Bad Playing Partner...

[billm408]

Two incidents stand out in my mind;

1. Back in the late 80's I was playing a lot of competetive golf and was out with my swing coach. I hit a couple of poor shots and did the "slam club/cuss" thing. He pulled me aside and told me "you're not good enough to be that mad".

2. I used to play with a buddy that cursed and berated himself throughout the round. At one point I told him that if his friends spoke to him that way that they wouldn't be his friends. He got the point.

I play for the enjoyment of the game and the friendly competition. Swearing and slamming clubs can be distracting, but throwing clubs is dangerous. I've had words a couple of times with people about this. Fortunately my regular group are all good guys with none of those habits.

[pxc]

If I do something really stupid and ruin an opportunity I will get upset, but I'm nowhere near good enough to really throw tantrums or anything like that.

Example - on a par 3 this weekend I hit into a bunker off the tee. No problem, I'm terrible, and I need to work on getting out of the sand anyway. Well I hit an excellent shot with my 9 iron and land on the green about 5 feet from the hole. Yes! It's only 6 inches from the fairway, but still on the green and I can save par. Except on my putt the club gets caught on the fairway grass and I barely poke the ball 2 feet. I cussed but got over it quickly. It would've been my best hole of the day (like I said I'm horrible), and instead I think I three-putted it.

My playing partner, however, was significantly better but is 100x more hard on himself. A bogey meant throwing his club over the green at our cart, cussing, slamming clubs and throwing his ball. He is better than me but still not good enough to warrant that kind of behavior. Not that anyone should act like that, but especially not him. I don't think I'll play with him again. My shots are bad enough without having to watch for a 9 iron flying at me.

[kris]

I used to be worse than I am now. Never threw any clubs (except for the occasional drop after a bad tee shot), but i was guilty of slamming the clubhead into the ground a few times. i never curse (partially because i'm rather young and play with older relatives so that would just be awkward).

i've learned to go with the flow more these days. still have the occasional clubhead meet the ground but that's about it. i try to forget about stuff, but i find that if things keep getting worse i wind up having an epic blow up hole before i get better.

[Greg]

I used to get kinda upset at bad shots, the most ill do now if is usually say out loud, "what am i doing wrong" if i hit a bad one because im trying to analyse to see what im doing wrong and then i realize just didnt hit it well, kinda why i havent hit my driver much lately, been causing me a lot of frustration and gotten pretty good at teeing off with my 3 wood anyway, hit it about as far and dont slice it all over the place like the driver. I have one friend i play with who gets pretty upset when he hits bad shots thinking he's a great player when in reality he's been playing longer than i have and I can usually beat him by a few strokes. hes one of those guys that doesnt even try to hit the ball far and rely on accuracy but he's not really even that accurate, hes missing a few clubs in his bag that he constantly complains about, like a 3 wood and could use a another hybrid for longer fairway shots but he'd rather complain about not having them than spend a few bucks to get the clubs he needs or claims he needs name brand clubs and cant afford to buy them, i try to get clubs i can hit and try to keep my costs down. I usually just tell him to relax because we both know he's not that good. I occasionally have flashes of greatness but very seldom can keep it up even for 9 holes, most of the time if i can keep it in the 40's for 9 im happy or under 100 for 18, with low 40's or low 90's probably being the best i can do.

[Smarf]

I used to sling my controller when I lost at a video game, but after mowing grass for a month until I could save up enough to buy a new one I quit doing that. I can understand berating yourself, maybe even dropping an F-bomb but slinging clubs at the cart? That's just childish, what if his iron catches your driver square?

[Shindig]

So, ya got to play with Tiger Woods I see.

Exactly what I was thinking. Well, Tiger Woods minus the good shots at least.

[mfreeman73]

I never understood people who get so angry at their game that they start slinging clubs and cursing like a sailor. Maybe because I'm so easy going and I know my game isn't that great anyway. But, I still think that if I were really good and I made some bad shots, I don't think I'd react like a spoiled brat.