I lost so much distance over the winter

The weather has been exceptionally nice the last week or so and I also joined a second golf club which is much closer to both my home and my workplace, allowing me to go out and play and practice more during the week after work. Now, I know I have been lazy this winter. While I did go out to play 9 holes with my Mom once a week whenever the weather allowed, that was pretty much all the exercise I got. The last two years I went to the gym during the winter months, but this time I just couldn't be bothered (I moved last year and the gym is a lot further away now).

So now that I am back out on the course in relatively nice conditions (I know it is not summer yet, but seriously, the weather has been so dry and sunny that there are no excuses to be found there), I notice that I lost ten to twenty yards of distance all through the bag. I hit balls on the range of the new club yesterday and I was striking it relatively well, but everything came up so short that I asked the local pro if they use flight reduced range balls (which would have been possible, since their driving range is relatively short). But his answer was "no" (and he had real trouble to keep from laughing ), and when I later went out on the course to play a few holes, I had to agree with that assessment. It wasn't the range balls. I teed off with my 25° hybrid, a club that normally goes at least a bit over 100 m for me (carry), put a really good strike an it and saw my ball splah into the water hazard at 80 m.

Now, I am using my old clubs at the moment (I have two bags, one with my current set which I keep at my home club and one with my old iron set and the abovementioned hybrid which I use at the new golf club so that I don't have to drag be bag back and forth) and unfortunately, that hybrid is the longest club I have in that bag. Now, playing golf when your longest shot is 80 m is no fun. Especially not on a course that plays 5700 yards off the ladies' tees.

I would be less worried if I just did not hit it well. But as I said: I was striking the ball fine, they were good golf shots, nice height, good ballflight, even a bit of draw ... they were just sooo short. Like miniature versions of good golf shots.

I can just hope that the length will come back with more practice again (it is not as if I was a monster-hitter before, I always struggled to hit greens in reg, but at least I had an outside chance on the shorter holes). Next winter I will definitely go back to the gym (I could do it now, of course, but I know that with spring just around the corner, when I have the choice between going to the gym and going to the course, the course will always, always win ...)