Random topic: Naturals, beginners luck, and young golfers

[bones75]

Played with a two high schoolers a few years back that I can still remember quite vividly.  One girl who was on the golf team, and her guy friend who was on the baseball team.  They were playing the 2nd round of the day, for the guy it was his 2nd round in his life (i.e. first day playing golf).  He had ambitions of getting a baseball scholarship, so I figure he's pretty good at baseball, but still he was only a sophmore (16 years old).

Granted he had a fair share of 8's, 9's and 10+'s, but he was hitting his driver on average 275 yards, with one of them 325 yards on a flat hole, no wind (no joke!  carts had GPS so we checked).  He was swinging just about as hard as you've seen any other golfer swing, but it wasn't ridiculously uncontrolled, and other than like 1 snap hook and one slice, he hit his driver far and straight the entire round, i.e. 12/14 times he hit it straight ... and he hit more than a few irons real damn well.  1st day ever with a golf club in his hands (his only time ever at a range was that morning).  And he par'd 3 holes that round, and he played from the whites on a full course (6300 from whites).  

He shot like 120 or something, but still, is this guy a natural and should he change sports?  Or is it not that unheard of?

Additional related story, a good friend of mine played golf for the very first time on a par-3 nine hole course and he par'd the damn thing (shot a 27).  Literally first time he's ever played on a course (maybe 10x at the range before that).  Thing is, he's never played anywhere even remotely close to that well since.  He's a solid 25-30 handicapper.  But he did par his first round of golf ever!

Just sharing if anyone has thoughts.

 

[Crossett73]

On 5/10/2016 at 4:22 PM, bones75 said:

Additional related story, a good friend of mine played golf for the very first time on a par-3 nine hole course and he par'd the damn thing (shot a 27).  Literally first time he's ever played on a course (maybe 10x at the range before that).  Thing is, he's never played anywhere even remotely close to that well since.  He's a solid 25-30 handicapper.  But he did par his first round of golf ever!

 

I hope you're not trying to say golf is easy! Haha but of course that baseball might have been a natural. Baseball is all about control, but he'd probably never consider a switch.

[bones75]

20 minutes ago, Crossett73 said:

I hope you're not trying to say golf is easy! Haha but of course that baseball might have been a natural. Baseball is all about control, but he'd probably never consider a switch.

Your being sarcastic right?  Golf is soooo ez.  It's so easy that after just starting to play regularly this year, with my general goal of shooting under 80 every round, i lost 2 sleeves of ProV1's and carded a 103 today.

[Patch]

My oldest Grandson can hit the ball off the tee, straight, and averages 290 yards. He swings a lot John Daly did in his younger days. We have won a couple of best ball tournaments, due to his driving. He usually out drives me by 60-70 yards. 

Problem is that he has no talent around the greens, or on approaches to those greens. Absolutely none. Myself and others have tried get some finesse into his game. Just doesn't have the knack for any thing more than swinging as hard as he can. 

He just graduated with a degree in teaching. He was a sucessful football player, and wants to coach in that sport. Although his "natural" sport was football, he can still drive a golf ball tour length at a moments notice. 

Just drives me nuts sometimes when we play. 

[dave s]

Played a round yesterday with a HS sophomore moving into his junior year.  Kid was unbelievable for being so young.  He knew every club yardage in his bag and hit everything very consistently.  Shot 75 from the back tees.  I played whites at 61-something; blue tees were over 6400.

Every drive was in the 270-280 range; he's hitting his new TM M-1 driver.  Hit 5-irons from 200 out with laser-like accuracy. Like most young guys, his short-game needed a lot of work.  Missed a lot of putts although speed was very good each time leaving himself 2-3 foot comeback putts.  A couple of times he drove the ball to inside 100 yards but failed to make birdies on easy holes due to his length.

Scary that kids this young can be this good already

dave

[Dave2512]

Not sure being young, strong and wiry and being able to hit an occasional long drive translates to hidden golf talent. It's easy to be mediocre at golf.

[Buckeyebowman]

These posts remind me of a story I read a long time ago that may be apocryphal. In my mind "apocryphal" translates to, "if it's not true, it oughta be!" According to the story Joe Dimaggio and Sam Snead were at some event where they got into a discussion about the difficulties of their sports. After a lengthy dissertation by Dimaggio about how hitting a baseball was the hardest thing in sport Snead had a reply. He said, something like, "Everything you say is true Joe, but you don't have to climb up in the stands and play your foul balls!"

No doubt, some of these young buck baseballers can hit the ball a long way, But that's basically all they do. Try to hit it hard and "put the ball in play". In a field of play that's about as wide as ten fairways in golf. When it comes to finesse and touch, they have nothing!

There have been quite a few ex-pro baseball and football players who have becomes quite good at golf. But, how many of them have really threatened joining the pro ranks? That tells you right there. Each sport is it's own endeavor, and ALL the skills don't necessarily translate.