Will I ever be a great golfer?

For quite a few years now I have played golf, slowly getting more serious as the seasons progressed but never fully caring. I am 14 years old now and just recently have found a passion for golf. I've been doing what I can to get better, but I feel like it will never be enough. Here is what I am doing or will do -

- Practicing 2-3 hours a day

- Playing 2-3 rounds a week

- I will be applying to a program in school that allows you to do academics in the morning and then your desired sport in the afternoon. This would essentially turn my 2 hour a day practice into 5 hours a day and might allow me to get in more rounds

- I will be getting lessons from a coach who was referred to me by one of my golf friends.

The reason I feel this won't be enough is because I feel like I'm too late. I look at all these kids my age that are winning regional championships and such and feel like they were the early birds that got the worm (It's notable that I aspire to be on the PGA Tour one day, which is the main reason I am asking this question). If you look, many if not all the players on the PGA tour say they've been swinging a club since they were 3 and how they "naturally seemed to be attracted to it and do well" and such. I've seen many people talking about making the PGA Tour and how you need to win such tournaments and things by certain ages and feel like I've missed the boat. Is my late blooming something the will never allow me to be a great golfer? I don't want to put my heart in to the game and then come out with nothing because there's kids out there that just happened to know they loved golf 10 years before me. Thank you in advance.

You seem like a mature young person who is asking themselves what I would say are all the right questions. You say you feel that you have missed out on a lot of experience by not taking the game up sooner then you say you are 14 yrs old. I wish I had taken to game up at your age and I am sure that a lot  of people on here will say the same.

Look at it as a journey this is you setting out on a adventure you have a destination in mind and you have set out how your going to get there. What happened s along the way who can tell, the only thing that is required from you is that you try your best in everything you do and be honest to yourself.

Feeling that you are at a disadvantage because of not taking the game up earlier to me is not an issue, you are young enough to make that up.You still have a rate of growing to do and you wont reach your potential until mid to late twenty's,that could be 10 to 15 yrs from now and you will still be considered young. Thats is 10-15 yrs of developing where you will be able to Judge for yourself if you are good enough along with the people that you trust. And yes there are such things as late developers and there are people who burn out to soon. you can only control what you do,let other people have their own journeys.

Good Luck.

There is a senior tour you can aim for...just kidding. I understand your frustration with young kids seeming to be light years ahead of 95% of the population as I am just a little older than you, well 40 years older than you. I regret not studying the game at a younger age instead of just playing for fun.

Anyway, I would suggest you make sure your coach is skilled in progressing younger players and not just another coach who is a cookie cutter product of the PGA program and only knows one way to teach. I have some friends who are very involved in youth golf development. They have one guy who is 14 and has always played baseball. He just recently found golf. He is making a good transition, granted he does have some natural ability. He is on a similar plan as you. actually he is not dedicating as much time as you are to the game. But he has a good coach who has proven to get a lot out younger players.

The short answer to your question is Yes, you can be great player. Just put the right people around you who can help. don't lose your desire and dedication and most of all be patient...this is a frustrating game.

Here is a link to the youth program I mentioned above...

http://mulligansgolfacademy.com/player/william-nottingham/

Good Luck and keep us updated on your progress!

Sorry, I'm only 30 yrs older. I still have time to make the Sr. Tour

You are definitely not too late...

1. I was one of those kids who started golf at like age 6 or 7. By the time I was 13/14 yrs old I had probably been in 100+ tournaments and won a considerable amount of them for my age bracket - and some were really big tournaments. Then guess what? I got into junior high and started caring more about girls and other sports and pretty much quit golf by the time I was 16. I had outgrown my clubs and didnt want to spend my money on  new ones and my parents wouldnt help me. So...just because some kids are winning tourneys already doesnt mean they are going to stick with golf. I played my last round when I was 18 and didnt pick up a club again until I was 36 yrs old.

2. You are growing. So are the kids winning tourneys. You do not know who is going to grow into an athletically gifted adult at age 14. Some of those kids winning tournaments might turn out to be terrible athletes at age 17 and vice versa. You might turn out to be amazing at golf by the time you are 18. Who knows. There are some pro golfers that were just OK when they started college and then were pro by the time they were 21 yrs old. People can change a lot at that age. You just never know. The most gifted kids might not be gifted at 17 and the normal kid might turn out to be an awesome athlete at 17.

3. Pursue your dreams and pursue lots of them. Focus on golf BUT also make sure you focus on your studies an plan for college and good job too. And anyway you want to get into a good college golfing program so studies will help with that.

Folks can become as good as their physical/mental abilities will allow them to be. It matters little what subject matter is. The game of golf is no different.

I started playing the game of golf regularly in my early 20s, after a (very) few rounds in my late teens. I was interested more in playing baseball. I played all the major sports when I was in high school. I was better than average playing football, basketball, track, and baseball. Of those four sports, I excelled at baseball. The irony was I had a part time job at a small golf course while playing those other high school sports.

After taking up the game in a more serious manner, I played, and practiced my way down to a 6 handicap. It took a few years to accomplish that number. Could I have gone lower?  Probably, but I did not have the extra time to devote to accomplish the lower number. I had a great job, and loving family.

It's just my own opinion that natural ability plays a big roll for golfers who become low handicappers. Along with natural ability, a successful golfer must have the correct instruction (for the individual)  to become the best they can be at playing the game of golf. Obviously the younger a person takes up the game, the quicker they can nurture any natural ability they may have.

So to answer the question asked by a456bt , (IMHO) yes you can be "great" with hard work, proper instruction, and the natural ability to become the best you can be at playing the game of golf.  Problem is, greatness is relative to the individual.

Well I started at 15 and won one of the big high school tournaments my senor year so it is possible. Though it may be tougher for you if you live in a very strong golfing community where most of the high school players were already scratch. Where I lived most of the high school golfer were averaging 39-42 for nine holes.

Realistically, the kids who learned starting when they were 5 years old do not have as much an advantage as you think. It might show up in their game tactics, or putting skills or just plain knowing the rules well. Those kids usually don't start playing scratch or even in the low single digits until they are around 16-17 anyway, because that's when they are just starting to grow to their full sizes which is needed for distance.

You have a good chance of getting really good given the amount of time you are capable of putting into it, but to get to scratch or better takes a certain amount of talent as well. You might or might not have that talent, and don't be discouraged if you don't demonstrate it immediately.

It takes some time to figure out if you have it or not.

You can do it. You're still in that age window where you can learn the swing motion and it can become engrained in you pretty easily. You won't be a junior sensation on the tour, but it doesn't mean you don't have a chance of making the tour.

You seem to have a decent overall plan.

Your coach should at minimum use video. He should have some tech at his disposal like a launch monitor, Flightscope, or Trackman.

I beg to differ from my personal experience with another sport.   It makes a huge difference provided that the 5 year old kept up with practice.   For someone at age 14 to jump into a sports and catch up with the someone who started the same sport at age 5 is going to take a special talent to catch up, all things being equal.   When one is properly trained at real early age, he learns really good fundamentals which is a huge advantage.  Also, younger kids (who are motivated) soak up instructions much better than much older kids.

In the OP's case, he needs to practice a few times more than the kids who started at age 5.  Of course, the OP may have a natural talent to catch up quickly.

Pardon?

What do you mean "come out with nothing"?

You can not make a cent out of golf and come out with the most valuable things in the world: Great friendships and the love of a great game you can play for a lifetime.

You are playing for the wrong reasons. And you are putting the cart before the horse.

I really am tired of reading about kids who want to be rich and famous but don't feel the need to work and play to the best of their ability and see where it takes them.

If you are like 99.999 percent of the golfing population, your best won't be good enough. But then again, it might be. Why are you asking us?

Don't ask strangers who know nothing about you what you are capable of.

I think he meant he would be disappointed if he invested all that time but never got good. I could be wrong, but this is natural concern for anything someone wants to be good at. Unrelated, but some of my guitar students have voiced similar concerns. I play golf for fun, I never intend to profit from it unless you count me and my brother betting a $1 on a hole, so I'm not concerned about becoming pro or any of that, but I can relate to the feeling of doubt for sure.

Right, I think we agree, and only differ in how much difference starting at 5 vs 15 makes. I've watched many kids who started golf at 5, but saw them only from when they were 9 or 10. At first they were very impressive, but as time went on most of them didn't get that good. The ones that did get good, were really good by the time they got to 16-17. So, my thoughts on starting this early is to increase the size of the talent pool by making kids like the sport at an early age, and the best ones are prepared better by the time they mature. To the OP, no one really knows how good you can get, the large amount of practice you devote will get you to the best you can be, but as others have noted it might not be good enough to even reach not so great. If in one year, you've learned to swing very well and drive 280 yards on average I would say you have some chance. If in 2 years you shoot under par, you have a better chance. There is a lot of talent in your age group, so the task to be able to beat them is daunting. Just to give you an example my son's older 17 year old team mate just shot 4 under on a 9 hole course, and is not even near the top in our region. There is a lot of talent out there.

I am appalled by your insensitivity and haste to judge me without even considering the fact that I didn't mention money once within everything I said. The reason I am asking "random strangers" is because this seemed like a very helpful and knowledgable community, although it doesn't seem like you are upholding that reputation. I have a passion for the game of golf and want to spend my life playing it, that is why I am asking this. I want to have the chance to play golf for a living, which means yes, I want to make money from it. But this is only so that I can survive all while doing my favourite thing in the world for the rest of my life. Perhaps you should try not being so stuck up, and the last time I checked, most people don't enjoy beating down the dreams of a 14 year old boy.

Have a nice day.

Sorry, I just want to make something clear. That last statement was in reply to Shorty. Thank you to the rest of you for the advice. I guess I'm not one to judge my own ability, but I believe I have the "natural ability or something" to play great golf. My question was more like if there were two me's, and one started playing golf 5 years before the other, latter have less of a chance of making the PGA. That's all, thank you again everyone!

You might like to read the numerous threads which are exactly like your own.

They all start the same way and finish the same way.

Nobody "beats down" dreams.

What they do is encourage perspective, self-awareness and patience.They also generally suggest that you become good in preference to wondering how good you can be.

Seriously, How can you possibly expect anyone here to have a clue about your potential?

And, for the record, you seem to have missed the point of my post. I actually wrote:

If you are like 99.999 percent of the golfing population, your best won't be good enough. But then again, it might be.

No one here has a clue about what you might achieve and how it would compare to what you would achieve had you started 5 years earlier.

How could they?

Go out and play golf and become the best player you can be. That is the only advice that makes sense. And it won't just be coming from me.

The 5 year old starter "you", will be better than the 15 year old staring "you" given that you know you have the talent. The kid that shot 4 under at 17 started at something like 5, but there are also lots of kids that started with him that are not shooting that well. There are also kids that shoot really well at 14. http://espn.go.com/golf/masters13/story/_/id/9156963/china-tianlang-guan-14-astounds-73-masters-opener-golf, and many thousands more in between.

Good luck with your golf!

Remember that you can always do it just for fun too, if things don't work out with a PGA career.