Watching golf is getting very discouraging

I just watched Tiger hit a drive that went into the wrong fairway.  If the professionals with all their time, money and access to the best technology can't even get their swings down, what hope do I have?  I started watching the golf channel to get encouragement watching people that are really good.  Now I'm just getting depressed.

With the attitude you have espoused.....You have no hope. So what score did Tiger shoot? One shot does not depict anything, unless its the last hole of the last day and you choke.

Man, people get cranky in the off season.  Guess my attempt at starting a lighthearted discussion on how professionals aren't as perfect as we expect them to be didn't work too well.  I keep forgetting that people reading my posts aren't necessarily going to take them in the intended spirit.  Guess I'm never going to be a famous writer either.

Well with that kind of attitude, there's no way.   :-)

I'm in Florida now...So advise what strike three is....No good at golf, Can't write.....We know you're The Mighty Casey.....So what's strike three.  Now do you think I'm being light hearted or ?

Though to distinguish......I'm mostly a ball buster...Sorry.  But candidly look at how you started.....

During my first season, I had this same exact thought when I started watching golf. "Ugh, what chance do I have out there?" And of course, the truth was at the time that I didn't have much of a chance. I had no talent and I had no knowledge. Bad combo right there.

Perfection is definitely unattainable. But those guys are real close. They pummel 7500 yard courses with crazy, potato chip greens, narrow fairways, and tough pin positions.

For us, with practice, dedication, studying... in time, one can shoot a score he can be very proud of on a 6300-6500 yard home course.

Plus, when you hit it 300+ yards off the tee, your misses can be real ugly. For a good amateur who hits it like 230 yards (which is more than enough to play decent golf), his normal miss isn't going to be as crazy as Bubba Watson's could potentially be.

More power potential = a wider shot dispersion for your misses. Now, of course, having more power when you're a good player also means you're gonna have great accuracy too, but the point I'm making is just how more power potential also equals more miss potential on a poor swing.

But yea, the pros aren't perfect. But they're all about a good 5-8 strokes per round better than a scratch player, so.... They're still ridiculous.

Im just the opposite.

Seeing a video where Tiger blew one into the trees, then his next shot was almost as pitiful, it encourages me that when I hit a bad one its just something that happens sometimes.

The guy I played with last week, altho he was verging on being a psychopath, I believe, said it only takes a microsecond of distraction and you can blow a shot.

The pro's probably are better at ignoring everything external when focused on a shot, but that doesnt mean they are impervious.

Honestly, I dont want to ever get to a point where I never hook one into the trees. Knowing that it CAN happen is what will keep my enjoying the game. :)

I like knowing that every shot is a challenge. Its why I decided to quit moving the ball onto grass and just playing it wherever it lands...even in the mud.

here's my take on golf, if it was easy everyone would do great and get bored very quickly. life is a series of challanges, golf is just one option!! enjoy the game, the challange and the company

It ain't how. It's how many.

LOL, this is obviously a knee jerk reaction to a few events in a short period of time. Check this out. I am a 12 handicap who volunteers his time at pro events. I both have humongous respect for Kevin Na, (who carded a 16 on one hole at MY Valero Texas Open and STILL scored and 80 that day) and have disdain for him because he is a slow player and is borderline with breaking the rules on his ball alignment on the green. I think Tiger's problems are between his ears because he does not fully trust where the ball will go because he has worked a control draw all of his pro career and now is trying to figure out how to trust a straight shot. I think MOST of us serious golfers have worked hard on the driving range, figured out something, and then choke in the actual stroke play game. It's called being human. There is a reason why there are high paid mental coaches, because it is mostly between our ears.

I wonder how bad that messed his head up when he did it.  I always feel like an idiot hitting from the wrong fairway even if no one is watching me. If I did it on TV I'd just want to hit the rest of my balls in a lake and go home.

It's been said by many that once you have developed your swing....As most pros have.....The game is 90% mental.  The thing that has confused me with Tiger is that he has as much knowledge of the golfswing as anyone yet keeps tinkering.  But what do I know, I haven't won 14 weekend money matches vs 14 majors....

heres one for ya...

When the pros miss a fairway, it's because they drove through the dogleg or didn't fade or draw precisely enough, not because they sprayed it straight of the tee.

You should just be discouraged because of your lousy swing, not because of what you see on tv.

Hope that helps.

And you don't even get sponsor's exemptions.

Yeah, I know what you mean. But think of it this way: The goal isn't to be perfect (at least, if we're setting realistic goals), it's to: a) Make as few mistakes as possible, and b) Recover from the ones we do make as well as possible Like jamo said, this is evidence that you can completely miss the fairway and still have a great swing. All it means is that you just screwed up once. Given how many swings you have over a game, your human need to slip-up will eventually shine through, especially since the bar for screwing up is so low. Golf is a game where a few millimeters and a few degrees is the difference between a pure shot and a crappy pull hook. If you have a good swing you can go to your second shot still thinking about par, or bogey at the worst.