I’ve had several long stretches away from the game. The first came when I went away for college. I didn’t even have my clubs with me for one semester of my freshman year. The other semester, I played one round of golf, which was a fateful one as it led to me walking on to the golf team the next year. The second time came when I decided to spend a semester studying abroad. More recently, I played almost no golf when I moved to Chicago for a year a handful of years ago. I had very different levels of success when I came back from each of those layoffs.
The first layoff didn’t present much of a problem as I had spent a significant chunk of my freshman year working out. I came back physically stronger as I had started lifting weights for the first time. I was also itching to play and spent the summer between my freshman and sophomore year working hard on my game. In other words, I was ready to play again, both physically and mentally. When I first started playing again, I couldn’t hit the ball all that solidly, but I was just happy to back on the course and played through about three or four poor rounds before I started to shoot my normal scores again.
The second layoff was the most difficult. I had started working at the golf course the summer before going abroad. The access to both the golf course and the practice facility over the summer took my game to the next level. I shot back-to-back rounds of 72 and had my first legitimate chance to shoot under par (I was 4-under par with four holes to go and then choked like a dog, finishing bogey, par, double, double). I studied abroad in India, where, like everyone else I traveled with, I got sick numerous times. When I left for India, I weighed about 135 pounds. When I returned almost 4 months later, I weighed 119 pounds. I remember swinging a club in the front yard, dumbfounded by how heavy it felt. I couldn’t get the ball off the ground for a couple of weeks, but worst of all, my putting stroke was in shambles. It took me a long time to get my swing back and an even longer time to regain my feel. I don’t feel like I ever recovered my putting stroke. This return to the game was much more challenging because I wasn’t physically ready to play again. Furthermore, my time in India rather forcefully changed the way I viewed the world. Thus, golf became a low priority and my passion for the game had lost its spark.
The third layoff was a lot like the first- I was in the best shape of my life when I lived in Chicago. I had access to amazing workout facilities, and I worked out at least 5 times a week for hours and hours. After four months of not even picking up a club, I went back home for the holidays where I knew that I would get to play at least a round or two. In the weeks leading up to the trip, I did a lot of visualizing. I played the course I grew up on in my head several times. What’s more, I spent many hours visualizing making a hole-in-one. When I arrived back home, we almost immediately ended up on the golf course. We played 9 holes, and it wasn’t pretty. I got beat by my brother, who was just starting to play regularly, and almost got beat by my father who was enduring a shoulder injury that prevented him from lifting his right arm above his shoulder. A few days later, we played another 9 hole round at a links style course. From the first shot, I knew I was swinging better. Then on the sixth hole, I holed an 8-iron for my fourth (and most recent) hole-in-one. As was the case with my first long layoff, I was both physically and mentally prepared to play.
Along the way, I’ve had shorter, but still significant breaks from the game. I have found that the best way to regain my form is to start at the chipping green. Hitting chip shots helps me get the feeling back of contacting the ball crisply and on the center of the clubface. Once I can consistently hit chip shots solidly, I move on to hitting balls. I don’t spend much time hitting my longer clubs. I spend a lot of time hitting 75 - 150 yard shots, just working on my fundamentals and trying to make solid contact. I should mention that I don’t always hit balls- once I’m confident with my chipping, then I’m usually ready to get back on the course knowing that no matter where I hit it, I’m going to give myself a decent chance at making some pars. I have a reputation for being a good “rusty” golfer mostly because I try to find time to work on my chipping. I’ve gone months without playing on the course or hitting a single full-swing shot, but am able to return and shoot a decent score because I’ve spent an hour at the chipping green every week.
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