I quit golf...now what?

[Ernest Jones]

I like @newtogolf's suggestion. Start a vegetable garden. Or maybe open a cheese shop to go along with all your whine. 

[70sSanO]

Well, I can vouch for cycling as a way to get rid of frustration, at least for me.  Nothing like pushing up a few hills to put things into perspective.  After a few miles you put all that stuff behind you... if you stay out of traffic that is.

John

[Hacker James]

8 minutes ago, 70sSanO said:

Well, I can vouch for cycling as a way to get rid of frustration, at least for me.  Nothing like pushing up a few hills to put things into perspective.  After a few miles you put all that stuff behind you... if you stay out of traffic that is.

John

ha ha, one time I was remarking to a friend that I had just came back from a 200 mile ride on my "bike".  He was amazed....."Wow", you must be some sort of superman". (until I told him, it had a motor).

[MacDutch]

Become a marshal. You can punish the slow players and play for free or less.

[paininthenuts]

16 hours ago, stealthhwk said:

Need something to do for a little me time every week. Golf is dead to me. Its been a long time coming but Im done. Its too hard, too costly, and it takes waaaaaaay to long. Golf isnt going to fix slow play and golf isnt going to get easier so Im out. But what the heck do I do now?

I would challenge all of that apart from golf being difficult, because it is. I pay £360 full membership a year, and I can't think of many other sports that cost less than a £1 a day. Secondly, you can always play 9 holes or go at a quieter time if you want. Personally I love the fact it takes 4 hours, it gets me away from the wife, and if I had any kids at home it would get me away from them as well.

Anyway, what are you going to do now. I would strongly suggest going to the pub 

[shanksalot]

Stop setting goals that you can't reach. If you only play once a week and not every week you are not playing enough golf to really improve especially if you do not practice. A another poster replied only play nine holes. That cuts down the $$$ aspect and also the time restraint. If you want to set a goal then tell yourself I want to enjoy my day on the course, enjoy the scenery at the course and have fun getting some exercise. This is what I do these days. At one point in my golfing career my Ghin card showed at least 10 scores in the 70's out of the twenty listed.  This year I think I had one score in the 70's. I stopped trying to be what I wasn't anymore and just enjoy playing the game on a real nice tree lined course. I get plenty of exercise and do not set any golf score targets other than trying to shoot my age which is really just something I would like to do but am not really concerned about. 

[stealthhwk]

Well, the Mrs surprised me with a play station 4 last night, so looks like Im gonna get back into gaming a fair bit. It was my birthday and Christmas gift but she surprised me with it last night. After all Ive been thru the last few weeks she knew I needed the pick me up. She also told me not to worry about golf cus Im overwhelmed with my life right now. Last few weeks have been very tough so everything just looks worse than it is right now.

Also, I asked advice here cus many of us share or shared golf so maybe there are other interests you all possess that I may not have considerred. You know, like minds if you will.

Edited November 19, 2016 by stealthhwk
Add on

[Lihu]

3 hours ago, Hacker James said:

ha ha, one time I was remarking to a friend that I had just came back from a 200 mile ride on my "bike".  He was amazed....."Wow", you must be some sort of superman". (until I told him, it had a motor).

Double centuries are for the pros, but even on a motorbike, 200 miles is pretty good.

 

3 hours ago, MacDutch said:

Become a marshal. You can punish the slow players and play for free or less.

I was actually going to suggest this. Not the marshal part, just the punishing part.

 

3 hours ago, paininthenuts said:

I would challenge all of that apart from golf being difficult, because it is. I pay £360 full membership a year, and I can't think of many other sports that cost less than a £1 a day. Secondly, you can always play 9 holes or go at a quieter time if you want. Personally I love the fact it takes 4 hours, it gets me away from the wife, and if I had any kids at home it would get me away from them as well.

Anyway, what are you going to do now. I would strongly suggest going to the pub 

Yeah, I have pretty much the same deal except closer to $1000/year including cart fees for about 60 rounds. I don't take full advantage of it anymore, but even using 1/4 of the benefits I still think it's a great deal. Shooting guns costs me that much in 3 months, and I'm pretty frugal about shooting. Even shotgun is like $22/100 rounds plus another $30 for clay every time I go out.

Golf is cheap if you find the right deals. Of course, I played a course where it cost $1000 for each person, but I didn't have to pay. 

 

1 hour ago, shanksalot said:

Stop setting goals that you can't reach. If you only play once a week and not every week you are not playing enough golf to really improve especially if you do not practice. A another poster replied only play nine holes. That cuts down the $$$ aspect and also the time restraint. If you want to set a goal then tell yourself I want to enjoy my day on the course, enjoy the scenery at the course and have fun getting some exercise. This is what I do these days. At one point in my golfing career my Ghin card showed at least 10 scores in the 70's out of the twenty listed.  This year I think I had one score in the 70's. I stopped trying to be what I wasn't anymore and just enjoy playing the game on a real nice tree lined course. I get plenty of exercise and do not set any golf score targets other than trying to shoot my age which is really just something I would like to do but am not really concerned about. 

Yes, goal setting is possibly part of the issue. We're all kind of guilty of it though.

9 minutes ago, stealthhwk said:

Well, the Mrs surprised me with a play station 4 last night, so looks like Im gonna get back into gaming a fair bit. It was my birthday and Christmas gift but she surprised me with it last night. After all Ive been thru the last few weeks she knew I needed the pick me up. She also told me not to worry about golf cus Im overwhelmed with my life right now. Last few weeks have been very tough so everything just looks worse than it is right now.

Nice!

In a few months this bad golf feeling is going to go away. . .from the way it sounds, I'm wondering if you can unbend all the shafts you threw over your knees your last round?

[stealthhwk]

7 minutes ago, Lihu said:

 

 

I was actually going to suggest this.

Nice!

Yeah, Id love to be a marshal! But theres the whole not having time thing. And yeah, its nice alright. My wife and son are the greatest and of all thats gone on in the last two weeks, Im still alive to be with them and thats most important. 

[Lihu]

46 minutes ago, stealthhwk said:

Yeah, Id love to be a marshal! But theres the whole not having time thing. And yeah, its nice alright. My wife and son are the greatest and of all thats gone on in the last two weeks, Im still alive to be with them and thats most important. 

Wait, what happened? Well, in any case, glad you made it through! Hope to see you on the fairways someday. . .

[sjduffers]

9 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

Consider bowling.  You can play against others or just you against the alley and "300".  Takes less time.  Costs less. Probably takes less effort to become competent (I say probably since I have not really tried to become competent at bowling).

I second this. In fact, before I took up golf, I was a bowler, playing in weekly leagues and such. I managed to keep an average over 200 and even shot a 300 game! In other words, I was competent at it, and I didn't even work that hard at it.

After I hurt my lower back and elbow by overdoing it one season, I let bowling go and took up golf and nearly 15 years later I am barely competent (i.e. not downright awful) at golf: I never shot par and never had a hole in one, but I came close: my personal best is a 75 (par 72) and 2 inches from the cup on a 150 yards part 3... 

Give golf a rest over the winter and come back refreshed in the spring and/or take up bowling. You can't lose.

Edited November 19, 2016 by sjduffers

[WUTiger]

Clean your clubs and put them away for awhile.

Get in some good workouts each week.

Put aside some time in the spring to take a lesson a week, practice twice between. Then, just do it.

 

[stealthhwk]

2 hours ago, Lihu said:

Wait, what happened? Well, in any case, glad you made it through! Hope to see you on the fairways someday. . .

I hit a six point buck on my way home from work last week goin about 65 miles per hour. Feeling lucky to be alive. Totalled my suv but I escaped with only minor injuries

[WUTiger]

21 minutes ago, stealthhwk said:

Totalled my suv but I escaped with only minor injuries

Had you bought deer tags for your front bumper?

[stealthhwk]

12 minutes ago, WUTiger said:

Had you bought deer tags for your front bumper?

Lol. Shoulda

[CptShankapotamus]

To be quite honest, I know a few peers who have simply had enough golf and come mid-January, they're itching to swing a club again. If it has become that much of a burden of time energy and money then just pick-up another simply hobby until the inevitable urge to play returns.

[Hacker James]

5 hours ago, Lihu said:

Double centuries are for the pros, but even on a motorbike, 200 miles is pretty good.

 

I

 

not really...my "motor" actually was a 1500cc engine (Kawasaki Nomad Cruiser). 200 miles would only be a breakfast run.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Hacker James

[Typhoon92]

I did the same thing.

Work had,( and still has) me angry and depressed to the point where I gave up anything that made me happy.  We had a mild winter and the crap at work with moving our office( make that now a trailer with no bathroom, phone or internet) 45 minutes further out of the way it just sucked the life out of me.

 

I used to play 9 holes with my group 3-4 Times a week and some days practice on my way home.  There is a course a mile from me.  Weekend nites I'd go down and practice until dark.

 

Work sucked it all out of me...traffic coming home everyday turned the ride into 90 minutes and by the time I was back near the house it was dinner time.  Didn't have to be in the office all the time but something always came up.  Wasn't that bad before, office was in a perfect spot and 15 minutes away from everything....not at the end of the world where it is now.

So, fast forward to July.  Still hadn't played.  I would go to the range once in a while but by July I had really put out the burning desire for golf.

Towards the end of July obese talking with a friend I used to work with and he got me thinking....the only time I missed playing golf was when I thought about the group of guys I play with.  One day I stopped at the course when I knew they finished up and would sit around talking and having a drink.  That was when I realized I was missing something....

 

I told myself, screw the work thing, it's not going to get better.  Get back out and enjoy yourself.  What's funny is another friend told me that playing golf was my coping mechanism for work...he was right.

So I went back out that week, 2-3 Times a week and have had my best year playing I can remember.