Why golfing is hard for the average Joe

[kfowler]

I'm in the middle of going through a fairly significant swing change. I'm really starting to see why golf is so much more difficult for the average player vs. someone who does it professionally. If golf is your priority, you can spend all day, every day, working on your swing. You can dedicate the time needed to make swing changes and significantly improve your game. That being said, it can still take a pro a full year to integrate a major swing change.

Contrast that to 99% of the people on this board. I'm married, have a full time career that my family depends on, and I have one year old daughter. If I can make it out to the driving range twice per week for an hour, that's really good for me. I pick up a club just about every night in my living room and practice positions. I'm lucky to get a solid 15 minutes working one aspect of a swing change. It's tough for the movements to really stick. Not only are the movements new but I'm also trying to overcome 25 years of bad habits. It seems to take twice as long to see results. I wish I had the time I had back in college. Missed opportunity there. I would love to take my camera and computer to the range and spend a full day working on my swing.

I golf because I love the game but implementing swing changes and seeing results can be very frustrating.

[juanrjackson]

I agree kfowler. Due to work & other obligations, I might play 3-4 times a month from March-Oct & make it to the range once a week. In that amount of time it is hard to see any improvements. This year I am going to try to develop a structored routine to my practice to maximaze the time.

I just try to enjoy the game & not take it too serous. I realize at this point in my life I will probalby never be a single digit handicap.

[65withatriple]

Thats why I always say make little changes over time in the direction you want to improve. Its very difficult to make a big change but if you do a little bit here and there over time you can still enjoy the game while improving. Golf is hard!

[MrKadash]

To me golf is all about expectations and knowing at what level to put it. That's where patience comes in. High expectations generally equates to less patience, whereas low expectations the opposite. If I was in the situation the OP is in (and I was at one time), while I would desire to get better, my expectation would be as such to keep the frustration level lower. Responsibilities have a way of keeping us all off the TOUR. Just try and enjoy.

[Bullitt5339]

Honestly, I have a wife, 3 kids and work 4 10 hour days a week usually. My family obligations take up most of my time, so very little is there for actual practice on the driving range. I try to implement small changes to my swing, without reinventing the wheel, because I know that I do not have time to learn a completely new swing, practice it, and implement it on the course.

I know that my handicap will not significantly improve without taking the time required, but right now, my handicap isn't priority. I love the game, so if I get 3 hours on a Sunday morning to go play, I typically either ask the wife if she wants to go drive me in the golf cart, and typically she does, just to spend quiet time together, even though she's not really interested in golf. I enjoy being on the course more right now than I am interested in lowering my handicap. I'm sure once all my children are older, I'll have more time to dedicate to improvement, but right now, I'm quite happy on the course, shooting bogey golf and enjoying myself.

[Fatphil]

eh Kevin,,,I spent 10 years working in Michigan in the 80s & early 90's...same deal kids were young, lot of travel etc..Kids are now in college, still travel a lot but at least I golf more...hate to tell ya but till the 1 yr old gets to middle school it probably ain't gonna get much better..

hope the rant made you feel better! we're here for ya bro.

[kfowler]

hope the rant made you feel better! we're here for ya bro.

It does. Thanks for listening. :D

On the plus side, my daughter is already swinging her Snoopy clubs at her plastic balls. Future scholarship perhaps.

[Fourputt]

It does. Thanks for listening. :D

I see the beginnings of an opportunity.... if she remains interested, then at some point she can become your best playing companion. Family time and golf in the same activity. That's a win/win for everyone.

[Gioguy21]

I play with my dad (i'm 24, he's 55), my grandfather and used to with my mom when i was growing up. however, ma stopped when i was lying one in the fairway and she was lying 3 from the same spot...she asked what club she should use and (i was 10) said 'face it mom, you can hit anything...it'll still take you 5 shots to get to the green'...its funny now but back then i'm sure she was pissed haha

[walk18]

Add the fact that there is a ton of information out there about the golf swing that is flat out wrong.

[WUTiger]

...I'm really starting to see why golf is so much more difficult for the average player vs. someone who does it professionally. If golf is your priority, you can spend all day, every day, working on your swing. You can dedicate the time needed to make swing changes and significantly improve your game. That being said, it can still take a pro a full year to integrate a major swing change.

Flipping things around, why is it so hard for pros to show the average Joe how to play golf?I know of five former teaching pros I have met through the years, who quit teaching golf due to

caregivers' fatigue. As one guy said, "If I had one more player missing to the right all day, slicing, I will go crazy!!!" Someone write an interesting piece the past 10 years - and now I can't find it, of course - which blamed failure to learn basic golf of failure to understand alignment. This person said that if golfers need to understand the Railroad Tracks - parallel foot alignment and club path. If people started with a clear concept of this, they could make better progress. Related to this, people need to understand that if you're in your golf stance, and look to the left, an optical illusion makes you line up too far right . So, maybe Railroad Tracks and Proper Eye alignment can make us better golfers. Anybody have the original on this? Maybe it's on a website somewhere?

[neophyte]

As a beginner learning golf, I had ten years of more trouble than success. I was taking lessons once a week, worked with a succession of four different pros, playing twice a week, and at the range 4 times a week. I was hitting 14,000 practice balls a year.

It wasn't until I started with the last teacher that I realized that most teaching pro's don't really have a handle on how to teach someone who is not able to be a single digit handicap without lessons. The biggest problem is

(1)that the pros teach completely different techniques for each of the different swings. What that means is that the different swings (putt, chip, pitch, full swing) do not use the same basics whenever possible in each swing.

(2) Most pros start teaching the full swing with the driver to the beginner. This is like teaching Calculus in first grade and addition in twelth grade.

(3) Most pros only know their own swing and don't know what to do with you if you are built different and swing differently than they do.

My current pro looked at what I could do and told me not to swing like he does, and to not try to swing like anyone else while he was working with me. We started with putting, When he was satisfied with my putting technique and we started working on chipping. I realized that chipping was a lot like putting. My putting had become consistent and better. My chipping became easier and more accurate. When he was satisfied with my putting, and chipping we started on pitching. I was again surprised to find that pitching was a lot like chipping. I think you get the picture.

In the first ten years of lessons and practice I was struggling with all my golf. In one summer my present pro helped me to progress until I am now working on shaping my drives, and the rest of my game feels like I am playing golf.

Find out how many golfers your pro has taken from beginner to scoring in the low eighties. You will find most pros don't have one who has gone from over 100 to the low eighties. And You probably won't be their first.

Find a pro who enjoys teaching beginners, has helped many unsuccessful beginner golfers to score in the low eighties. And has been teaching for 10 years.

A good teaching pro will not be cheap, and is going to be expensive. But you will get something for what you pay. Ten $10 lessons that don't help you improve are more expensive that ten $100 lessons that lower your score.

I hope my failures and success help you have confidence to find a way to become the golfer you know you can become.

[nevets88]

A very good golfer once told me, some people have it, some people don't. Then you have Ben Hogan - I think he said an average person if he/she works at it, can break 80. I think it's complicated, maybe somewhere in between.

[Chas]

I just try to enjoy the game & not take it too serous. I realize at this point in my life I will probalby never be a single digit handicap.

An exemplary attitude.

I'm working on it ....

[Fourputt]

As a beginner learning golf, I had ten years of more trouble than success. I was taking lessons once a week, worked with a succession of four different pros, playing twice a week, and at the range 4 times a week. I was hitting 14,000 practice balls a year.

This is the same method that Harvey Penick used. The last club he'd let a new student use is the driver. He would start at the hole and move outward as the student learned.

[Leftygolfer]

It is just really hard. I don't think it is much more complicated than that.

[DBeane]

I think many people that are stuck and arent getting any better simply dont want to. Not saying that is a bad thing, playing recreationally is fun and just fine for many. I have kids/career/obligations/school...all that crap that can hinder progress. I have a net in the back yard, and thanks to some fertilizer and a really low mower setting I have a short game area, throw in a few flood lights and I get a lot of workouts in between 9pm and midnight when everyone is asleep. As far as swing improvements, the information is out there. Thanks to modern photography, there are no secrets in golf anymore.

Dont let life slow you down, if you want to get better...do it.

[DocWu1948]

I didn't golf or knew how to golf when I was working. Had two friends who would come in at 6AM on Tuesdays and be on the links by 3:30 for Golf League, missing in action with quite a few other co-workers, I was usually still working at 6 PM while they were finishing the front nine. One Monday morning, there was huge spread of bagels and pastries. Bob had broken 90 that weekend. So for my 30 year gift award, I picked a set of Wilson clubs out of the company catalog but didn't open the box. A few years later, I retired and it was time to open that box..And with all the time in the world for me to practice, it's still hard to improve. Maybe when you are under 25, it comes quicker. In truth though, if I had been golfing at age 25, it would have been tough to get the time away from work and family, One or the other always dominated.

All I can say is ... join the Tuesday golf league or start one.