Playing alone...is it bad?

[abris33]

I love playing alone. I'm a lot more relaxed and can start to focus on my game not other people's. I think things out a lot when I'm alone. I analyze a shot better when I'm alone because a single is always going to be faster so I have time to spare. I do tend to get into my own head a bit but I do that anyway.

[TheFittingBlog]

It just comes with time, I use to play all the time alone. It allows for you to put yourself in great situations and try out different things. Try and relax or get use to playing with others. It will help you dramatically the next tim eyou go out in a group...

[Fourputt]

Depends on whether you are an extrovert (gets energy from being around others) or introvert (loses energy while being around others).

I'm no extrovert, but I still hate playing alone. Public golf courses here in the Denver area rarely give you that opportunity anyway, and if you do get out alone, you spend most of the time waiting on a full course in front of you. I just feel like golf is at least in part a social activity, even when I'm playing a tournament. It's easier to make small talk with golfers than it is at a party where you have little in common with the strangers you meet.

Then too, I enjoy the competition, even if it's just shot for shot, with nothing on the line. I usually focus better and score better when I'm playing with others. It was only in 2004 that a single golfer was acknowledged to have any standing on the course. Until then he had no rights, not even the right to play through a foursome. That is because a single was not in competition, and therefore was required to give way to any twoball, fourball, threesome or foursome match. That tells you that the roots of the game lie in competition, and when I'm playing with another person, I'm competing, even if it's only in my own mind.