Is golf really hard?

[rehmwa]

27 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

why do we, immediately at the outset of taking up the game, define our ability based on how we compare to an elite or scratch level golfer when we don't do that in the other sports.

Now that is a great comment.  And it's because we sometimes do hit great shots.  Just like the pros.  And, there really isn't a fitness criteria, even at the top, any slob can hit great shots occasionally or even regularly.

The relatability to pros is great for instructors - It gets people to hire coaches like crazy.

We relate even more to the top pros as they seem more physically like us.  Dress any athlete in a collared shirt and slacks and it gets even easier to relate than with someone in a uniform too.  Fit or not.

I'll never ever be able to hit a 120 MPH tennis serve.  I'll never ever be able to slam dunk a basketball.  I'll never ever be able to throw a baseball that fast.  I'll never ever be be able to do so many things. Heck, I can throw a strike in bowling on the rare occasion.  My forays into other sports (only one exception and it's not golf) is clearly amateurish and I won't fool myself into thinking I can do it better.

But I sure as heck can hit a wedge shot to within 5 feet from 120 yards and in on occasion.  I can occasionally hit a drive down the center and shape it just right and sometimes it'll go even (rarely) 300 yards.  I can once in a while sink that 30 foot putt.

In golf we get to experience frequent (hopefully) moments of what these guys do all the time.  The 'athletic' sports you just plain don't get to maybe ever.  That's relates us to them and sets ridiculous expectations.  It's possible, so why not all the time?

Golf isn't easy.  Golf isn't hard.  Golf is a freakin' TEASE.

[70sSanO]

17 minutes ago, Coronagolfman said:

Both of the boys played ice hockey for about 7 years and all I can say is that I tried to skate a couple times but never could get the hang of it, much less expect to hold a stick while doing so.

Our twin boys hated baseball so they started playing hockey.  We get less (lol) snow in Southern California so they played roller hockey in a league for a number of years and one did play rec ice.  Great sport.

I can relate to the skating part.  When they were older and still playing rec roller I thought I would give it a try.  I now have a titanium plate in my wrist.  Learned that it was not the best sport to take up at 55.

John

Edited May 16, 2016 by 70sSanO

[Gunther]

Golf is a tough game but in terms of making it to the PGA tour, I don't think it's any harder than making it to the major leagues in any of the professional sports.  Indeed, it's probably easier to be a pro golfer than a pro anything else given the various lesser tours around the world today.

I don't agree with the analogy of hitting a 5i 235 out of a bunker either.  Many pro golfers can't do that.  Some might hit a 3i or a 3 wood or a SW, depending on conditions, how the ball lies in the bunker and various other factors.  The bottom line is that particular feat is not a requirement to be a pro golfer.  It would be akin to hitting a baseball 450 feet.  Lots of guys in the majors can't do that but they're still major leaguers.

 

[Grinde6]

Golf is hard.  I play hockey and golf and hockey to me is pretty easy, but its only as easy as the other players on your team and the players on the other team.  Golf is just you against the course playing against other people who are playing the same course with everyone chasing par. 

Just a side note, I play hockey left handed and trying to shoot the puck well right handed seems impossible to me.  I play golf right handed and the same thing, trying to play golf well left handed seems impossible to me as well...

[DrvFrShow]

I'll answer the question: Yes.

[natureboy]

4 hours ago, Gunther said:

Golf is a tough game but in terms of making it to the PGA tour, I don't think it's any harder than making it to the major leagues in any of the professional sports.  Indeed, it's probably easier to be a pro golfer than a pro anything else given the various lesser tours around the world today.

Well there are minor leagues for baseball, hockey, and basketball. There's the CFL.There's also some kind of Europe-wide (or individual country) basketball league(s)...any pro level achievement takes tremendous innate and learned skills.

4 hours ago, Gunther said:

I don't agree with the analogy of hitting a 5i 235 out of a bunker either.  Many pro golfers can't do that.  Some might hit a 3i or a 3 wood or a SW, depending on conditions, how the ball lies in the bunker and various other factors.  The bottom line is that particular feat is not a requirement to be a pro golfer.  It would be akin to hitting a baseball 450 feet.  Lots of guys in the majors can't do that but they're still major leaguers.

That's a good point. Not everyone can be 7 ft, or shoot 55% from 3-point range. There's variation in skill sets in each game.

 

My argument for how easy a game is would be how quickly a beginner can learn to do the basics. I think you can get a beginner with almost no other athletic background tapping a tennis ball across the net reasonably well in an hour or two. IMO, for a person with no athletic background even hitting one club a reasonable distance (say 100 yards - let alone long enough to make par), & reasonably straight, & reasonably consistently in an hour or two is quite unlikely.

[Rainmaker]

Golf is hard but also unique in sports in that the basic motion takes a long time to learn.  Most of us aren't even playing "golf" in the sense that we could play tennis or play baseball.  It doesn't take all that long to learn how to hit a ball with a tennis racquet or baseball bat.  It doesn't take a whole lot of "figuring out" to see how you might get a basketball in the hoop.

You can also easily understand why you can't slam dunk a basketball or take a hit from a 300lb linebacker.  It's so obvious we don't even try.  A golf swing that produces 300+ yard drives is a very athletic move.     

Maybe Olympic high diving would be a better comparison.  It looks easy.  You could certainly jump off the board and hit the water.  Ever see that show "Splash", lol . .that was pretty funny (for 30 minutes). 

[70sSanO]

Since I used a poor analogy that will never go away, what prompted me to start this thread was another thread that listed 20 setup worries and one of the replies was that golf is hard.

I really wasn't trying to compare the mechanics of golf to other sports in difficulty.  It just seems that we make golf harder than it probably should be because we obsess over every little thing and measure our success to an unobtainable goal for most people.  That obsession drives a lot of people to chase the wind; a perfection that can't be obtained, and, at times, that isn't acceptable so we obsess more.  And I am no different.

John

[dave s]

I believe golf to be similar to tennis in one regard: Unforced errors play a HUGE part in a player's success in both sports.  The object of tennis is to keep hitting the ball over the net and in play until your opponent makes the error.  Similarly, golf is much about limiting unforced errors as well.  Unforced errors include OB, hitting into hazards/unplayable situations and pretty much hitting into any situation that results in extra strokes.

A lot of players I play with hit the ball farther and more consistently than me.  What keeps me in the ball game is limiting errors that others don't see coming.  Plus, I get up and down around the greens more regularly than most guys I play with. I'm fortunate to have learned course management and understand how to limit those unforced errors.

dave

[krupa]

5 minutes ago, 70sSanO said:

Since I used a poor analogy that will never go away, what prompted me to start this thread was another thread that listed 20 setup worries and one of the replies was that golf is hard.

I really wasn't trying to compare the mechanics of golf to other sports in difficulty.  It just seems that we make golf harder than it probably should be because we obsess over every little thing and measure our success to an unobtainable goal for most people.  That obsession drives a lot of people to chase the wind; a perfection that can't be obtained, and, at times, that isn't acceptable so we obsess more.  And I am no different.

John

I think you're absolutely right.  I am a terrible golfer so my opinion on this is worth nothing... however, I think the worst thing anyone can do is read instructional articles.  You end up trying everything suggested and ending up worse off than ever.  Lists are the absolute worst... if I tried to remember 20 things just when taking a stance over the ball, I'd never get around to hitting the stupid thing.

[Groucho Valentine]

I dont find golf to be particularly hard. Its really just a chipping and putting game. Everything else is peripheral IMO. 

But the mechanics of swinging a golf club are unnatural i guess and most of us never get past that. 

[Jeremie Boop]

12 minutes ago, 70sSanO said:

Since I used a poor analogy that will never go away, what prompted me to start this thread was another thread that listed 20 setup worries and one of the replies was that golf is hard.

I really wasn't trying to compare the mechanics of golf to other sports in difficulty.  It just seems that we make golf harder than it probably should be because we obsess over every little thing and measure our success to an unobtainable goal for most people.  That obsession drives a lot of people to chase the wind; a perfection that can't be obtained, and, at times, that isn't acceptable so we obsess more.  And I am no different.

John

My response is that we don't make it harder than it should be. The goal is to put the ball in the hole in the allotted number of shots. What makes that more or less difficult is our relative skill level. The issue, I think, is when we become overly obsessed with our skill level and allow that to effect our enjoyment of the game. I like to think I'll have more fun playing when I get to single digit HC, but in all honesty I'll still get frustrated when I mess up. The thing is, no matter how good I'm able to become, I'll always mess up because golf is hard

 

[DaveP043]

10 minutes ago, 70sSanO said:

Since I used a poor analogy that will never go away, what prompted me to start this thread was another thread that listed 20 setup worries and one of the replies was that golf is hard.

I really wasn't trying to compare the mechanics of golf to other sports in difficulty.  It just seems that we make golf harder than it probably should be because we obsess over every little thing and measure our success to an unobtainable goal for most people.  That obsession drives a lot of people to chase the wind; a perfection that can't be obtained, and, at times, that isn't acceptable so we obsess more.  And I am no different.

John

100% in agreement with this, most golfers worry about too many things and think about too many things, and all that makes it more complicated than it needs to be.  That kind of scattershot approach, worrying about all things, and working on no one thing specific, is bound to fail.  

Most of the instruction offered on this site, as compared to your average golf magazine, tends to focus on a single specific change that will lead to improvement, and to the next specific thing to work on.  Even so, working in a logical manner on making one change at a time, its hard to make changes become natural, and its hard to improve.  And of course, perfection is completely unattainable, so we never get to the end of the process.

[iacas]

1 hour ago, Groucho Valentine said:

I dont find golf to be particularly hard. Its really just a chipping and putting game. Everything else is peripheral IMO. 

Not even close to true.

[Groucho Valentine]

6 minutes ago, iacas said:

Not even close to true.

Go on...

You gots to recover and get it in the hole, chief. Short game and putting is how you separate IMO. 

[Lihu]

Just now, Groucho Valentine said:

Go on...

You gots to recover and get it in the hole, chief. Short game and putting is how you separate IMO. 

That's once you have a strong enough long game to see more GIR.

[Groucho Valentine]

Just now, Lihu said:

That's once you have a strong enough long game to see more GIR.

I suppose. But i think even higher handicaps can shoot lower scores by improving their greenside game rather than beating balls on the range. If you save 4-5 strokes per round on the greens it could make a huge difference. 

[Jeremie Boop]

1 minute ago, Groucho Valentine said:

I suppose. But i think even higher handicaps can shoot lower scores by improving their greenside game rather than beating balls on the range. If you save 4-5 strokes per round on the greens it could make a huge difference. 

Sure, that's true, but they are more likely losing way more that 4-5 a round losing balls off the tee, into water, duffing/topping shots etc. It's much easier to fix short game problems than the long game problems.