Noob Mistakes You Made

[Fairway_CY]

I don't remember when I first started playing that well... but I do remember the first time I went to a course was with my dad. It was a pretty beat up little 9 hole track that I ended up playing a TON between the time I was 15 years old until I could afford nicer courses. I couldn't wait to get to the course, and having never been to one... I kept asking my dad if EVERY place that wasn't a house but had an expanse of green grass was the course. When we finally got there... they told us we couldn't play because my dad was wearing some old, cutoff jean shorts. We had to go home and have him change.

I also remember that on the first tee that day, I whiffed... 3 times... then when I finally made contact, it was off the toe of the club... into a bush to the right of the tee. I finally dropped at the 150 marker.

I've been playing for awhile now and I still find myself making dumb mistakes... but at least I'm getting better. The goal is to be in the 10.0 - 12.0 range by the end of the 2011.

Good thread.

CY

[Game]

i made this mistake just a few weeks ago.. made me feel so stupid. I was playing the castle course in the rain and I couldn't be bothered to check a sprinkler head for distance so I looked at the yardage book and found a mark behind a bunker that I figured was pretty close to my ball. It said 120 yd and on the stroke saver tips it says "This green is deceptive, trust your yardages". So I pulled out the P wedge took a full swing with good contact and watched with a smile as the ball went 80 yards past the back of the green because I picked the wrong bunker to use for yardages..

[jlh1508]

i made this mistake just a few weeks ago.. made me feel so stupid. I was playing the castle course in the rain and I couldn't be bothered to check a sprinkler head for distance so I looked at the yardage book and found a mark behind a bunker that I figured was pretty close to my ball. It said 120 yd and on the stroke saver tips it says "This green is deceptive, trust your yardages". So I pulled out the P wedge took a full swing with good contact and watched with a smile as the ball went 80 yards past the back of the green because I picked the wrong bunker to use for yardages..

you couldn't visually tell the difference between 40 yards and 120 yards?

[DaSportsGuy]

The first couple times I ever played I teed it up for every shot from anywhere on the course.

[kennay92]

you couldn't visually tell the difference between 40 yards and 120 yards?

hahhh right!?!?!?

[Uncle Peter]

1) Not smoothing the bunker sand after I shot
2) Not replacing divots
3) Taking practice swings in the sand
4) Hitting my friends ball instead of mine

[Easy]

used to wear a glove for the wrong hand. A random bloke pointed this out while playing... felt like a douchebag.

[tracker]

hahhh right!?!?!?

lol I was thinking the same thing.

Good responses...kind of makes me feel more at ease being a noob on the course. I mean, everyone has to start somewhere right?

[kpaulhus]

My dumbest mistake has probably been grabbing a 6 instead of a 9 iron. Then again, I was betting my buddy, and I putted with the flag still in the cup. He told me about the penalty as I was pulling my ball out of the cup and I ended up losing by 1 stroke that day.

[B-Con]

As a current noob and lefty, the only safe place to stand is behind me, I haven't hit a boomerang shot yet.

I have a friend who's a righty and a casual golfer. He teed off one day with his driver and popped the ball straight up. The tee box was not well aligned with the direction we needed to drive so he was standing at an angle to it and I was back and to his left. So it was hard to see the exact line that separated "behind" him from "in front" of him, but the ball got popped straight up and my only guess is that he caught the ball with the top of his driver on the upswing, thus giving it a backwards launch angle, because I would've SWORN it landed behind him about 10 feet to the right. We all had a great laugh, and to this day I can't think of a funnier tee-off that I've seen.

[She-Diablo]

Absolutely without a doubt, the dumbest newbie mistake I made when I started to golf was... USING THE WRONG BALL... I was convinced the expensive balls were the "balls to swing at" and at that time, that was the Titleist BALATA (of course I had to even go with the 100 compression-having absolutely no idea what compression even meant)..... finally after a few weeks of investing (burning) atleast $400.00 cash into Balata balls that inevitebly ended up (after one whack) in the water or the trees, a kind Pro told me I " really didn't need Balata's "......

[ohiolefty]

I played golf as a kid and teenager, quit the game when I went to college (no MONEY), and picked it back up during the summer of 2009 - I had just got married and needed to get out of the house.

The biggest 'noob' mistake I made, and I made it as a kid because nobody around taught me anything else (my dad is a self-taught player and pretty decent...I'd estimate he's about a 15-18 HCP) was I had a terrible grip. I basically used a baseball grip and just put my thumbs down the shaft (instead of around the handle of a baseball bat).

This lead to so many swing, stance, path issues that I never realized until last summer and have needed many hours of instruction and thousands of range swings to correct...things that, if I'm honest, I'm still working on.

...

I think it's so important that, shortly after somebody gets the basic concept of swinging a club and hitting a golf ball, someone gives them a proper grip. It might be flawed (too strong/weak for them eventually) but if you at least give them a reasonable golf grip they'll have a better experience moving forward. The grip establishes everything about the swing IMO.

[JWL1957]

My 1st round of golf ever was on the Navy Sub Base course in Groton Ct. on a beautiful spring morning. The 4th hole is OB right........ ( Admirals Row Houses). I sliced a shiny new Top Flite O.B. right through one of thier front windows. The guy and his wife come out about 30 seconds later in thier pajamas. I walked up to them and was ranting on and on about how sorry I was. The officer asked me what my rank/rate was. I told him I was a Engineman 3rd Class onboard the USS Fulton. He said that he was very glad that I wasnt on submarines because I'd probably drive his boat right into the Fkn rocks..... and then he started laughing at me because of the obvious stunned look on my face. They were really nice people and we chatted for a good 20 minutes. Come to find out later, his wife would always leave a pail full of balls on the rock wall next to the 4th hole that she found in her yard for all the golfers.

[Game]

you couldn't visually tell the difference between 40 yards and 120 yards?

I can but it was rainy and said to trust the yardage book over my eyes so I did. Like I said, noob mistake

[sean_miller]

I can but it was rainy and said to trust the yardage book over my eyes so I did. Like I said, noob mistake

It was a noob mistake since us "vets" learned to get yardages by pacing and estimating. But . . . I've been burned on a laser rangefinder distance when I got a shot of the tree behind the green. I hit a nice full "trunk high" 8 iron when I shoulda used a soft nine.

[dv7834]

Was my 1st or 2nd time golfing, about 30 yrs ago. All day I was clobbering balls in the forehead, making them run along the ground about 30 yds at a time. So on a par 3, given my consistent ineptness, I decided to hit my tee shot while people were still putting on the green under the assumption that they were safe from a hack like me. Sure enough, the ball sails high and true and lands right in the middle of the group. I felt like an idiot, which I was.

[She-Diablo]

........slicing a golfball thru someones front window.......

For the Win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...

NOW THAT WOULD BE EMBARASSING...

Id much rather hit balatas for a month haha...

[mcgriff]

Once I ran out to a new to me course trying to get a quick 9 in. Was alone as my normal playing partners were at work. I tee off on 1, make a double. I wasn't too happy with myself as I get to the next tee. I check the yardage on the next hole, say to myself "This yardage seems off, doesn't seem to be 430 yards,". Oh well, new course for me right? Tee it up, make a par and move on to the next tee....which was the 10th tee. Got 2 free holes that day I guess.