Marijuana use and the golf game

[ghalfaire]

I'll say one thing.  We may never agree on the subject but this thread sure had/has "legs".

[sbasson]

Hi everyone, Since golf has been introduced in the OLYMPICS again you will not find (or should not) any professional players using substances like these. The bans are real bad and could be severe for your career. Then again for some players the break away will be the best thing for then right?

[Dave Gordon]

Did you get the munchies out on the course?

[Ernest Jones]

But my first instructor told me to stay on the good grass...I guess I misunderstood.

[Ernest Jones]

I'm hungry.

[WilsonWedgeMan]

Originally Posted by Ernest Jones

But my first instructor told me to stay on the good grass...I guess I misunderstood.

great post !!!!!!

folks, if any here can remember, they use to put cigs in our c-rations...this was the Gov't supplying then what is now banned from use in many areas/locations. The Gov't says they are bad, after they gave out millions... the Gov't says that we can't kill, yet it's done everyday LEGALLY... go figure..... as for pot,quit wasting tax money on it, we can no longer afford it from a business sense. like one poster said: it's a plant thats' grown/picked/dried/smoked...that's as natural as you can get in the world today. same applies to wine, not beer or liquor, but wine is natural process..not man-manipulated like the deadly drugs out there today. there's a disgracful show out there called" the wonderful Whites of WV"... it shows the reality of chemical abuse..not natural chemical(pot) but MAN-MADE chems, and mainly Pharms from Corporations like Pfizer,etc....THOSE drugs need stiffer control, and death penalties for Drs' who push them. I will say that lungs are not meant to be filled with ANY smoke,so the health argument is moot...and for those who believe in a Higher power, He proclaimed that everything HE made, was GOOD.... who is man to dis-agree???

[kucsanta]

If you've ever competed before at a high level, you know the hell that nerves can play on your game.... I've played with and known guys (now on the PGA Tour) that smoke the night before to calm the nerves and thoughts. I've also played with some caddies who SAY their pro has smoked the morning of an afternoon round. Just offering an opinion that weed isn't nearly as bad as most of these claim on here.

It may have side effects, long term effects, other health effects, etc., but hey, so does alcohol and it's legal but has studies that prove it to be far far more harmful and addictive than marijuana.

[PhillyMac]

This is an old thread!

A buddy of mine who is a very good golfer (single digit handicap), plays better under the influence of alchohol and pot. I've personally been with him when he'll just fire up a dooby on the course. I guess it relaxes him..... I personally can't do it, or I will go into "party mode". LOL! Seriously though, I may have a beer or two. But it costs too much money to get stoned or drunk on the golf course. I could save the $40+ green fees and just head to the bar instead.

[xilez]

I prefer a fat blunt of purp before I tee off. It eases my mind, and I dont feel it til im walking to my 2nd shot, at which point im blazed and completely dialed in.

[GlobalGolf]

Speaking strictly from observational experience, it seems like it's completely up to the person. I have friends who smoke and tend to be more paranoid, introspective, and generally want to spend their time high inside watching movies or playing video games. I have other friends who smoke and tend to be upbeat, outgoing and enthusiastic. The former group tend to play much worse than normal after smoking, and seem to have less of a good time than if they hadn't smoked. The latter group frequently play better after smoking, concentrate better, and have a great time playing. To each his own, though, right?

[mdl]

Originally Posted by GlobalGolf

Speaking strictly from observational experience, it seems like it's completely up to the person. I have friends who smoke and tend to be more paranoid, introspective, and generally want to spend their time high inside watching movies or playing video games. I have other friends who smoke and tend to be upbeat, outgoing and enthusiastic. The former group tend to play much worse than normal after smoking, and seem to have less of a good time than if they hadn't smoked. The latter group frequently play better after smoking, concentrate better, and have a great time playing. To each his own, though, right?

I have the same experience.  My brother and best golf buddy are in the former camp.  They get introspective and slow and play much worse when stoned.  I and another golf buddy are in the latter camp, and tend to be fairly upbeat and getting (just a bit) stoned helps keep up is the zone and more easily shrug off bad shots.  Obviously no one plays better ultra baked.  I actually smoke pretty rarely on the course these days but in the worst of my swing change doldrums when I was playing really inconsistently I'd sometimes bring a joint to the course and it really helped me shrug off the bad shots I knew I'd hit and concentrate on just trying to stay with my changes and hit some good shots.  How effective that was has actually helped me learn how to do that without smoking.

Another anecdote in favor of the possibility that smoking can help in athletics.  One good buddy of mine from my college baseball team was a decent DIII pitcher.  Threw mid 80s with decent movement and a solid slider.  After college he took the opportunity to play in the "pro" league in Belgium, where he was paid with a place to live, transportation, and a decent enough per diem that he could take fun train trips and such and got to see a lot of western Europe.  Needless to say it's not high enough level there where there's drug testing!  He was always a big stoner (much more so than I or most of my other friends), and he swore up and down that he pitched better than he ever had when he started trying smoking before games.  Got him in the zone and dialed in.

It's not 100% just the person either.  There's a general break down in marijuana plants between sativa strains and indica strains.  Each strain is different, even within those categories, but in general the mix of active ingredients between the two types is different.  The indica strains tend to have more of the active ingredients that give you more of a body high and make you more slow and tired.  The sativa strains are more pure THC, which is the chemical that increases paranoia but doesn't cause tiredness, so if you're not someone who reacts with a lot of paranoia then smoking those strains is more likely to give the benefit of being able to shrug things off and stay dialed in while not making you feel loopy and tired.

[DaSportsGuy]

Originally Posted by westcyderydin

If you are not used to smoking pot, i wouldnt think you would be very good if you are feeling its affects.  i would stick to drinking.

It really doesn't have any effect the first time or couple times you do it...

[LBlack14]

It really doesn't have any effect the first time or couple times you do it...

Whoever told you this was stoned at the time.

[cheffdiddy_45]

A buddy and me went to play Cog Hill Dubsdread one day.  We were in town for a wedding and decided the day before the wedding, we wanted to play a course that professionals play.  It was a week or so after what was then The Western Open.  Well, we got paired up with a local member.  Nice guy named Tim.  Well, he was a ringer, dude was awesome and my buddy and I are hackers at best.

Well, we get to the cabin hole (the Par 3 on the back 9, I believe it is 14 maybe) and he asks my buddy and I, "do you mind if I fire up a bowl".  My buddy never smoked pot in his life and I, well, I will just say I had my fair share of blazing up.  My buddy had no idea what he was talking about.  So I was like, yeah man, go ahead, just don't get us kicked off the course.

Dude played lights out the last 4 or 5 holes.  Probably played in a couple under par.  But the worst part was, my buddy and I had to spend the last few holes going, "Tim, don't forget your ball", "Tim, your wedge is laying over there in the grass", "Tim, can you pull the stick please".

I think it improves your focus in some areas, but really destroys it in the most basic of instances.

[zipazoid]

I wrote the following in my book -

Altered States

“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.”

- Hunter S. Thompson

I was born in 1958, which meant that graduated high school on 1976 and went straight to college from 1977 to 1981. Let me put it another way. I attended college in the 1970’s.

Yeah, I did drugs.

Lots of drugs. I was a garbagehead. I felt it my inalienable right as a student of Kent State University, the site of one of the most polarizing events of the Vietnam War/protest era and anointed hotbed of leftist anarchistic activity, to consume as many different mind-altering substances that I could get my grubby paws on. You see, it wasn’t self-enlightenment, it was a social statement. We just lost the Vietnam War; patriotism was at an all-time low, returning soldiers were ostracized, and I was angry with all this.

Yeah that’s it. Angry. I was making a statement.

If you’re not buying that I don’t blame you. I’m not either. The reality was I was an immature punk that wanted to fit in somehow and found the simplest method of doing so was consuming copious amounts of chemicals. The Kent State backdrop just gave me cover. Kent was a party school from the get. It was not hard to fall into that lifestyle. I took pills, smoked or snorted whatever you had, did everything except jab a needle in my arm - I was too much of a wuss for that. But in talks I have had with heroin addicts, they were wusses once too which was quickly overcome when the initial rush hit them.

As a result of this period of my life, I played a lot of golf under the influence, and I have to say that Hunter S. Thompson’s quote is not completely inaccurate. While I would never label the ingestion of illicit substances to be a good career move, nor would I go as far as to state they can be ‘performance enhancers,’ I have found you can have a helluva good time on the course - and possibly play better - under the influence of certain substances.

I feel it my fiduciary responsibility to enlighten.

Alcohol - Who doesn’t play a drink ‘n giggle round with your buds and a six pack? Hey, we work hard, so what can be better than a sunny Saturday afternoon on the course, riding in a golf cart with some longnecks on ice? By God, that’s American, Bubba.

Well yeah it is. Just do not expect to be breaking any scoring records. You are more likely to be breaking windows on the adjacent houses as your swing unravels out of control by the fourth Bud. Alcohol has a dizzying effect on the brain combined with a loss of control and inhibition. So you are likely to take more risks on the course - “See that there green two hundred and fifty yards over this lake? Watch this” - but you are not going to get the rewards. Unless those rewards are out of control laughter from your buddies as you hack away as if a mugger was trying to steal your purse.

Cocaine - Not only no but hell no. Cocaine and golf do not mix, unless you are trying to charm the pants off the beverage cart girl with a bump. Coke releases the libido, but it absolutely destroys the golf swing. There is no way possible that a controlled, fluid motion can be executed while grinding your teeth. Any round started with coke ends at a crack house.

Hallucinogenics - This is an interesting one. Playing golf on acid can be one hell of an experience. It can also cause a panic akin to being stampeded by elephants. Big blue polka-dotted elephants with crazy grins. And wings. And fangs dripping blood. And stuff.

Speed - See cocaine. Golf is not a sport of aggression, so anything that makes you want to tear someone’s heart out of their chest and show it to them still beating is not going to lower your handicap. Pass.

Barbiturates - There was actually a controversy years ago on the PGA Tour that some players were using ‘Beta Blockers’ as a way to overcome nerves. The thinking went that having such a chemical in your system will keep you on an even keel. Well I guess the closest illicit drug to that would be bennies. Pop a couple before the first tee and your experience will be a pleasurable dream, like floating down a lazy river on an inner tube. Chances are very good, however, that you will pass out before you make the turn.

Painkillers - I bet some of you are thinking, ‘With the way I play golf, I need to be on painkillers.’ Welcome. You’ve found your nirvana. But let the buyer beware here - your hands will turn into mud and your sense of balance will be shot. Expect a bunch of fat shots and narrowly-missed 18-inch putts. But you’ll be laughing so hard you won’t care.

Marijuana - Ding ding ding. We have a winner. With its mild psychotropic properties combined with a calming effect, pot and golf go together like, well, like things that go together. Use your imagination. I just burned a fatty and I’m fleemed. You will also make the cart girl’s day as you buy up her supply of Snickers and potato chips. I’ve played literally hundreds of rounds stoned. Well, before I got sober in 1995, so let me be clear on that detail. I discovered a twofold positive effect - I could play pretty damn well stoned, and conversely, if I got my partners ripped to the tits, they couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. So the key here is, set the bets, and then break out the bong.

So there you go. The author does not in any way endorse, condone, promote or encourage the use of any illegal or illicit substances.

Unless he does.

[BallStriker]

lot of experience on topic.....some more with the other things zip mentions above......here is my thinking and the facts (in my game) that got me here.....

of the four best rounds i have played, two were completetly sober (ashamed)......one was a normal game with 6 or 7 cocktails and some smoke along the way.....the other was only drinking and no pot...

bottom line, if you want to score you need to play with a clean head...that said, I don't make a living playing golf, so what the fukk do I care if I don't score my best every time out.....but don't get me wrong, every time i tee it up i am fully expecting to go low, low......but it doesn't always happen....and not often when i'm smoking grass and drinking......but that doesn't mean i don't drink and grass 7 out of every 10 rounds.....love me sum golf on a buzz

[erock9174]

I usually play my best about 3 beers in.  Takes the edge off and the 20 swing thoughts I normally have out of my head.  Around beer #6 I quit caring and it becomes a party.  Normally at that point I break out my phone and fire up the Pandora ap and listen to my favorite tunes (only if the course is empty).

I have tried smoking once on the course and it was a bad thing.  Only a couple hits and it went downhill from there.  Became a giggle fest.

On the other hand, my brother tokes on the way too the course, normally once one the front and once on the back, to go along with his 12 pack he brings in the cooler.  Somehow, he maintains and beats me every time we play.

[DaSportsGuy]

Originally Posted by LBlack14

Whoever told you this was stoned at the time.

Anyone who's never smoked a bowl, go do it and let us all know that you don't feel any different.