PA-PLAYA yeah, it's coming around. I just know that one day I'm gonna have a decent round and I'm gonna break 90 by a few. I wouldn't be surprised to put up an 85 or 86 any day now. I shot a 95 a few rounds ago with 5 penalty strokes for either lost ball or WH. Take those bad swings away and that 95 is an 85 real fast. It's there, just gotta find it. I've been tinkering with my driver a bit, too. If I could find something I could hit reasonably well, it'd help a lot. Maybe I'll go back to the steel shafted 43.5" driver.
The 70's are lurking... (post 193)
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I didn't break 90 until I put my driver in the garage. Teed off with a 5 wood, advanced the ball in play, solid chipping and putting led to my first 89. That was many many years ago, but I was tired of watching my Mom drop 85s on me when I could hit the ball 2X as far as her. It's a course management game!
My game took a very positive turn for the better once I finally figured out that the 10.5º of effective loft wasn't enough, and tried a 12º loft for driver. I hit the ball higher, straighter, and longer.
Not everyone is faced with the same physical limitations, but I've personally found more loft to be my friend over the years. If you're carrying hybrids instead of 3 or 4-irons, it most likely pertains to you as well. 
PA-PLAYA I have a 12° driver that I could try, but I hit the ball very high as it stands now so I'm hesitant to try a much higher lofted driver than the 10 or so I use now. I might throw one together one day. My problem is I can't stand the look of a closed face and it's difficult to find a square faced driver with 11°-12° of loft.
sdandrea1 I'm with ya. I really only hit my driver about 6 times on one of the courses I play and only 4-6 times on the other. I only carry driver and 3wd and I can get in as much trouble with the 3wd as I do the driver.
I'm just trying to be patient. I know it'll come. Just gotta let it happen on its own.
Shot a 49/49 yesterday. Didn't lose a ball until hole 18. Hit a really good tee shot on a 430ish yard par 4. Caught the downslope and hit my 2nd from 147. Chunked it in the water, dropped, and ended up with a double at the end.
The story of my day was double bogey. I hit a few good shots here and there, but it was a struggle.
Hit a 3wd on a 340ish yard par4. Cut the corner and had 56 yards to the hole for my 2nd. Chunked it, too, and ended up with a bogey.
Three 3-putts and four 1-putts on the back nine. I was either chipping it close and hitting it or I couldn't have hit an 8" cup.
Oh, well, It could have been worse. At least I had my little girl with me playing caddie, chauffeur, and assistant.
One aspect of the game doesn't take precedence over any others. That's why this game is so difficult lots of times. If I had a dollar for every time that I hit a great drive, then either flared a reasonably simple approach into a hazard or laid the sod over the ball - I'd easily have an annual membership paid.
I go back to something Rotella said in one of his books several years ago. "Treat each and every shot with the same level of importance."
Easier said than done, because there's an enormous difference between "calm focus and awareness" and "tension." In some cases, more than 1-stroke of difference....
PA-PLAYA Oh, you won't get an argument from me on that one. That's why I always tell people that golf has to be, by far, the hardest sport to go professional. It's the ultimate individual sport.
More examples would be the 2 putts I left literally 1/2 a revolution short of falling yesterday. I had the line and almost had the speed, but just needed a little push at the end. I can accept it when I skim the edges once in a while (ok often), but man, it hurts when it rolls right up there, stops, turns to laugh at me, and makes me hit it one more time before falling.
So, lefty, when we getting out for a round? Looks like I'm gonna be in Jersey until late August now. Just let me know when. Any weekend day is good for me, I can do July 4th early as I'm sure most everyone has something planned with family in the afternoon/evening, I could even meet for an evening round around 4:30 or so with enough lead time.
PA-PLAYA will do. My birthday is the 24th of July so I can call it a birthday round and not get too much slack from the wifey.
In the middle of a rain delay. Not playing great, but it could be worse. Had a 3 putt on 10 after a bad drive put me in terrible position. Bad drive on 8 led to that double.
PA-PLAYA wishful thinking. The downpour wreaked havoc on the course. Stumbled my way in to a 94. Some other day.
"On the verge " title is so good. Of what is a question .
I'm always oscillating between finally breaking into 80s and quitting it seems .
Last week yips or something hit me hard . Timing and swing went off and hid. I had read a new swing book "Swing the Handle" and trying it, it killed what little swing I had. Ugg.
Put my ultra super game improvement Pings back into the bag and tryed to stop rotating my forearms purposely and got back actually being able to strike a ball without a muff or sha?&e.
Walked 9 on empty course yesterday, soaked from tropical storm Cindy, and shot 13 over from 5623 yd members tees. No roll out and geezer's driver only flew ~ 170. Putting and just missing the greens with approach shots are what is hurting my scores worst now.
Shoes are drying out for the next attempt .
Getting old but still at it! By yimminy!
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Shot 82 today, and am quickly realizing that a low-handicap index isn't sustainable for a once-per-week player. The round prior I shot a very lackluster 77 (two senseless double-bogeys killing my score), a week ago. Followed by an 82 today.
The only thing that keeps the ship balanced for me is understanding that it's a pretty tough freaking game most days. And if you're not getting out 2-3 times per week - you're not gonna enjoy much consistency.
It was just nice to be out playing today. The score wasn't great, I played several shots higher than my handicap, but I enjoyed the fact that I could get out and play.
Despite the score, I had a lot of fun. Sometimes it's just whatever you make of the opportunity. Looking forward to tomorrow's round, and (hopefully) another round Sunday.
This is the first year in well over a decade in which I don't already have 50 rounds in. I don't sweat the bad rounds anymore, not like I used to anyway. It's just nice to get out and play. 
I can't wait for the day that I'm not happy with an 82.
5 days later
Add 6 to that for me
Provisional Just barely missing greens can really be a killer. Hitting "good" shots, but not quite good enough; maybe slightly pulled or with a slight fade that the wind takes off the green, etc. The worst is when you end up short-sided from something like that.
I'm working hard on pretty much always aiming at the middle of the green, both side-to-side and front-to-back, regardless of pin position, except that I take one more club when the pin is way back. I generally don't take one less when the pin is in front, because most of us miss more greens short than long, and I'd rather have a 25-foot putt from the center of the green to the front pin position than to have a tough chip from 20 feet short of the green with very little green to work with.
Goal is to increase actual "GIRs." Had 4 on my last 9-hole outing (day before yesterday), which is actually an improvement. If I can get 8 greens in an 18-hole round, I'll likely be in the high 70s to low 80s, because I get up and down a lot and I rarely 3-putt.
It's an ongoing quest, though.
All that assumes a relatively flat green. I'd rather have a 45' chip uphill than a 10' downhill putt with 3-4' of break.
I'm guessing I'm the exception, but I actually prefer downhill putts versus having to guess as to the pace/speed from a longer distance.
Of course, it usually comes down to the speed of the greens where one plays mostly. The greens at my club are usually pretty quick, but here's the interesting thing... that old rule-of-thumb about putts breaking more when the greens are quicker - it doesn't necessarily hold true at my club, because of the direction of the grain on many of our normal hole locations. I've found that putts actually break a lot more there when they're slow.
That said, one of my favorite courses around is a private club called Moselem Springs.... it's a Fazio design and they hosted the 1964 Women's US Open. You do not want to be above the hole there, as the greens are incredibly difficult with a lot of intersecting slopes and not to mention most of them slope back-to-front. And the rough there is most always pretty gnarly, especially around the greens, where the ball just seems to nestle down to the bottom. There are very few relatively straight-forward chip/pitch shots there, even from below the hole.
But it's a wonderful classic-style layout that demands my best golf to simply play to within 3-4 strokes of my handicap. All but maybe 2 or 3 of the greens are elevated, making it play 1-2 clubs longer on the approach shots.
It's a gem of a layout, lucky to be able to play there once or twice per season.
rsvman
GIR has always been my score killer when driving and putting kindo behave. Lately the irons not good at all. Working hard on this now and putting hopefully find the glitches that have crept in, partial swings pitching chipping get lot of work because I have 2 acres of pasture and a divot scared front yard . Full swings for my approach shots not consistent. I miss playing the Knights Play parr 3 course in NC. It was great way to tune up short game and so much cheap fun too. I think I'll just take my light carry bag with only my approach clubs and do kate evening walk on couple of our courses just playing 150 yds into the greens a few times to try sort out my irons. Aiming and ball striking are really hurting and range work not seeming to help much as I struggle to carry range practice onto course play, reverting to old bad ingrained habits