The Struggle (Part 1)

Sadly, because of my recent solid play, I wasn't prepared to write this entry; But, this is golf and I'm learning that poor form can come at anytime and bite you in the ass...and it has. My putting has remained solid and consistent in the last 5 rounds, but it's my swing and ball-striking that's been a problem. It all started a few weeks ago when Lynch invited me out to play with a bunch of guys he knew for a relaxed round at Norwood Country Club. I was pumped and really looking forward to getting out there and showing off my solid form.......and...yea......that didn't happen. When we got to the course I was surprised to find out that there was gonna be 16 people total in our group and that we were playing for money. This scenario sort of put me out of my comfort zone and I realized long ago that if I wanted to be a good golfer, I'll need to perform well in these situations. Starting the round, I was over-thinking everything, starting with a hook off the first tee, followed by a lost ball second shot, ending with a triple-bogey—not a great result in order to build your early round confidence. The rest of the round didn't turn out any better, as I continued to miss fairway after fairway, green after green. I had the uncomfortable feeling of not knowing where my ball was going when I stood over it. This is an AWFUL feeling and things just never turned around, so you basically have to move from hole to hole accepting the fact that you will continually hit bad shots. I realize that this isn't a great frame of mind, because if I'm not confident in hitting a decent shot, there's a great chance that I won't. What scared me is that my ball was hooking, snap-hooking, fading, slicing, popping-up, every trajectory possible. I usually make my mistake to the right, almost always, and I'm becoming knowledgeable enough to understand what the problem is and make a quick fix mid-round and be okay. In this situation, I just had no "feel" in my swing. Anyways, it was frustrating to swallow but my foursome had their fair share of shitty shots so that made me happy. Fast forward to two rounds later and days after I started this post and I tried to address the problem by altering my swing (bad mistake!!!!) and I'm beginning to realize that my recent problems lie well before I even start my swing motion. I happened to coincidentally catch an episode of "School of Golf" on the Golf Channel and the topic of discussion was setup and alignment. The host briefly addressed how critical the setup and alignment is to the success of every golf shot. It got me thinking about my pre-shot routine and thinking back to my rounds in the 80s, I was very strict and consistent with my pre-shot routine. I noticed that I've been a bit lazy following through  with the repetition in the last few rounds. As a result of watching the show and hearing that Jack Nicklaus once fell into a slump where he was mis-addressing the ball and the balls were hitting 30+ yards to the right of his target. I've been having the same problem!!! All my shots have been 30 yards to the right and I'm finding it difficult to turn through to my left-side during impact/finish. So, I'm focusing on executing my pre-shot routine for every shot. Sure enough during my last round, I returned to my normal routine and I immediately became comfortable standing over the ball with my driver. In no time, WHACK, straight down the middle. I'm going to monitor my progress closely with this one, I'm hoping things will turn around, but with golf, I'm sure "The Struggle (Part 2)" will inevitably arise as a new topic. Until then, I must remember to enjoy the good times.