impress my piers when i probably would more if I just relaxed more. :help:

[goshawk]

I know that feeling...
it is all a mental game... I have found more this year than any other that when i play with colleagues or friends, I am always worse than when i go as a single and get put in a foursome with people I don't know...
I guess I just tense up trying to impress my piers when i probably would more if I just relaxed more. :help:

I was playing yesterday afternoon in Mont-Tremblant, La Belle course.
There was a short par 4 dogleg left where you could just see the green around the trees. I got myself all set to pull the trigger, and one thought came into my mind at that moment, "kill this one". I stopped, backed off, and did my pre-shot routine again, using my one key work just before starting the backswing, smooooooooooth. I could feel the tension leaving my arms and launched one 3 feet from the front of the green on the exact line I intended to play. Best swing I made on that course. If I had gone ahead when I thought "kill it", there's no telling where that ball would have gone.

[LesStrokesWanted]

I was at the range yestereday and noticed that all my best shots were the ones were my arms had the least tension and my grip was lightest (around 3 out of 10).