Unpopular opinions you have about golf?

[CarlSpackler]

49 minutes ago, Blackjack Don said:

Ted Williams said the hardest thing to do in athletics is to hit a round ball with a round bat. If sixty year old guys tried to hit a 95 mph split-finger fastball, I doubt they'd agree that golf is harder. Golf is hard in comparison to the pros who make it look so easy.

It's possible it's hard because we think it's hard, and like to think it's hard, and are proud to do something we think is hard. YMMV

Ted Williams may claim that, but we don't know if he has ever played golf. Maybe he has. I would say that making a half-court shot in basketball is more difficult or making a goal in hockey from center ice (assuming there is a goalie). A 45 yard field goal in football isn't exactly a walk in the park.

To your point, it IS easy to hit a golf ball if you don't really care where it goes or what you score. I played with a few guys yesterday who "thanked me for the show" after our round. I played horribly shooting a 93, but these guys lost at least a dozen golf balls between the 2 of them. The one guy was putting like a pro though. He never 3 putted (unlike me) and drained several putts from long range. Golf is definitely hard. 

[GolfLug]

13 minutes ago, CarlSpackler said:

Ted Williams may claim that, but we don't know if he has ever played golf. Maybe he has. I would say that making a half-court shot in basketball is more difficult or making a goal in hockey from center ice (assuming there is a goalie). A 45 yard field goal in football isn't exactly a walk in the park.

To your point, it IS easy to hit a golf ball if you don't really care where it goes or what you score. I played with a few guys yesterday who "thanked me for the show" after our round. I played horribly shooting a 93, but these guys lost at least a dozen golf balls between the 2 of them. The one guy was putting like a pro though. He never 3 putted (unlike me) and drained several putts from long range. Golf is definitely hard. 

This ^^^, in bold. So yeah, tell us how easy golf is when golf's version of batting 300 or 30% FIR/GIR is a good statistic in golf.

 

[Blackjack Don]

Not surprised golf is hard when it's all anybody ever says. Hell, I could say golf is impossible and be right. But that's not why we're here. I've heard that the hardest part of golf is the last six inches between the ears.

So maybe I found the most unpopular opinion of all. Golf isn't that hard.

[mcanadiens]

6 minutes ago, Blackjack Don said:

So maybe I found the most unpopular opinion of all. Golf isn't that hard.

Golf Easy? Sure, in a way.

Most rounds I play, a ball eventually goes in all 18 holes.

I make physical contact with the golf ball on nearly every swing I take, instead of swinging and missing at a pitched baseball.

So far, I've never been tackled or body-checked playing golf.

Generally, golf requires little to no running. That's good because I'm really slow.

It's once you introduce scoring expectations where it gets very difficult.

[Blackjack Don]

Once in awhile even I can hit a shot that is as good as a pro on tour can it. It's an accident, but thinking I can do that every time is a whole lot worse than keeping score. I've played a lot where I didn't even write down what I shot. It wasn't important. But every time I get up to the tee, or pitch, or putt, I am thinking of doing it like a pro. Perhaps that is fooling myself. Perhaps I should be hitting the shots I can hit and leaving the ones I can't to the practice range. It's seeing the pros do it, looking down at the score card and seeing a four where I should be happy with a five, maybe even a six. It's making it lots and lots harder than it should be.

I guess it's not that hard because lots of people are doing it badly and aren't stopping. Other things that are hard, they stop. Not golf. Maybe it's that elusive shot that we can make like Phil.

[iacas]

14 minutes ago, Blackjack Don said:

I guess it's not that hard because lots of people are doing it badly and aren't stopping. Other things that are hard, they stop. Not golf. Maybe it's that elusive shot that we can make like Phil.

Life is hard. Only a few choose to stop doing it because it's hard.

[CarlSpackler]

16 minutes ago, Blackjack Don said:

I guess it's not that hard because lots of people are doing it badly and aren't stopping. Other things that are hard, they stop. Not golf. Maybe it's that elusive shot that we can make like Phil.

I will go back to what I said earlier. It's not hard to hit a golf ball. I see many people on the course who can hardly hit the ball, but they are out there doing it. I am a crappy bowler, but I do it occasionally for... fun? I will go back to the guys I played with yesterday that thought I was putting on a show when I thought I was hacking it around quite a bit. It all depends on your level of play. One thing I've learned here is to listen to the people who are playing at a level way above where I am. They were here once too and have progressed. Rome was not built in a day, and neither is a golf swing.

[Fourputt]

It's not a new thought, even in this thread, but the rules are there for a reason, and if you aren't trying to play by them, then you aren't truly playing golf.  You're playing "sort-a-golf".

On 12/17/2016 at 8:49 AM, Hacker James said:

Golf is fun.

Golf played by the rules is fun!

[brianmcg]

Mine:

Nobody should be playing with "Game Improvement Irons" - All irons should be forged muscle back blades.

No woods should be over 250cc.

[InTheRough]

11 hours ago, Blackjack Don said:

So maybe I found the most unpopular opinion of all. Golf isn't that hard.

I'll back you up on this and expand that its hard but no harder than any other sport.  Golfers consider golf to be so hard because we measure our abilities against par and what the pros and low handicappers can do.  How many people really think they can hit a home run off of professional or even high school pitching and yet so many golfers that never break 100 expect to hit perfect shots like the pros all the time.

Edited December 20, 2016 by InTheRough

[boogielicious]

8 hours ago, InTheRough said:

I'll back you up on this and expand that its hard but no harder than any other sport.  Golfers consider golf to be so hard because we measure our abilities against par and what the pros and low handicappers can do.  How many people really think they can hit a home run off of professional or even high school pitching and yet so many golfers that never break 100 expect to hit perfect shots like the pros all the time.

The difference is someone who can hit a 95 mph fast ball is athletically in incredible shape, even if they are big or heavy looking. We know this. We see pro golfers that are not in remotely good athletic shape and think that golf doesn't require being a good athlete. The reality is the John Daly types are good athletes, but in non-visible way.

Being good at golf is hard. If it were easy, @Blackjack Don wouldn't be a 20+ now would he?

[GolfLug]

Yeah, I think I should  go back to being a 20+. Life (golf) was not just simpler, it was easier..  . I should have never let my darn expectations spoil my walk.. .

[InTheRough]

14 hours ago, boogielicious said:

The difference is someone who can hit a 95 mph fast ball is athletically in incredible shape, even if they are big or heavy looking. We know this. We see pro golfers that are not in remotely good athletic shape and think that golf doesn't require being a good athlete. The reality is the John Daly types are good athletes, but in non-visible way.

Being good at golf is hard. If it were easy, @Blackjack Don wouldn't be a 20+ now would he?

I never said that golf was easy, just that it isn't any harder than any other sport.  You don't need to be in incredible shape to hit a 95 mph fastball--Babe Ruth certainly doesn't look like he was in particularly good shape and he hit plenty of 95 mph fastballs.

I will agree that some people think that golf is easy because pros make it look so effortless.  It's easy to see how difficult it is to hit a 90 mph fastball, but it isnt easy to understand how hard it is to hit a little ball that's just sitting there onto a green 150 yds away 

[iacas]

28 minutes ago, InTheRough said:

I never said that golf was easy, just that it isn't any harder than any other sport.  You don't need to be in incredible shape to hit a 95 mph fastball--Babe Ruth certainly doesn't look like he was in particularly good shape and he hit plenty of 95 mph fastballs.

Babe Ruth was an athlete. Dude was a pitching prospect, and moved to a position player because he was such a good hitter.

Tons of athletes in other sports have said golf is the hardest sport they've ever played. MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA all-stars…

Babe Ruth also played golf. Got down to single digits, IIRC.

[Buckeyebowman]

Good point, iacas. There's a local radio guy who likes to relate the following story.

Back in the day he used to do a live broadcast from the Cleveland Browns charity golf outing at Quail Hollow, a golf resort just outside Cleveland. He'd get interviews with all kinds of Browns players. One time he interviewed Mike Pruitt, running back, and asked him how his game was. Pruitt was disconsolate!

Pruitt related how, in high school, he played football, basketball, baseball, and ran track! And excelled at everything he tried. When it came time for college he picked Oklahoma and football, was very successful at that, and got drafted. When he was in the pros some of his teammates introduced him to golf.

Pruitt related how golf was the most difficult game he'd ever tried to play! He couldn't hit the ball! "That little thing just sits there, and I can't do anything with it!"

[StefanUrkel]

On December 17, 2016 at 4:08 PM, Hardspoon said:

We are really stretching the definition of "unpopular" at this point...

Yep. I would say unpopular= less than 40% belief on an issue. 

Also, Babe Ruth would be Matt Stairs if he played against all competition.  

Edited December 21, 2016 by StefanUrkel

[inthehole]

On ‎12‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 8:48 PM, Marigold_Sparkle said:

Jimmy Walker has the posture of an undertaker.

I LOL'd at my desk !!      Nicely done

[inthehole]

On ‎12‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 2:32 PM, iacas said:

 

It's arguably the most difficult sport to play well in the world.

I think you have to define "play well" .  If you mean scratch or better, yes I would agree.   If you mean play reasonably proficient (which is where I'm at - much better than most, not as good as some), it's achievable for most.   Personally, I think if a person is generally athletic with good hand eye coordination & dedicates themselves to playing ALOT, they can be reasonably proficient at golf.  

 

On the other hand, I think playing pool at the same reasonably proficient level is more difficult.    I've put probably as much time into pool as golf and am nowhere near as good.   There's a degree of precision, visualization and imagination in pool that is more akin to art than sport - to me makes it far more difficult than golf (at least in my experience).    To me, pool is more like playing a musical instrument - I could practice guitar 8 hours a day & never be as good as Eddie Van Halen (relatively speaking I'm better at guitar than I am at golf) ... those that play pool & musical instruments even reasonably well have an innate ability, their nervous systems are just wired differently.