Stranger Yips

[robrey85]

You know what's funny is I hate playing with strangers and complain about it to my wife all the time. I paired up with my buddy who I haven't played with in ages (who is pretty horrible, he shot a 70 and 60 when we played, lol.) and I played horrible. I couldn't get my body to do anything right. I think I ended up shooting a 102 on a course that I should have shot a 90 on! Then I played with some strangers this past weekend and shot one of my best rounds in awhile of 91, as always it coulda shoulda woulda been better but what can you do? Haha. Anyway, it was almost like I relaxed too much when I was playing with my buddy or maybe it was because he is just so bad his juju leaked on me, I have no idea.

I think if anything, playing with strangers is like playing with a clean slate. You don't know them, they don't know you so for all they know, you could be scratch. So mentally, you have the advantage and can play your best. Realistically, who the hell cares what they think? You're probably not going to see them again anyway.

My one and only gripe about playing with most strangers is that it's the same conversation every freakin' round. "Where ya from?" "What do you do?" "Play here often?" "Where do you live?" bllah blah blah BLAHBLAH LBAHLGALHRJMGIOKNJRO^IJN*&$#$# @! It gets pretty annoying to the point where I'd rather be that guy who plays with earbuds in the entire round, haha. No joke, I have thought about doing that, though never actually done it.

[ay33660]

When ever I am on vacation I usually golf as a single and join as many groups as I can.

I always follow the same pattern.

I stick to my game and keep small talk to a minimum for at least the first 5 or 6 holes.

I let the group that I am joining initiate most of the conversation if they wish.

Usually by the end of the round we have become friends for the day.

I can only remember one time in over 10 years where I sort of had an issue with the group I joined.

And in that situation it was at Estralla Mountain golf course in Goodyear Az. That course is a desert layout with the back tees having to carry some distance over desert to reach the fairway. I joined three golfers and one of them was really bad but insisted on playing with us from the blue tees. He could not hit a drive over 130 yards so was constantly losing his golf ball. It was not like this guy was a jerk or anything it was just that we needed to look for his ball on most par 4s and 5s and we could sense his frustration so there wasn't much conversation.

[BuckeyeNut]

I have two questions:  #1:  Since there is no apparent matching of skill level when pairing occurs, how do you adjust for the discrepancy when you know you're up against semi-pros at the first tee?  #2:  How do you get over the Full-Course-Yips (if such a thing exists!)?

I can comment from the perspective of a lower HC golfer pairing up with higher HC golfers.  Just have fun and play the tees that make you feel comfortable.   I don't expect or want you to play from the same tees if it's out of your comfort zone.  I want you to feel comfortable and to enjoy my company.  I try to make my playing partners feel at ease and any uneasiness is usually gone after the first hole or two.

One cardinal pace of play rule:   So long as our group keeps up with the group we are following, how many strokes you take don't matter.  I don't even notice how many....  please don't be that person that makes "US" fall a hole behind pace.