Why I love golf so much

[paininthenuts]

Only recently I started a thread explaining why I was starting to hate golf. For two weeks I could do nothing right. My golfing bats hated me, all the trees on all the courses I played jumped out in front of my balls, and the bunkers sucked in my balls like a vacuum cleaner sucks in dust. My scores were nearly as bad as they were when I started a year ago. It honestly looked like my handicap of 21 was stolen from someone else. 

Well, since last Monday the golfing Gods have smiled upon me, and my golfing sticks have started to behave again. Twice this week I have played 14 over gross (not bad for a bloke of 58 who had never played a year ago), and I won the front 9 comp on a society occasion. 

So, the important thing is what have I learned from this experience.

1) Golf is more mental than physical

2) It doesn't matter how bad things are, you will get through them

3) Single figure golfers have natural ability, and I don't 

 

 

[iacas]

1 minute ago, paininthenuts said:

1) Golf is more mental than physical

3) Single figure golfers have natural ability, and I don't 

Those two contradict, to some extent.

Golf is not more mental than physical. I'll disagree with that vehemently. A good player has superior physical skills. The mental edge accounts for a very small contribution to the score.

[newtogolf]

4 minutes ago, iacas said:

Those two contradict, to some extent.

Golf is not more mental than physical. I'll disagree with that vehemently. A good player has superior physical skills. The mental edge accounts for a very small contribution to the score.

I agree, big picture wise in terms of golf success, physical > mental.  Within our current abilities and quality of play I believe mental plays a significant part in how well we score. 

[paininthenuts]

8 minutes ago, iacas said:

Those two contradict, to some extent.

Golf is not more mental than physical. I'll disagree with that vehemently. A good player has superior physical skills. The mental edge accounts for a very small contribution to the score.

OK, I will relent and say that golf is as much mental as physical, but I am not budging from that 

[Rainmaker]

Mental is what we become from playing with inferior physical skills.

[CarlSpackler]

Welcome back! 

[Wally Fairway]

I've reached a point where the game is mostly social.
Don't get me wrong I still look to put up a good number, and win a little cash if possible - but I'd rather have a mediocre score with a good group of friends then have a good round with miserable folks. I still go out and work on improving being more consistent, as my score will improve from hitting more fairways, and hitting the ball solidly rather than mishits. Hell sometimes I'd rather just stay on the range, then go to the practice green - especially if they allow (or don't actively disallow) adult beverages.

[billchao]

1 hour ago, paininthenuts said:

OK, I will relent and say that golf is as much mental as physical, but I am not budging from that 

It does take some amount of strategy and planning, but there's a lot more physical than mental involved when you're swinging a stick in excess of 90mph to hit a tiny object towards some target 200+ yards away. Ultimately how well you score has more to do with how well you swung that stick than how well you thought about approaching the hole.

[paininthenuts]

19 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

I've reached a point where the game is mostly social.
Don't get me wrong I still look to put up a good number, and win a little cash if possible - but I'd rather have a mediocre score with a good group of friends then have a good round with miserable folks. I still go out and work on improving being more consistent, as my score will improve from hitting more fairways, and hitting the ball solidly rather than mishits. Hell sometimes I'd rather just stay on the range, then go to the practice green - especially if they allow (or don't actively disallow) adult beverages.

You sound just like me. If you didn't live about 3000 miles away, I would ask you for a game LOL

[StefanUrkel]

Only sport where you still think you can become professional no matter how old you are. Only sport where you know exactly how well you played in a day

[Club Rat]

8 hours ago, iacas said:

vehemently.

This is the main reason I Love reading TST.

Words of this manner, educate old duffers like myself....

Erik, I luv you brother.

I made friends many years ago, (in my ski bum era, from the PA area whose motto was "Live, Love, Log")

They even had bumper stickers.

That was a great time of my life partying with them. Cheers......

Since then, anyone from PA was golden in my book ....

Off to google "vehemently"

Yes it's OT, but I'm in a great mood tonight and just wanted to share my thoughts.

But since the OP is about golf and Love, "I Love Golf" and I hope it's contagious ....

 

[Patch]

I love playing the game because it's an outdoor adventure. I might shoot the same score 2 or 3 times in row, but how I arrived at those same scores were not the same. I just like doing stuff out of doors. The idea of smacking a little ball around makes being out of doors eeven better. 

As for the OP's three most important things he has learned, I would tend to agree with them......For the most part.  Especially #3. 

[chilepepper]

It's different from many sports in that it's ever changing, even on the same course. Weather, lies, position to name a few.

It's hard, why I find that attractive I can't explain.

Last week I shot a 107, yesterday I shot 80. Go figure. 

[Marty2019]

20 hours ago, iacas said:

Those two contradict, to some extent.

Golf is not more mental than physical. I'll disagree with that vehemently. A good player has superior physical skills. The mental edge accounts for a very small contribution to the score.

I think it depends on what you mean by that.   Of course, golf is a physical sport.  A good swing is a purely physical act.   But, how you get that good swing can vary.   I would say golf is a mentally demanding game because unless you are one of the rare people who are born with a good swing, the act of developing that good swing is an intellectual exercise.   You need to  understand the physical processes that produce a good shot.  

Otherwise, why would we bother reading, why would we bother watching videos, why would we get lessons, why do we videotape our own swing and ask for feedback?   Those activities are much more intellectual than physical.   To play good golf, you don't just work out and develop your muscles and flexibility, you also have to be able to analyze and to learn.  

I play golf with people who are far superior to me athletically, but I play better because I am more analytical.   They hit a bad shot and pound their club into the ground in frustration.   I hit a bad shot and I think, what happened there?   I think more than they do.  

So in my case at least, I would say learning to play golf has been much more of a mental exercise than a physical exercise.   And that is why I would say, overall, golf is at least as much mental as it is physical, if not more so.   That's one of the reasons I find it so enjoyable.   I am a lousy athlete, but I can learn this game, because I have a good brain. 

 

18 hours ago, billchao said:

It does take some amount of strategy and planning, but there's a lot more physical than mental involved when you're swinging a stick in excess of 90mph to hit a tiny object towards some target 200+ yards away. Ultimately how well you score has more to do with how well you swung that stick than how well you thought about approaching the hole.

Swinging the stick is physical.  Learning to swing the stick is mental.   Maybe during a round it's more physical than mental.   But learning, practicing, preparing, buying the right clubs, buying the right balls, figuring out how to hit the ball on the sweet spot with optimum clubhead speed, learning the proper positions you should be in at various stages of your swing... that's mostly mental.  

I you are a good athlete, you can play good golf.   If  you are an average athlete with a good mind, you can also play good golf.   This is an intellectual sport, much more than any other sport I can think of.  

That's why I love golf so much. 

 

Edited August 30, 2016 by Marty2019

[krupa]

1 hour ago, Marty2019 said:

Swinging the stick is physical.  Learning to swing the stick is mental.

Only if you can get a perfect swing only by reading a book.

1 hour ago, Marty2019 said:

Otherwise, why would we bother reading, why would we bother watching videos,

Because we think the secret to a better swing is hidden in a book or a video when it's actually "hidden" in a thousand range balls hit with intentional, deliberate practice.

1 hour ago, Marty2019 said:

why would we get lessons, why do we videotape our own swing and ask for feedback?

Because what we think we are doing with our body is usually not what we are actually doing.

1 hour ago, Marty2019 said:

You need to  understand the physical processes that produce a good shot.

You can understand all the physical processes and know the physics behind an ideal club path and ball flight, etc., but you still have to swing the club with your arms, keep your head steady, get your weight forward, etc., etc.

 I'm not trying to argue that there isn't a mental aspect of the game and of learning the game.  As you said, when a person hits a bad shot they either pound the ground or ask "what happened there" and the latter person is going to make more/faster progress than the guy who mindlessly hits balls hoping for a good shot.

However, to simply say "learning the swing is mental" is ignoring all the physical requirements of the game.

[Patch]

This thread is turning into another one of those "there is no answer that is 100% true" type of topics when arguing mental vs physical in the golf swing. 

A few days ago I played 18 holes with friends, where most of us were basically drunk, for lack of a better discription. None of us even came close to playing to our normal scores. Some were even worse than others. Why? Because we were temporarily, mentally impaired. There was no mental focus. There was a lack of muscular swing control. Our putting judgement sucked.  Our physical attributes were M.I.A. because our mental side was in a haze.

On the flip side we were physically able to get a round the course, most likely from memory. We were able to physically hit the ball we were supposed to be hitting most of the time. Again, probably from memory. 

My guess is, that to play your best golf you need both mental, and physical abilties that work well together. Physical attributes give you distances, while the mental side gives you contol of those distances. 

[iacas]

13 hours ago, Marty2019 said:

Swinging the stick is physical. Learning to swing the stick is mental.

Learning is still a physical endeavor as well.

For the deeper answer, @krupa answered admirably.

[skeedawg]

I love the challenge of knowing the my best game is in there somewhere and someday, someway, somehow...I will pull it all together in a round for a great score. What will that score be? Who knows. Right now it would be better than my current best round of 82 but (and this is what's great about the game), once I beat that score I will be looking forward to doing better the next time...and on and on it goes.