Psychological Warfare

[Hacker]

How do you consider psychological warfare during play? Such as-

Putting on a slow green and announcing to your other players, “Man these greens are fast! I barley tapped that thing!”

Or on the tee box commenting on the wind up top blowing strong left to right when there is none.

Or in the rough commenting on how you really had to swing down on it to get the ball to release. You get the picture…

Unsportsmanlike? Unethical? Smart? Rude? Cheating

Your thoughts…

[JumpHigh_HitHard]

One of the better ones I have ever heard came from one of my dad's buddies, he said to me, "so when you swing do you breathe in or out?".

He asked me that right when I was lining up my shot, and it threw me off for the rest of the day...

Give it a shot, you won't regret it.

[King Cobra II]

  JumpHigh_HitHard said:

One of the better ones I have ever heard came from one of my dad's buddies, he said to me, "so when you swing do you breathe in or out?".

Oh god, I hope I forget that one by mourning lol. Anyways if you're just playing with guys you meet up on the course its just rude IMO, but with friends that sort of stuff is acceptable, if they can take it. If you're playing with a friend who's having a terrible day don't make things worse for them.

[Hogan Incarnate]

For a practice match one day, our number three player asked another person if he'd ever seen the water hazard that full. The person hit a 3 wood straight into the water and the number three and me were laughing our asses off.

I don't think that its unethical or rude just smart. If you can make another person shank a ball just by making a stupid comment, then you can beat them. Its just like reading the line on someone else's putt and then applying that knowledge to your own.

[lamebums]

Only when playing with my buddies. We will mutter things, make weird noises in the background, and that sort of thing. My favorite is "Watch out for the sand" whenever it's in play. Most of my buddies will take two or three shots in the sand, so it's always fun to watch someone else flail away.

In a serious round though, I let my golf ball do the talking. Booming a drive past the other guy's on the first tee is sure to shatter their confidence.

[Fourputt]

It's one thing when you're goofing around with your mates, but in any sort of reasonably serious play, it would be a serious breach of etiquette. You hear it talked about a lot, but the reality is that no true golfer will use such tactics... all it does is demonstrate a shortage of both class and talent.

[iacas]

  Fourputt said:

It's one thing when you're goofing around with your mates, but in any sort of reasonably serious play, it would be a serious breach of etiquette. You hear it talked about a lot, but the reality is that no true golfer will use such tactics... all it does is demonstrate a shortage of both class and talent.

Agreed. I don't even do it goofing around.

[Dent]

Thats a smart thing to do, but agreed, when your playing with friends is the only time its okay. Playing in a tournament its just non-etiquette.

Another thing you can do, is when your buddy asks you what club your hitting, on a 160 yard hole. Tell him something that you arent hitting, ex if your hitting a 7 tell him an 8. Guaranteed he will try to match you or beat you and not make the green.

[NM Golf]

We do some of those things in my group that I play with every week. They are close friends so its expected, and in good fun. I would never do anything like that with anyone else and especially not in a serious match or tournament. Anyone who does is totally bush league and has no business on a golf course. I prefer to beat people with my golf game not with sh@# tactics.

[$2 Nassau]

I rarely do it, and I would never talk or make noises purposely during someone's backswing, no matter who it was or what the situation is.

[lynchjo]

What about when your playing partner says "don't hit it in the water" or "don't hit it in the woods". I'm sure most of them mean well, the trouble is your subconscious doesn't understand the word "don't". It's like saying "don't think of a pink elephant"....then all you can think about is a pink elephant.

Whenever someone in my group says to another player "don't hit in the water" almost every single time they hit it in the water...it's amazing. It's much better to say things such as "stripe it down the middle of the fairway"...unless of course you want to play psych ware fare with your openent then say the latter....

[Big Lex]

Can't throw a blanket over every specific example of "psychological warfare" listed in this thread, but in general giving the needle is fun when you're with friends, if you like doing it.

My two closest golf friends and I love needling, primarily a mild form of trash talking and ribbing over bad shots (i.e., giving someone the sky caddie yardage after they just chunked a greenside chip shot 2 feet).

We would never, ever, do something like lie about the speed of a green or jingle change. Even needling about the swing ("When did you start with the little pause at the top?" or "Man your tempo's great today") is almost never done.

I was sworn off needling when playing a pretty big money match (for me anyway...in the "three figure" range) with my uncle against two lawyers. It was very close all day, and then my uncle just started with the needle with about 5 holes to go. Not only needling about golf swing, but personal stuff, etc. He finally got into one of the lawyer's heads so bad the guy choked and we won easily. Winning was nice, but I was actually almost embarassed by what my uncle had done to the guy, that I've never really needled anyone like this since.

[MountainHip]

Only with friends who welcome it (and that can give it back), for the purposes of having fun. There's only one or two guys I play with that qualify.

[Thrdroc]

I always do it when i'm playing with friends and they do it too. Usually i say stuff like "watch out for that water or tree", something that is totally out of the way and they think about that and it gets them to mess up.

[letgodsortemout]

Some of you guys seem a little week minded. I won't mess with people but I surely don't mind if someone says something to me. I guess it's because I grew up playing other sports where trash talk was always part of the game.

[P3R3]

I would only do it with friends that dont mind it, otherwise it is very unsportsmanlike.

[Hacker]

Great responces. My playing group and I do it every time we play but it is very low key. We do it so in such a way that you really cant tell if a comment was a jab or not. The very fact we do it this way makes you on your mental game at all times. So when I play with anouther group of people I feel like I can relax and play better. I guess in some stange way I actually feel that it makes me a stronger player.

[supercow]

Don't mind it. Tend to notice that people who are less confident in themselves use it more often though. Once you start beating them they start to quieten down.