garyt1957 I am kind of the opposite of you, in that my short game and irons are much stronger than mu long game. Driver is really the problem for me. I could be pretty good if I could get off the tee.
I think since the way to hit irons and the way to hit driver are so different, it kind of makes sense that people might find themselves better at one and bad at the other. In other words, maybe the reason I can't hut driver is because I spent so much time working on my iron swing, so now I can't switch gears very well.
As for the scoring rut, I think for me a lot of it was psychological. At one point I think I had six or seven 84s in a row. If I shot 38 on the front I would shoot 46 on the back, but if I went out in 45, I would shoot 39 on the back. For about ten years I shot between 81 and 87 for every round.
I made some changes to mu grip and my swing and then I broke through. Originally I thought I broke through because of those changes, and they certainly may have played a role, but I also think that psychologically making a change allowed my subconscious mind to accept that fact that I wasn't really locked in to the same scores all the time.
It's a tricky game.