What Part of Your Game is Trending?

[GolfSpy_APH]

I am still working shopping the title for this and will likely change it. 

Here is what this thread is meant to be about. What part of your game is trending? Up or down? As most all of us are amateurs and have streaky play at best or have areas that get hot or extremely cold I and I think the rest of us would love to hear about. 

For starters my biggest strength has always been putting. Hands down I feel as though I get on the green I am able to get a good 2 putt at worst. However recently it is certainly trending in the wrong direction. Pace is good and there are moments of brilliant putts, but I am 3 putting more often and making really bad mistakes on the greens. 

Trending upwards is my short game. My goodness it is on a high and thankfully it has masked a lot of the putting errors I have been having. 

Finally another downward trend is iron play. It just isnt there and it makes me wonder if I need to start spending more time on the range vs on the course... 

[CSiders12]

I think this is a great thread because you have to be self reflective of your game. My driving was always a weakness of mine and this season so far has been trending way up! I'm finding the fairway much more regularly and have only lost one ball OB in four rounds played. I need this to keep trending up so I can meet my goal of scratch very soon. 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

Love it,

For me off the tee is my strength and does not typically waver to much. (Putting is pretty steady too) Approach and Short are always variables and usually one of those is missing.

Right now approach is trending up. It does not look like it analytically but I am much more consistent strike wise. 

Trending down is short and putting. Putting still good just not what I would typically expect. Short game is off and on. Some real "oh yea baby" moments and then "wtf was that" moments. NO consistency unfortunately. 

Positive? Its early.

[cnosil]

Driver - flat

Approach - trending up

Short Game - flat but way below what I want

Putting - trending down, but this has become an area of focus to get back to where I was. 

[Randall Robbins]

Great topic - as to Jamie's problem it's obviously being left handed seriously, mine has been ball striking as a whole, leading to better scoring and a drop in handicap.  Of course, a lot of this has to do with my change in equipment to what I have now.  Just hope I can sustain this for a while longer

[Jared3]

Driver: Has always been a strength for me and that is probably only getting better for me. Trending up.

Approach: I'm really struggling with a hook/over draw. It's starting to mess with my mental game. Trending down.

Short Game: Always been a struggle for me, but doing ok right now. Flat

Putting: Usually pretty good at 2 putting but have been working hard to get better within 12 feet and I'm still not sinking putts like I would like to. Flat

[drrlramsey]

Right now I would have to say my driver is trending down even though I have much more distance off the tee. I began the season with my drives being less "automatic in the fairway" but shorter than average shots. They were still shorter and less consistent. I've since switched to JumboMax Ultralite grips and WOW!! I've easily picked up twenty yards with what feels like a far easier swing. I'm swinging the LagShot Driver before teeing off so that by the time I grab my driver, I'm very carefully making contact with the ball at the optimal height for distance. Now if I could just figure out what it is in my setup that’s causing me to wind up open a third of the time these days. 

My irons are trending up with higher launch and bit more distance while maintaining accuracy.

Putting is flat and I need to put some work into setup there.

Wedge play is trending up as I am learning how to dial in different wedges for the specific shot. This is something I was not  aware of until this year and I'm just beginning to understand the benefits of different wedge lofts.

[TR1PTIK]

Right now, all aspects of my game are trending upwards though some certainly more than others.

I was starting to doubt my abilities with the flatstick based on how it performed last season (trending slightly down most of the year), but it's clearly getting better.

Tee shots have always been a strength but gaining +1.11 strokes against my goal handicap was a bit unexpected.

Short game seems to swing a bit more than any other skill, but overall tends to land closely behind putting.

Approach play is my biggest weakness by far and I think it has a lot to do with my proximity as lately I've been hitting plenty of greens - enough to break 80 anyway. Some wedge work will certainly go a long way for me as that is what cost me several strokes last round.

[JerryB]

My iron game is trending way down.  Awful hooks and general malaise.  I've got a couple of ideas for short term fixes but the real answer is I need some outside help.  

Short game and putting are stable if not downward a bit.  Actually thinking of changing things up a bit and maybe trying a chipper again.

Long clubs are trending up.  By far the most positive part of my bag.

[RickyBobby_PR]

6 hours ago, JerryB said:

My iron game is trending way down.  Awful hooks and general malaise.  I've got a couple of ideas for short term fixes but the real answer is I need some outside help.  

Short game and putting are stable if not downward a bit.  Actually thinking of changing things up a bit and maybe trying a chipper again.

Long clubs are trending up.  By far the most positive part of my bag.

Getting a good pro is goofy to help. The journey of self teaching is one filled with frustration, little to no progress.

Its like the saying about a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client 

[Shapotomous]

Unfortunately my full swing for any club is in the toilet this year so my overall game is trending down and i hope doesnt get any worse.

Putting is improved over last year but i am not getting close enough to the pin to make it pay off with any birdies.

[StrokerAce]

liking my approach play this year; picked up a nearly new set of MP54 from 2ndswing over the holidays and my first few rounds with them have me convinced they're not going anywhere for a while.

[Jared3]

19 hours ago, Jared3 said:

Driver: Has always been a strength for me and that is probably only getting better for me. Trending up.

Approach: I'm really struggling with a hook/over draw. It's starting to mess with my mental game. Trending down.

Short Game: Always been a struggle for me, but doing ok right now. Flat

Putting: Usually pretty good at 2 putting but have been working hard to get better within 12 feet and I'm still not sinking putts like I would like to. Flat

Update based on my round yesterday.

Driver: Straight and long. Trending up.

Approach: Worked really hard on correcting the hook, it did come out once but didn't hurt me too bad, good up and down for par. Flat

Short Game: Nothing special here, ups and downs. Had a couple of very good rescue shots that I was proud of, but also had some pretty messy routine chips. Flat

Putting: It was atrocious yesterday. Lag putts were really bad. Trending down.

[Dweed]

So far so good. Been hard to gauge exactly due to very cool/cold and ultra wet spring so far. No hope for much better weather for the 10 days or so. Still some snow showers in forecast.  Out of four rounds since Apr started, driver has been a positive. 70+% fairway hits...and no, I'm not counting extreme topped tee shots. GIR somewhat downward with 45% from where I left off last year. But 1 super cool trend (for me anyway) is I have not lost a ball. Granted only four rounds but still using last years supply.

[TSauer]

The driver seems to be slowly trending up, which feels like a common occurrence at the beginning of every season when I have the fewest swing thoughts. Here’s to hoping it stays on the up and up. 

[Swood1994]

Driver is pretty flat at the moment 

Approach is trending up

short game & putting are trending down. Zero feel with the flat stick. Who would’ve guessed 5 months of carpet practice would generate zero/negative results.

Definitely not wear I want to be heading into the season but I keep reminding myself that it’s early. Hoping to spend a lot more time off the course and at the practice area in the coming weeks. 

[RoverRick]

At this moment, all of my game is trending up. Putter and wedges has traditionally been my strengths. But for the past few years, my knees are my weakness. This makes the full swing a weakness. I’ve been working hard on this for a couple of years to the neglect of my short game.
 

Then in January, I had 8 chips to tap in range and 34 putts on the other 10 holes. I immediately decided to change everything about my putting and spent a couple of months and some money trying to putt differently. It didn’t work. 
 

Now for the past couple of weeks I’ve gained distance with my driving. My irons are good. I’m spending some time on wedges, and my putter is good. If I can keep it up for another couple of weeks I will get my handicap where I want it. 

[GolfSpy_APH]

Great to read that many have parts of their game trending up!

Hoping to have to do lots of new broke 90,80,70 badges and reading a lot more about everyone's game!

[FDC]

Putting lesson today was great! Irons improving with better contact and distance control. Driver is my challenge right now. But, I never know what’s going to show up on any given day!

[wely324]

Been working hard to get my short game and tee shots trending in the up direction. As the driving range is irons only I’ve decided to not hit full shots prior to a round. I stretch and do a lot of practice swings with the feels I’m working on at the moment and it seems to help as I’m focused on my swing and not the fact I didNT get to hit any drivers prior to the first hole. Also been dedicating the majority of my practice time to chipping and pitching. I really enjoy learning and practicing the various short game shots and it’s starting to show in my confidence in using them On course.

 

 

[DiscipleofPenick]

Irons are getting back into form right now. And short game not far behind. Driver has been solid but low temps and soft conditions have limited a big drive to around 250 for me. So I can't really judge that right now. If the irons are good that means my swing is on plane and I'm not over swinging, so I just need that to translate higher up in the bag.

[Dweed]

23 hours ago, Dweed said:

So far so good. Been hard to gauge exactly due to very cool/cold and ultra wet spring so far. . But 1 super cool trend (for me anyway) is I have not lost a ball. Granted only four rounds but still using last years supply.

YIKES!! Spoke too soon. Went out today and lost a ball. Rest of round was downhill from there.

[Fongle]

Greenside chipping for sure. Only started playing again in December 2021 after finally getting knee surgery, and my wedge game was super inconsistent when I started up again, and I was skulling and chunking everything, so I picked up a set of the Mack Daddy CB wedges.

They were great for rebuilding confidence and finding my touch again, but they definitely hit a skill ceiling in being able to get creative with shots, hit a flop shot, or play off of tight lies. Sold them and picked up a set of brand new MD5s, and it's been absolutely night and day. First round with them I had 2 near chip-ins that just barely lipped out, and I could play the finesse shots I wanted to be able to again. Forgot how much fun it was to absolutely rip a ball back on the green will brand new grooves as well