Hesitation at Tee Box

Hi golfers,

Have anyone of you been hesitant to give the driver a good whack when you are at the tee boxes i.e. holding back from giving your all unlike during your practice at the range where you just whack the hell out of the range balls?

When I compare my drives at the range, I find that I have been holding back my drives on the courses, more out of fear of not hitting the fairways.
Thus I am not hitting longer drives than I should.
It is definitely a mental issue. Anyone got any tips or advice on how to overcome this?

This is a common problem that a lot of golfers suffer from......trying to steer the ball around the course. Sometimes it may be a lack of trust in your swing or fear of hitting OB etc.
To help overcome this you need to practise on the range with specific targets. Visualise a fairway, some bunkers, water hazards, OOB etc when practising rather than just blasting away. Put yourself under pressure on the range by keeping stats on how many balls went to target etc. When on the range, use your pre shot routine as you would on the course. In summary, simulate course techniques while on the range.
When I practice on the range, I dont see in my mind a 200m sign and a big wide open paddock. I see an imaginary OB left, hazard right etc. I pick the shape of shot I want to hit, go through my routine and hit. From the shot I then evaluate and repeat. Practice with a purpose

When going to the course, you then have practiced this on the range and it is more likely to repeat. Of course technique and a repeatable swing helps. Good luck

Hi there bro,

as long you are constantly hitting the fairways then it's not too bad la...

You can try using e corner bays at driving range to see if you are constanly driving straight...

And another problem arises is when you hit harder and faster, your tempo and swing path may suffer...

Try to have balance, stability and power...

Jus sharing my views... Hahaha...

End of the day... Distance is nothing without accuracy..

Cheers...

For me, if I only use 70-80% of my full power... (wow like playing games) I tend to get better power transfer ratio and hence better control and distance.

If I try with all my might to whack the ball, I tend to loose my tempo and the ball will slice...

In short, hitting it harder doesn't always mean hitting it further. Just my two cents worth.


Cheers

Right_sided_coach wrote:

This is a common problem that a lot of golfers suffer from......trying to steer the ball around the course. Sometimes it may be a lack of trust in your swing or fear of hitting OB etc.
To help overcome this you need to practise on the range with specific targets. Visualise a fairway, some bunkers, water hazards, OOB etc when practising rather than just blasting away. Put yourself under pressure on the range by keeping stats on how many balls went to target etc. When on the range, use your pre shot routine as you would on the course. In summary, simulate course techniques while on the range.
When I practice on the range, I dont see in my mind a 200m sign and a big wide open paddock. I see an imaginary OB left, hazard right etc. I pick the shape of shot I want to hit, go through my routine and hit. From the shot I then evaluate and repeat. Practice with a purpose

When going to the course, you then have practiced this on the range and it is more likely to repeat. Of course technique and a repeatable swing helps. Good luck

Hi RSS,

That is good advice which I will try out as I sometimes struggle with the same problem as bro Asahi.

Just curious, what are your thoughts about picturing the driving range at the tee box? i.e. instead if picturing hazards at the range, picture a driving range bay, smile and give it a good smack!

asahi wrote:

Hi golfers,

Have anyone of you been hesitant to give the driver a good whack when you are at the tee boxes i.e. holding back from giving your all unlike during your practice at the range where you just whack the hell out of the range balls?

When I compare my drives at the range, I find that I have been holding back my drives on the courses, more out of fear of not hitting the fairways.
Thus I am not hitting longer drives than I should.
It is definitely a mental issue. Anyone got any tips or advice on how to overcome this?

I think all of us have or are still going through your experience, I know I did. RSC is right, it's steering, or it will be if you don't get out of that funk. He's given tried and proven ways to work on it at the range, but it will take time and perseverance to build the confidence and rid yourself of the bad muscle memory that sets in automatically on the course.

I played with a massive banana slice for many years, and would dread anything other than two wide open fairways side by side. So I always steered, and the more I fought it, the worse it became. Hitting to specific targets on the range is the best way to overcome it. I used to stare down the ball till it landed and watched it's roll. That stare down forced me to focus on my dispersion rate. When I actually saw my dispersion tighten, the visual confirmation forced my mind to accept that I was getting to be a better driver. I just kept doing it and one day it suddenly clicked and translated to the course. It will seem frustrating at first, cos you will be able to do it on the range but not while actually playing. Keep at it, it will click one day. Funnily enough, it's when I don't consciously feel like I am steering, but just swinging through, that's when I hit it straightest. Try to get that feeling. The caveat is, make sure you take concrete steps to ensure that your alignment and set up is right before you take your swing. THEN, just swing away. Ever encountered a time when you thought you had put a perfect swing on the ball only to see it go straight left or right? Then wonder if you pulled it or pushed it? When it was actually alignment?

In the meantime, a few tips which might help while you are playing.

1. Play as if it doesn't matter, cos it really doesn't, it's just a game. Even if you hit a bad shot, it doesn't matter. That relaxes your mind and in turn allows your muscle memory to take over with time. When I'm not playing well, I just accept it, and play within my ability. There was a time when I took no more than a half swing just to keep the ball in play, that was all I was I was capable of. But at least I was keeping the ball in play, and more often than not, I arrived at the green no worse than if I had hit the ball in trouble with penalty strokes. More importantly, I slowly began to trust in my swing again.

2. Use old balls to tee off, and if you lose it, it won't matter. The theory of using a new ball doesn't work for me, and I suspect it doesn't work for a lot of others. We really don't want to lose a new ball, and that translates into steering again. I usually play trouble holes with an older ball so I won't be worried about losing the ball.

3. Use all of the tee box when you drive. That is, if you slice, tee up on the right edge of the tee box and aim to the hit the left half of the fairway, or even left edge. If you hit it straight, you're still in play on the left side, if you slice it, the ball ends up in the middle of the fairway. For some people, this may not work, because they align their body left yet subconsciously still aim down the middle, so the ball starts out down the middle and slices even more into trouble cos of the more open body alighment. When that happened to me, I took drastic measures and teed up left edge of the teebox, aimed down the left edge of the fairway or sometimes even over water, and let the ball curve back in to the fairway. Not foolproof, but it worked.

4. When you take a practice swing before your actual drive, swing all out hard a couple of times. Then cut back for the real swing. Don't take a namby pamby half practice swing and try to swing harder for the real swing. The theory is this, if you take a small practice swing, your actual swing will seem too strong and you will conciously try to slow down to control, leading to steering and deceleration. Conversely, practise swing hard, and your actual swing will seem softer in comparison, like an easy swing, but in reality, you might be swinging as hard or harder than before. The all out practice swing also allows you to feel the freewheeling motion and release necessary to accelerate through the ball.

5. Pick a spot a foot to two feet in line with where you are aiming. Then use that as an aiming guide when you take your stance. It's easier to aim to something near than to a target 200 metres away. But still pick a specific target in the distance. When you swing try to swing your clubhead right over the spot a foot away. That helps you to extend through the ball and also throw your club down the line, aiding accuracy.

These are just some of the things that helped me. Hopefully they'll help you.

Take heart bro, at least you're still playing to something decent.

so long-winded......

most range have nets at the back of them, so i allow myself a dispersion pattern of one or two nets...

at the tee box, as i look down the fairway, i just visualise the nets on the range as the target, then bomb away, if bunker in the way, then i use 3w lor....

think thats all i have to say as compared to the ciao-lan

Just now say I kong ciao wei, try to sound intelligent, now say I long winded.

Range net, wat range net? Me cannot reach la, so how to visualise?

And please hor, it's ciao-lang.

Wat you call me is an inverted body part.... very painful!!!!

Just make sure your set up is correct, and line up to the intended target(feet, hips and shoulder) and take a couple of practise swings and be comfortable, be positive and no tension on your forearms and grip and lastly NO negative thoughts at all just zero in and hit it with intend at the impact area.(not such thing as easy swing!)

Build a consistent pre routine before your set up! it will give u smoother tempo and confident!

Just to summarise the above in two words "F#@K It" just hit

Its works for me ! do give it a try

Just to share some info of my feedback. (Please note that I am jsut a noob here)

As what Birdman said, Take a full swing for the practice swing and when address the ball, empty the mind and just swing away. I feel if I have too many thoughts going through my mind, I always screw it up.

Also for alignment, I use the alignmet line on the ball which many use for putting alignment to help in my alignment on the tee box. And I try to follow through the shot.

bro andrew..I like. Struck a chord with me.

I will try to keep a routine, pick a target, just empty my mind and go F**K it! Usually too much thinking, waggle2 some more, led to me having doubts and creating tension, and then most of time the shot come out bad.

Slinger, unless you have changed your pre shot routine, yours is quite long leh. This was from the last time we played togethere he he. You waggle waggle, then make sure your grip is near to your 'bro', waggle waggle some more, I mean thats how I observed you as I wanted to see how a long and straight straight hitter does and wanted to 'copy' you la. Something like S Garcia ha ha. Now adays, I just step up and look at my alignment, take up parallel line to the target, give a couple of dry run swing and then placed club behind the ball and "Bwam.." the ball either goes left or right, mostly left ha ha. Don't have much swing thoughts actually. All these take s just a couple of seconds.

Hi all, great sharing here man. That's what so great about this forum.
The background of my posting this thread goes like this.....
I played 3 x 18 holes recently from the blue tee and found my GIR stats going down compared to when tee off from white. My analysis was that my 2nd shot with the long irons and hybrids are not good enough to get it on greens. Upon much deeper thinking, I also realized that my driver shots (from white or blue tee) have been rather hesistant, i.e not giving it a good whack akin to range practice. So ultimately it boils down to two things; get my long irons/hybrids right or unleashing the full potential of my driver shots. Of these two, I figure I'd try to work on the latter first coz I am able to do it at the range and I just have to unblock this mental thing in my head to rip it on the course.

@RSS, thanks for the visualization tip. Will try it out at my next range practice.
@and68low & pushslice, the words "f!?$ it" will be sooooo on my mind at my coming weekend game. Haha

To all other bros, keep those tips/advices coming!

and68low wrote:

Just to summarise the above in two words "F#@K It" just hit

Its works for me ! do give it a try

NB, I heard you wrongly last time...
I stood at the tee box and shouted "F#@K U!!", tee-off; then ppl complain to marshall....

Quote :

Ssquirrel wrote:

and68low wrote:

Just to summarise the above in two words "F#@K It" just hit

Its works for me ! do give it a try

NB, I heard you wrongly last time...
I stood at the tee box and shouted "F#@K U!!", tee-off; then ppl complain to marshall....

the complain, was it due to pronounciation or just choice of words?

Tituman wrote:

Slinger, unless you have changed your pre shot routine, yours is quite long leh.

we brother brother, please dun use the sentence "yours is quite long", mayb i hit quite far.....later ppl here misconstrued and i start having unwanted phone calls, then i kenna summoned by MOF for kopi sessionssssss......dun do this to me lah

Birdman wrote:

Just now say I kong ciao wei, try to sound intelligent, now say I long winded.

Range net, wat range net? Me cannot reach la, so how to visualise?

And please hor, it's ciao-lang.

Wat you call me is an inverted body part.... very painful!!!!

my mistake, my mistake.....my fingers got lazy, forgot to stroke the g

Ssquirrel wrote:

and68low wrote:

Just to summarise the above in two words "F#@K It" just hit

Its works for me ! do give it a try

NB, I heard you wrongly last time...
I stood at the tee box and shouted "F#@K U!!", tee-off; then ppl complain to marshall....

hmmmm.. the ppl was the caddie ???? because you hit so damn far down the fairway ... we just murmur ... k .. n.. n !

This is hilarious! Din know the length of a driver shot can be so suggestive.