I Hate Losing

[jamo]

To the OP, what I hate most of looking dumb. Whether that is slicing the ball off the planet, blading over the green, or falling on my face in a bunker.

  nleary9201 said:

Originally Posted by nleary9201

I disagree with your observation that one stroke is more important than another (provided we are playing stroke play). A stroke is a stroke.  I think when players focus on "par" it is really detrimental  to their game.  I think some players might play extra safe on a hole to get a par when it might be an easy hole they should birdie, or they have a 4 ft putt for triple bogey and sluff it off as meaningless because it is for triple. So they don't concentrate on it and miss it. The stroke add up the same no matter what relation they are to par on any given hole.  17 pars and a quad is the same as 14 pars, 2 birdies, 1 eagle, and a triple bogey.

On your scorecard, yes one stroke is one stroke, but I prefer to play golf for more than solely the number at the end of the day. You don't get many chances at an eagle.

[adamgoodman]

You could have probably beat us.  I'm unfortunately the best player by leaps and bounds and bounds and bounds. :-\

  shades9323 said:

Originally Posted by shades9323

You should have seen my golf team in high school.  We had no single digit HC's.  I was the best at about 11-12.

[nleary9201]

Sounds like you have the right approach.  Keep doing what you are doing.  I am trying to figure out why the old "go play 9 holes" approach was ever considered accepable. Every other sport has been doing structured practice forever.  Why would it be so different for golf.  One theory might be that so many golf coaches are pga pros who are used to getting $ 50 -$ 100 per hour for instruction.  They just don't seem to work as hard at it as say football or basketball coaches do.

[hokiebound]

Mine biggest gripe is missing the short/makeable putt, especially in pressure situations. I for one, am part of a very good high school team. But I'm not as talented as most of my teammates, so it sucks.

[golf4fun12]

  nleary9201 said:

Originally Posted by nleary9201

Sounds like you have the right approach.  Keep doing what you are doing.  I am trying to figure out why the old "go play 9 holes" approach was ever considered accepable. Every other sport has been doing structured practice forever.  Why would it be so different for golf.  One theory might be that so many golf coaches are pga pros who are used to getting $ 50 -$ 100 per hour for instruction.  They just don't seem to work as hard at it as say football or basketball coaches do.

I don't want to say bad things about people who coach for a living, since I have in my past coached junior high and high school lacrosse and soccer. I do however agree with you to a certain extent about golf lessons when it comes to a younger student. sometimes when I hit the range, I do see kids who are being helped by a golf instructor, but the instructor is not that into it. maybe because it is a kid, or cause he is getting $10 less for teaching a junior. still, 100% attention no matter who you are teaching/coaching is needed by the instructor. just how I feel on the matter.

[nleary9201]

Since you have coached other sports in the past, whats your take on the way golf is coached at the high school level?  Have you had any experience with it?  You might think (because golf seems consumed with instruction, ie an infomercial every hour about a new technique) that a high school golf coach would be even more intense about practice than other sports.  But it doesn't seem that way, at least in my experience.  I mean if an H.S. basketball coach just said "scrimmage for 2 hours" (similar to go play 9 holes) every practice they would be fired in a heartbeat.

[newtogolf]

  nleary9201 said:

Originally Posted by nleary9201

Since you have coached other sports in the past, whats your take on the way golf is coached at the high school level?  Have you had any experience with it?  You might think (because golf seems consumed with instruction, ie an infomercial every hour about a new technique) that a high school golf coach would be even more intense about practice than other sports.  But it doesn't seem that way, at least in my experience.  I mean if an H.S. basketball coach just said "scrimmage for 2 hours" (similar to go play 9 holes) every practice they would be fired in a heartbeat.

I've coached football and soccer and while I understand your frustration with golf coaching at the high school level you also have to take into account that golf is a very individual sport even when played as a team.  Coaching tennis would be a fairer comparison to golf than the traditional team sports.   I'm taking golf lessons now, it's a 1/2 hour to hour of dedicated time working on my swing, for a HS coach you'd need to multiply that by the number of kids you have on a golf team.  The coach also has to figure out what to do with the other kids while your dedicating that much time to one individual, it can't be an easy task.

I'm guessing it's easier to go out and play nine holes while the coach rotates his time with different groups so the others get some "live" practice time while he's coaching.  I also doubt at this level he's trying to help these kids build a swing, but more likely looking at ball flight problems and applying band-aids on their mechanics to get them through a tournament.

Should probably create a new thread for this if you plan to take it further as its very off-topic.

[turtleback]

I've never coached and frankly am not a good enough player to ever consider coaching golf.

However, it seems to me that if the kids' practice consists of playing 9 holes, then in 2 hours they will hit 35-40 shots, including putts.  I find it hard to believe that an hour spent on the practice tee, a half hour spent working on the short game, and a half hour on the practice putting green would not be a far more productive way of practicing most times.  And then maybe once a week play a practice 9 to bring what they are working on to the course.  They will probably hit 5-10 times as many shots in a structured practice than they would in 9 holes on the course.

[ND Fan]

The one thing that really sticks out as to what i hate the most ion golf is when I prepare to fail on any shot.  I get over a tough putt and instead of talking myself into making a good stroke I keep thinking " dang this is a tough putt"  That kind of stuff will kill a golfer.  Never think anything but positive, hit every shot like you know you're going to hit it perfect.  Anything less is preparing to fail.  After 30 years of this game I still do it almost every round at least once.  If you ever think to yourself over a shot " don't fat this one or don't miss this putt or don't hit it in the water"  Your stuck Basically any thought that starts with DON'T is what really pisses me off.

[ND Fan]

  hokiebound said:

Originally Posted by hokiebound

Mine biggest gripe is missing the short/makeable putt, especially in pressure situations. I for one, am part of a very good high school team. But I'm not as talented as most of my teammates, so it sucks.

Don't ever tell yourself that, if you don't like the way you play get out there and out work your team mates nothing pays off more than hard work. Everybody has to believe in something and everybody should start by believing in yourself.

[awmgolfer]

Your focus tends to go to whatever you are thinking, if you are thinking to avoid the water then most likely you will end up right in the middle of it due to where your focus is. We have a par 3 that has water in the front, on the right, and behind the green and anytime I focus on where not to go I end up right there. I've done a lot of work on my mental game this winter, look forward to seeing how it pays off, especially on that hole..lol. Focus on the target!