The situation is: you just warmed up on the range and you are hitting it short and crooked. You hit no solid shots, and they are shorter than the last time you played, and they all faded. Yuk!

The situation is: you went to the first tee filled with confidence because you played so well last time. But instead of hitting a perfect golf shot with your driver right down the middle of the fairway, longer than Tiger has ever hit one, your shot goes about 150 yards and then wobbles to the right into the rough. Yuk!

The situation is: you're on the fifth hole, and have been playing pretty well for the first five holes. Quite suddenly you start hitting shots that are uncharacteristic of your ability. You hit some hooks, some slices, and some fat shots. Yuk!

Has this happened to you? And what do you do when this happens? And have your efforts been successful?

It seems the vast majority of golfers, including the Tour players, try to fix their swing during a round of golf in order to hit the quality shots they expect to hit or have hit once. Does this work? Does it work for you? Does it seem to work for the Tour players?

It's hard to imagine any golfer that has not been in this situation, Tour player or otherwise. It comes with the game. No two days are the same, for the player, for the golf course, for the weather. Everything is a little different every day.

But you, as a golfer, go to the course expecting to play as well as you played the last time or maybe even better. If you played poorly last time, your expectations are not as high as if you played well, but you still intend to play well. So when you hit those first shots, and they're not as good as you can do, youre tempted to try to find a solution, an immediate solution. And your solution is to find a mechanical swing fix.

What is your swing fix based on? Do you think any golfer knows his own golf swing and the golf swing so well that he can analyze what's going wrong and fix it immediately? The best you can do is use your sense of feel to determine what you think is going wrong and your sense of your golf swing based on who-knows-what and make some adjustments. Can this possibly be a recipe for success? Has every golfer done it? Very probably.

There may be a few exceptions. I would guess Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Gary Player, Byron Nelson, Bobby Jones were never tempted to do the self-analysis and attempt to fix their golf swings, especially on the course. Just because these were some of the best golfers who ever played the game, does that mean you should follow their example?

Because this is such a common malady, Id like to make a few comments and a few suggestions. It is not reasonable to think that you will hit the ball exactly the same way every day you play. There may be short periods of time, a week or two here or there, when your ball striking is exceptionally good. But you shouldn't expect that every day. Every day is a new day and every day you are a little bit different.

Each day it is a slightly different version of you that shows up at the first tee. Some days you will hit the ball a little shorter than normal, or curve it a little more than normal, or hit a little longer than normal. Your job is to adjust your game to what you are today, rather than trying to adjust yourself to fit your picture of your perfect, normal golf game.

A wise friend of mine was watching me warm up to play in a tournament. I don't remember exactly what happened as I was warming up, but I remember his comment before I went to the first tee. Dave Graebel created a situation for me. He said, Suppose you are an expert marksman with a rifle. Your job is to hit the bull's-eye and you have only three bullets. Your first shot is high and right. Do you attempt to adjust the sites or simply aim low left? He made these comments to me about 40 years ago, and I think Im beginning to understand.

What is your job on the golf course? Is it to hit perfect shots or is it to score low? It's tempting to want both all the time. But that's not very realistic. I remember watching Jack Nicklaus play golf in the major tournaments in the 70s. He did not hit all perfect shots by any stretch of the imagination. What he did very well, however, was score low, lower than anyone else.

It never seemed that Jack's job was to hit all great shots every time he played golf. Jack's job was ALWAYS to score as low as possible every time he played. He never lost his focus. His focus was always to make pars and birdies, regardless of how well or how poorly he was striking the ball. It doesn't seem to me that when he was hitting poor shots he ever succumbed to the temptation of the little foxes that kept saying, Just do this or that mechanical change to fix your swing, and the game will be easier today.

Could he have focused on fixing his swing and making pars at the same time? Could he have filled his mind with the target and swing fixing thoughts at the same time? Can you?

It seems to me that your job, once you go to the golf course, is to shoot the lowest score you can possibly shoot. You play with the game that you brought to the golf course and try to make no adjustments to it while you're playing. Adjust your plans for making pars and your targets for your shots so they suit the game you're playing with right now.

It's a game and it's not predictable. You're a human and you're golf game is not predictable. That's part of what makes this game so exciting. Your job is to not self-destruct while you're playing the game.

Being tempted to think you can fix your swing, especially on the golf course, will lead you down a slippery slope that could create bigger, deeper problems for your golf game. Your swing and shotmaking will improve as your focus is kept on your plan to make a par on each hole and your target for each shot.

So what's the solution when you start hitting bad shots? Adjust your game for that day, not your swing.