Why Are Golfers Delusional?

[bwdial]

It's kind of like the Dunning-Kruger Effect.  People think they are much more competent than they really are.

[False hopes]

  On 8/30/2020 at 3:24 AM, bwdial said:

It's kind of like the Dunning-Kruger Effect.  People think they are much more competent than they really are.

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Yep.  Still sad to see it, and to hear it from good golfers.  I'm a shifty golfer but the people I play with are good. Relatively speaking 

[TourSpoon]

Maybe we all could have turned pro if we were properly fitted. 🤣

[RFKFREAK]

  On 8/30/2020 at 9:24 AM, TourSpoon said:

Maybe we all could have turned pro if we were properly fitted. 🤣

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😂

[Papa Steve 55]

I played hockey through high school and some of college till a really bad knee injury ended it. In high school I made an all New England team. Twenty pretty elite players. I thought I was hot stuff. We were going to Montreal to play in a tourney made up of us, a group from NY & NJ and some Canadian teams, all high school age. We had a couple practices and a scrimmage vs the NY group before things got started and I thought we were just great. Skating fast, crisp passing, wonderful ice. Then we played a Canadian team in the first round. That's when I discovered the difference between first lacing up skates at 12 vs lacing them up at 4. We were down 4-0 in the first 10 minutes. We were so far behind these guy skillswise I knew I could never get to that level. In my small world of New England we were great. Once we got exposed to the real world, not so much. 

Edited August 30, 2020 by Papa Steve 55

[nevets88]

I thought I was a decent pianist. Then I recorded myself and proceeded to blow up my piano.

I think if most ams saw their swings on video side by side with not even a professional, but just a good am, that would blow the facade for some.

[dzclarkcpa]

What I notice is the better the golf (lower handicap) the more realistic they are about how good the pros are. Played with a guy a few weeks ago who shot the easiest 68 I have ever seen, playing from the blue tees (one up from tips). One of our group mentioned that he should be thinking about turning pro.....his response, "I have watched PreQualify guys come out here and shoot 64 from the back and then not stiff a spot in the first round of Qschool....I am happy where I am at." 

The 14 handicap guy thought scratch was good....the scratch new that scratch, while good, isn't cashing any checks. 

If you ever get an opportunity to spend time around someone who is at the development tour level, take it. They are such good golfers, but it will give you an appreciation for the elite golf we watch on the weekends. Those guys on TV, they are not the "typical" pro golfer, those guys are best of the best. There are 1000 other really, REALLY good professional golfers who are grinding away for $1000 bucks (or less) somewhere.....they would all be the best golfer we have played with.

 

 

[bwdial]

What I don't think a lot of people realize is the amount of work that goes into being that good.  We tend to look at athletes in a lot of sports and think that they are just simply "naturally" talented, and there is, no doubt, a tremendous amount of natural athletic talent and timing involved.  However, there is just so much work put into being a professional in any sport, and I think that golf might be the sport that takes the most practice.

[easyjay39402]

A fellow from our club made it to the pros. We watched him grow up, and it was obvious from a very young age that he had uncommon athletic abilities. Hard work has its place, but “you can’t put in what God left out”.

[Sandy Lie]

Anyone read this before?

Fan who signed with Oakland A's strikes out side in debut - SFGate

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Baseball fan Nathan Patterson didn't disappoint in his minor league pitching debut. He struck out all three batters he faced in his first Arizona rookie league game.

 

[boogielicious]

  On 8/30/2020 at 8:45 PM, nevets88 said:

I thought I was a decent pianist. Then I recorded myself and proceeded to blow up my piano.

I think if most ams saw their swings on video side by side with not even a professional, but just a good am, that would blow the facade for some.

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Recording yourself in music is a great way to get better, same as in golf. We would record our band practices, especially vocals, to pick up timing issues, etc. it really worked.

[gjunkie57]

I have made par on every hole on my home course.  So OF COURSE I can shoot 82 today. The 6,7,4 start kills that delusion immediately.  

[TourSpoon]

  On 8/31/2020 at 11:02 AM, gjunkie57 said:

I have made par on every hole on my home course.  So OF COURSE I can shoot 82 today. The 6,7,4 start kills that delusion immediately.  

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So when a 21 shoots an 82 is the day he starts trending lower and hopefully he was my partner because that's money! 

[colin007]

I played basketball in high school, nothing special, but I had size and strength. I remember going to open gym the first week at college, and two minutes into the first run I knew the game these guys were playing was one with which I was not familiar. Jumping for a rebound, their elbows were where the tips of my fingers were reaching.

This was intramurals. The guys that couldn't make the team.

[darthweasel]

  On 8/30/2020 at 3:24 AM, bwdial said:

It's kind of like the Dunning-Kruger Effect.  People think they are much more competent than they really are.

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Saturday I was matched up with a couple randoms. Guy was talking about how he never shot worse than a double. Hole 8 was not atypical; he pushed his tee shot on the 140ish yard par 3 right, ob in the bushes. It is red staked. His drop was about 40 yards closer to the green than point of entry...and across the small stretch of grass, across the cart path, and about 10 yards from the green, maybe 50 or so yards from the correct point of relief. He had a mediocre chip. First putt went 8' past cup. Second was a couple feet short. Third was about 4' past. He picked up, recorded his "5" and moved on to the next hole.

At the end of the round he was very happy with his score (which had many similar events) as he broke 90 as usual. I find he is not the only one I play with delusional about his scores. I play from time to time with several guys I have met in tournaments who enjoyed the round, contact me and meet up for casual rounds. They are routinely shocked they score higher in tournaments than in casual rounds.

Yet when I play a casual round, they routinely pick up 2-5' putts (often after having missed an equal or shorter putt) and count it as made...then in tournament play with "no gimmies" they miss 4, 5, 6 "gimme" putts and their score increases.

 

It is not just people thinking they could be pros...people often don't have a realistic idea of what their actual scores should be. If you think you are 10, 15 shots better than you are, you are that much closer to being on tour. Result!

 

[Sandy Lie]

  On 8/31/2020 at 12:19 PM, colin007 said:

I played basketball in high school, nothing special, but I had size and strength. I remember going to open gym the first week at college, and two minutes into the first run I knew the game these guys were playing was one with which I was not familiar. Jumping for a rebound, their elbows were where the tips of my fingers were reaching.

This was intramurals. The guys that couldn't make the team.

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Same here, but baseball for me.  Many years ago, let’s just say 1973 I had 3 tryouts, the Royals,  the Dodgers and the Angels.  I’m 6’5 and back then I was 220. Best tryout was with the Angels.  I actually played in a game in Anaheim Stadium with the other guys that made it that far. Two teams, about 24 pitchers.  I had back then a fastball that topped out at 88. A change up today!  But my other pitch was a “knuckle ball”, they got excited about that. Pitched two innings and gave up no hits.  Game ended and everyone was told to be patient as the evaluations would take a few weeks.  Long story short, I never got a call. A guy I knew that was also a pitcher got signed to Minor League deal.  He was what I called back then a stud athlete, was the QB, the starting guard (USC gave him a Basketball Scholarship). He lasted 3 years in baseball, arm injury and he was done. He was the 12th man on the basketball team and hardly played.  Everybody on the team was good!  Amazing since he was the All-Time leading scorer for the 4A level high schools back then.  I did play a year of Semi-Pro in the Bay Area. I still thought I could make it. Until one day when a new guy joined the team. He was a single A pitcher from the Oakland A’s.  By the way I was a catcher before. So I warmed him up his first day.  Holy shit he could throw hard. Right then I realized this was as far as I was going!  Players in all sports at the top of the Pyramid play at a level we can’t really comprehend.  Good times though!

[Bucki1968]

I thought I was pretty good until I came down to Florida to play on the old Spalding Space Coast tour in the late 80's. First tournament I get paired up with two guys who are probably 20 years older than me and look like they just got done drinking all night and showed up at the course 10 minutes before their tee times. One guy is using one of those old maxifli putters that were about two feet long and really heavy (I can't remember the name of that putter).Anyway we all tee off and I go around Disney in an easy 72 (even) and get beat by 6 and 7 shots respectively.  A couple more tournaments showed me just how good I really was. My even, +1, -1 scores didn't even make a cut.

[TourSpoon]

  On 8/31/2020 at 4:10 PM, Bucki1968 said:

I thought I was pretty good until I came down to Florida to play on the old Spalding Space Coast tour in the late 80's. First tournament I get paired up with two guys who are probably 20 years older than me and look like they just got done drinking all night and showed up at the course 10 minutes before their tee times. One guy is using one of those old maxifli putters that were about two feet long and really heavy (I can't remember the name of that putter).Anyway we all tee off and I go around Disney in an easy 72 (even) and get beat by 6 and 7 shots respectively.  A couple more tournaments showed me just how good I really was. My even, +1, -1 scores didn't even make a cut.

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The old Space Coast Tour, Tommy Armour Tour, and Hooters Tour had a bunch of characters on it for sure. Its amazing the talent that is here. I tell people all the time that scratch is a dime a dozen in Florida.