7 Tips To Get Out of a Golf Slump, According to a Professional

Sometimes when we run into a spell of poor play, it’s easy to put our minds into overdrive and hyper-focus on every element of our swing in an effort to play perfect golf and bust out of a slump. Franklin, however, advises against that approach.

“Golf is sometimes like a wet sponge,” he said. “The harder you squeeze the more you lose.”

Instead, he suggests tapping into your feels to start playing up to your ability again.

“The more you can play to your natural feels and be ‘reactive’ as opposed to technical, it will usually lead to better results.”

If you can’t figure out why your golf slump isn’t sorting itself out, that’s a good sign it’s time to revisit the basics.

“If poor play is consistent and repeated, that usually means there is something off with grip, alignment, posture,” he said.

It never hurts to check up on these fundamentals periodically throughout the golf season, even if you’re not currently in a slump.

When your golf game is suffering, there are a million places you can turn to. From YouTube to training aids to (please don’t do this) well-intentioned playing partners who have recently turned around their own golf slump.

Franklin cautions, however, that you should make sure that whatever resource you turn to actually addresses your specific needs.

“There’s plenty of great information out there online, but make sure the fixes you’re getting are specific to you,” he said. “Don’t take ‘medicine’ prescribed to someone else.”

If you have a specific nagging flaw that’s ruining your rounds – whether it’s a slice or a case of the shanks – spend some dedicated time working out that issue on the range. Franklin illustrates how you can set up your practice sessions to address your top need.

“Determine what the specific issue is and build a drill station to fix it,” he said. “For example, if you are hitting heel shanks, put an object like a water bottle or a headcover a few inches outside the ball to avoid swinging too far from your body at impact.”

Putting slumps can be particularly frustrating. There’s nothing enjoyable about standing over a putt feeling like the hole is the size of a dime. If you haven’t been able to get a putt to drop lately, Franklin has some solid advice for you.

“Practice hitting your start line,” he suggests. “The number one skill to getting better at putting is to start the ball in your intended line.”

One of the best drills for this is the yardstick drill where you lay down a yardstick and try to putt a ball off the other end of the stick without it falling off one side or the other. If you fail, you’ll learn which direction you tend to miss very quickly, and when you can succeed more often than not, your putting will be noticeably better.

If your short game is holding you back, you can really benefit from some serious reps. Practice making solid contact and honing a stroke that produces a result you can predict around the greens.

“If you can’t avoid the skull/blade or chunk/fat, there’s no way to get any kind of consistency in the short game.”

Once you can hit solid chip and pitch shorts around the greens, level-up the difficulty of your practice and try hitting quality shots from tougher lies, like deep rough, uphill, and downhill lies.

If you could become a great player overnight, everybody would do it. Still, if you follow these tips and dedicate some practice time and effort to the areas causing your slump, Franklin urges you to find the results of your efforts pretty immediately.

“I would look for relatively immediate feedback,” he said. “If the ‘fix’ you’re looking for is taking too long to make changes, there’s a chance it won’t work for you. It doesn’t have to be perfect right away, but I do want to see some change relatively quickly.”

There’s nothing wrong with hitting a golf slump. It’s a guaranteed part of any improvement journey. The good news is that your slump doesn’t have to last long. If you take matters into your own hands, you can get back to playing your best golf quicker than you think.