Official OGBoards Golf Thread

[tau06]

Man, I never realized how much I love golf until I couldn't play.

Kinda in the same boat. I knew I loved it but it sucks not begin able to play. My shoulder still isn't strong enough after my surgery in December so it's killing me that I can't go out and play 18 on these perfect saturdays and sundays raleigh has had recently. I'm getting close to being healthy enough to get back out there but it sucks right now.

And you guys are so dead on about how humbling it is to play with Elite Amateurs or even low level pros. They are so good it's nuts.

[Liquid Karma]

Yea exactly. Long article in Golf Digest about it, some guy who sucks is trying it. My friend actually has talent but I'm not sure he'll ever find the distance to make any money off his game.

I would expect burnout to play a huge factor.

[Liquid Karma]

Kinda in the same boat. I knew I loved it but it sucks not begin able to play. My shoulder still isn't strong enough after my surgery in December so it's killing me that I can't go out and play 18 on these perfect saturdays and sundays raleigh has had recently. I'm getting close to being healthy enough to get back out there but it sucks right now.

And you guys are so dead on about how humbling it is to play with Elite Amateurs or even low level pros. They are so good it's nuts.

I've played a few times with Scott Harvey (won the Carolinas Am, NC Open, and Carolinas Mid Am in the last 12 months) and he's an absolute machine. He never hits it out of play, always leaves himself with a chance to par a hole if he misses a green, and just never makes mental mistakes. He's got plenty of distance and is probably the best putter I've ever seen in person. I think if he could ever get status on tour he'd have a long career out there.

[AnonymousDeac]

I would expect burnout to play a huge factor.

Not sure how it wouldn't.

I know tennis far more than I know golf and just about all the top national players I grew up with, hate the game. If they didn't quit during college, they usually graduate and don't pick up a racket for months.

Tennis is a bit more grueling of a sport but the repetition and time necessary for golf have to be similar.

[Liquid Karma]

Not sure how it wouldn't.

I know tennis far more than I know golf and just about all the top national players I grew up with, hate the game. If they didn't quit during college, they usually graduate and don't pick up a racket for months.

Tennis is a bit more grueling of a sport but the repetition and time necessary for golf have to be similar.

Weren't you a stud tennis player growing up? Do you still play or has the desire to play left you after grinding at it for years?

[Caturday]

I would expect burnout to play a huge factor.

Yea, he's always worked hard, not really a natural, I just don't think he had a goal in sight. If he sticks to this and can pick up some distance, he could pull it off. His dad's worth several hundred million so it's not like he's gonna starve if it doesn't work out. That may not help him with mental toughness though.

[AnonymousDeac]

Weren't you a stud tennis player growing up? Do you still play or has the desire to play left you after grinding at it for years?

Yeah, tennis was all I did growing up. My dad and I would drive an hour and a half each way from Tampa to Sarasota to train after school. Unlike golf, you can only get better at tennis by playing against the best competition.

As some of the people on here know me, I clearly peaked a bit early in my tennis career (top 50 nationally early on). I still stuck with it through high school and was recruited to play at quite a few places, but the final straw was destroying my left shoulder wakeboarding. Rather than have surgery and rehab, that was my out from the tennis world. It was horrible after all I'd put into the sport growing up, but it was also one of the greatest reliefs of my life knowing I would be going to college as a normal kid, and not have tennis activities 6 hours a day.

In the last year, I've probably played tennis <10 times. Comparatively, I've probably golfed 50+ times in the past year. I was never seriously playing tennis while learning how to golf, but the differences in the two from a mental standpoint are tremendous.

[Caturday]

Kinda in the same boat. I knew I loved it but it sucks not begin able to play. My shoulder still isn't strong enough after my surgery in December so it's killing me that I can't go out and play 18 on these perfect saturdays and sundays raleigh has had recently. I'm getting close to being healthy enough to get back out there but it sucks right now.

And you guys are so dead on about how humbling it is to play with Elite Amateurs or even low level pros. They are so good it's nuts.

It really is about course management and maturity in so many ways. I never had a good/great short game but I always had a plan for a hole and was a good enough ball striker to avoid trouble. However, I think in part due to picking up the game at 13 and not being a super mature person to begin with, I would always leave shots on the course and steam over them. In competition, I'd almost always end up competing to win but it seemed so much harder for me to shoot 70 than someone else. I'd shoot like 39-31 or some bipolar number which is mentally exhausting.

[DCDeac]

DC - how is the redo at Avenel (or whatever it's called now)? I played the old course a bunch of times in the early-mid-2000's but moved before they tore it up. I always found the old course to be manageable (5-6 good birdie holes) but kind of goofy, especially on the back. I have heard good things about the redo but haven't seen it for myself.

Sadly I didn't get to play. Work reared its ugly head. Hopefully in the next month or two though...

The whole 10,000 hours thing is beyond stupid. At 3,000 hours he can barely break 80 on horribly easy courses. If he improves by a factor of 4 by the end he'll be knocking on the door of his local B league muni handicapped club championship. There are PGA Tour pros that lost their cards and will be putting in 10,000 hours as well by the time he's shooting par by himself on his local muni. If he ever makes a dollar on the PGA Tour or Nationwide Tour as a professional I will be completely shocked.

I think golf, like most elite skill games, is more about trajectory than grinding out hours. The vast majority of pros are guys who were shooting in the 70's as kids who picked up clubs a few months earlier. And tournament golf is a completely different story. But whatever, more power to the 10,000 hour people. I think they should have tried bowling.

[Caturday]

The guy in the Golf Digest article is just plain bad. He also lives in Portland, Oregon, not exactly the epicenter of golf unless you have the cash to visit Bandon (which he doesn't). My friend's low round is like 63, he has game but I'll be interested to see if he sticks to it and has the mental ability to constantly reassess his game and work out issues outside of competition, so he's not trying to throw shit on the wall and hope it sticks once he's inside the ropes.

[Liquid Karma]

And tournament golf is a completely different story.

This. I don't think most people truly understand how hard tournament golf really is. Most golfers think tournament golf is the Friday afternoon hit-n-giggle scramble they play in with their buddies, or they think it is the weekend stableford against the blue hairs at their club. The golf world is littered with guys who carry a plus handicap who melt as soon as they are under pressure. You'll see scratch golfers shooting 85's in USGA qualifiers all the time (I've been very fortunate to never get the dreaded letter asking for proof of handicap from the USGA). That doesn't mean they aren't legit good players 99% of the time. It's just that the 1% of the time they are under the gun, they can't take it.

I'm not ashamed to admit I've had some serious melt downs under tournament conditions. I once made a 10 on the first hole of a US Am qualifier at a course I'd shot 67 on just a couple weeks earlier in an interclub match. I've also run off a streak of 6 under through 6 holes to play my way into contention at a qualifier. I flat out suck in high pressure qualifiers 4 times out of 5. It's that 1 time that keeps me coming back for more. Tournament golf makes even the best golfers bipolar, and I fucking love it.

Just making cuts in the state level am events is an accomplishment only the smallest fraction of golfers will ever know.

[Caturday]

For me, tournament golf in NJ was much more challenging that when I played in national tournaments. The courses here are much shorter, have really deep rough, so many doglegs and lightning quick greens. My length got negated on so many courses that looking at the card and playing without pressure should have been a breeze but like LK said tournament golf gets in your mind especially if you don't love the course.

[AnonymousDeac]

The guy in the Golf Digest article is just plain bad. He also lives in Portland, Oregon, not exactly the epicenter of golf unless you have the cash to visit Bandon (which he doesn't). My friend's low round is like 63, he has game but I'll be interested to see if he sticks to it and has the mental ability to constantly reassess his game and work out issues outside of competition, so he's not trying to throw shit on the wall and hope it sticks once he's inside the ropes.

Pretty sure he started in Clearwater, FL. Wonder why he decided to move to Portland?

[Caturday]

Pretty sure he started in Clearwater, FL. Wonder why he decided to move to Portland?

I'm not sure why he moved. I know that Nike quasi sponsors him with clubs (the same as Tiger's some help for a hacker trying to hit a blade) and clothes. Portland is definitively cheap.

[Liquid Karma]

For me, tournament golf in NJ was much more challenging that when I played in national tournaments. The courses here are much shorter, have really deep rough, so many doglegs and lightning quick greens. My length got negated on so many courses that looking at the card and playing without pressure should have been a breeze but like LK said tournament golf gets in your mind especially if you don't love the course.

You would think that big hitters being dropped on shorter courses would just lead to them hitting irons off tees and taking the course apart, but noooooooo. That shit never happens. It's like a law in golf that if you are good at one thing, you have to have a glaring deficiency somewhere else.

And I agree about northeast courses having nastier rough most of the year. You get wetter weather which leads to much denser rough. I was up in Mass last fall to play some corporate golf and found the rough almost unplayable at times compared to the bermuda I'm used to here in NC.

I've seen some crazy stuff out in socal as well. Kikuyu is not to be trifled with.

[Liquid Karma]

I'm not sure why he moved. I know that Nike quasi sponsors him with clubs (the same as Tiger's some help for a hacker trying to hit a blade) and clothes. Portland is definitively cheap.

I expect that dude to end up with serious tendonitis/arthritis problems long term. Cold wet weather is only going to make it worse.

[Tin Cup]

I've had 1 very bad tournament meltdown and I'm not sure I've ever recovered from it.

The PGA Tour is full of guys that didnt mature as players until well into high school or college. Webb is definitely the exception, along with Tiger, Mickelson, CH3, Mahan and a few others. Not many dominate early junior golf, high school/amateur, college and then become very good pros. The arc is just too long and difficult.

Then you see guys like John Huh and Keegan Bradley. Keegan played at St Johns, I didnt even know they have a golf program.

Give me a kid with a major chip on his shoulder, a strong belief in himself, and make him about age 20 and I'll take him every day of the week over the kid who has played AJGA events since age 10.

[Caturday]

I can't even imagine how the AJGA is now, when I played on it years ago it was full of primadonnas and asshole parents. They put so much pressure on their kids it was disgusting.

[Liquid Karma]

I can't even imagine how the AJGA is now, when I played on it years ago it was full of primadonnas and asshole parents. They put so much pressure on their kids it was disgusting.

It's worse now, although they have an absolutely killer pace of play system to keep the rounds capped at 4.5 hours. Time checks every 3 holes.

[Caturday]

It's worse now, although they have an absolutely killer pace of play system to keep the rounds capped at 4.5 hours. Time checks every 3 holes.

I guess that's out of necessity. You leave these kids with their swing coaches, caddies and parents to their own devices and you're looking at 6 hour rounds.