Unpopular opinions you have about golf?

[jetsknicks1]

On December 19, 2016 at 1:34 PM, CarlSpackler said:

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.

It's easy to hit a golf ball, I do it almost a hundred times a round.

[iacas]

2 hours ago, inthehole said:

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.

I would say that you're close to competent (still not there, though), but you've got a long ways toward playing golf "well."

[Gunther]

Glad to see a few support my long-time view that golf is not that hard.  It's the easiest of all the big sports.  Consider that there are probably a couple hundred thousand active professional golfers in the world.  What other sport could boast that?

[iacas]

9 minutes ago, Gunther said:

It's the easiest of all the big sports.  Consider that there are probably a couple hundred thousand active professional golfers in the world.  What other sport could boast that?

By what measure is it the "easiest"?

A lot of people have opportunities to play professionally. The same is not true of many other sports. That has nothing to do with how easy or difficult the sport is to play.

[DeadMan]

20 minutes ago, Gunther said:

Glad to see a few support my long-time view that golf is not that hard.  It's the easiest of all the big sports.  Consider that there are probably a couple hundred thousand active professional golfers in the world.  What other sport could boast that?

If you make the definition of professional receiving money to play a sport, I'd wager that soccer dwarfs that number.

[Gunther]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

By what measure is it the "easiest"?

A lot of people have opportunities to play professionally. The same is not true of many other sports. That has nothing to do with how easy or difficult the sport is to play.

In my view, if there are hundreds of thousands of people capable of rising to the level of professional in a sport, that, almost by definition, classifies it as not hard.  

Just because a pro football player can't play golf doesn't make it hard.  I know of no pro golfer who could aspire to a professional level in any other sport (although there may be a couple).  Plenty of other athletes have moved from their sport to become pro golfers or at least good enough to compete with pros.

It ain't that hard if you have time and money, desire and passion tinged with some athletic ability.  None of those drivers would allow Rory to become a pro soccer player.

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, Gunther said:

In my view, if there are hundreds of thousands of people capable of rising to the level of professional in a sport, that, almost by definition, classifies it as not hard.

So, becoming a doctor is ridiculously easy, then. Heck, there are like 15 million of them!

There are a reasonable number of professional golfers because there's the money to support them. It's not at all a measurement of how difficult the sport is.

If I could magically create 200,000 paying jobs for the best 200,000 disc golfers, the sport's difficulty wouldn't change one iota. The standard of play would increase over time, as competition for those paying spots rose, but the core difficulty wouldn't change.

[Gunther]

11 minutes ago, iacas said:

So, becoming a doctor is ridiculously easy, then. Heck, there are like 15 million of them!

There are a reasonable number of professional golfers because there's the money to support them. It's not at all a measurement of how difficult the sport is.

If I could magically create 200,000 paying jobs for the best 200,000 disc golfers, the sport's difficulty wouldn't change one iota. The standard of play would increase over time, as competition for those paying spots rose, but the core difficulty wouldn't change.

I don't agree.  And, I didn't see a counter to the rest of my argument.

DJ could not beat 1 NBA player 1 on 1; however, Steph Marbury might beat him 1 or 2 times out of 10 on the golf course.  Similarly, not one golfer could hit a HR off John Smoltz, but he may beat a tour player some percentage of the time, hell, if it's Bowditch, I'd give Smoltzie about a 50/50 shot.  

Many millions of people can play professional-level golf (perhaps not consistently), I've beat golf pros and I'm not that good.  

Not true with any other sport.

[iacas]

19 minutes ago, Gunther said:

I don't agree.  And, I didn't see a counter to the rest of my argument.

Then read it again?

19 minutes ago, Gunther said:

DJ could not beat 1 NBA player 1 on 1; however, Steph Marbury might beat him 1 or 2 times out of 10 on the golf course.

Neither of those are facts, but you state them as if they are.

19 minutes ago, Gunther said:

Similarly, not one golfer could hit a HR off John Smoltz, but he may beat a tour player some percentage of the time, hell, if it's Bowditch, I'd give Smoltzie about a 50/50 shot.

Sure they could. And I'd take your even money bet every day of the week and laugh all the way to the bank.

19 minutes ago, Gunther said:

Many millions of people can play professional-level golf (perhaps not consistently), I've beat golf pros and I'm not that good.

Further proof you didn't read (or understand, anyway) what I wrote. Typical.

[JxQx]

23 minutes ago, Gunther said:

Many millions of people can play professional-level golf (perhaps not consistently), I've beat golf pros and I'm not that good.  

Not true with any other sport.

There are tons and tons of people who play professional in other sports. Just because it isn't the major brand/company (NFL, NHL, MLB, etc) doesn't mean its not professional.

Edited December 21, 2016 by JxQx

[boogielicious]

22 minutes ago, Gunther said:

 

Many millions of people can play professional-level golf (perhaps not consistently), I've beat golf pros and I'm not that good.  

 

You've beaten PGA Tour level pros with no handicap adjustment. LOL! 

I've won the Master in my dreams too.

[Phil McGleno]

39 minutes ago, Gunther said:

DJ could not beat 1 NBA player 1 on 1; however, Steph Marbury might beat him 1 or 2 times out of 10 on the golf course.  Similarly, not one golfer could hit a HR off John Smoltz, but he may beat a tour player some percentage of the time, hell, if it's Bowditch, I'd give Smoltzie about a 50/50 shot.

You are not comparing the same kinds of things-DJ probably does not practice basketball or play very much. John Smoltz played golf like 3x a week or more for decades. He has thousands and thousands of hours practicing golf while PGA Tour players have maybe zero hours practicing hitting.

Stupid comparison.

Not one NBA player who has almost never played golf could beat DJ at golf.-There is your fair comparison.

[Gunther]

4 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

You've beaten PGA Tour level pros with no handicap adjustment. LOL! 

I've won the Master in my dreams too.

I guess I've accomplished the goal of coming up with an unpopular opinion.  Even got a snide comment from our site owner, yessir!

Never beat a touring pro and not saying that I ever could but I play regularly with a teaching pro and yes, I beat him 10 to 20% of the time we play.  There is no other sport on the planet where I could compete with anyone at a professional level.

The "golf is hard" mantra was made up by people who have no ability and egotistical golf pros.  It just ain't that tough, evidenced by the millions and millions who play to a single digit handicap.

[iacas]

1 hour ago, Gunther said:

Never beat a touring pro and not saying that I ever could but I play regularly with a teaching pro

He's an instructor, not a professional player. The number of people earning a living playing golf is significantly smaller.

And as I pointed out, if I could wave a magic wand and make the top 10% of any sport "professionals," that wouldn't do anything to change the inherent difficulty of the sport. Bam! I just waved my wand and made every serious darts player a professional. Darts is now the easiest sport in the world, by your reasoning.

It doesn't work that way.

1 hour ago, Gunther said:

There is no other sport on the planet where I could compete with anyone at a professional level.

You've spent thousands of dollars and hours practicing and playing golf. You're not just some guy picking up the game and suddenly beating people.

You probably can't teach as well as he does, either, which is his true profession.

1 hour ago, Gunther said:

The "golf is hard" mantra was made up by people who have no ability and egotistical golf pros.

So when John Smoltz says golf is hard, which of them is he?

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/686011-john-smoltz-performance-proves-again-how-hard-it-is-to-play-professional-golf

I'll save you the click: he played a Web.com Tour event and missed the cut by 27 shots. He shot 84-87.

Which one is this guy? http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_worlds_hardest_most_difficult_sport.htm

1 hour ago, Gunther said:

It just ain't that tough, evidenced by the millions and millions who play to a single digit handicap.

You apparently consider yourself a good golfer.

[JxQx]

 

14 minutes ago, Gunther said:

Never beat a touring pro and not saying that I ever could but I play regularly with a teaching pro and yes, I beat him 10 to 20% of the time we play.  There is no other sport on the planet where I could compete with anyone at a professional level.

Well a teaching pro isn't a playing pro. That's no different than me beating a pro basketball coach in 1 on 1.

[Phil McGleno]

18 minutes ago, Gunther said:

I guess I've accomplished the goal of coming up with an unpopular opinion.

Unpopular or just stupid?

There is a difference.

[Ernest Jones]

1 hour ago, Gunther said:

I guess I've accomplished the goal of coming up with an unpopular opinion.  Even got a snide comment from our site owner, yessir!

 

Bravo, Gunthman, bravo!

*slow clap*

 

[Gunther]

52 minutes ago, Ernest Jones said:

Bravo, Gunthman, bravo!

*slow clap*

 

All my fans came out of their hovels for this one.  Lol