Golf's Mental Game Aspect

[iacas]

@Dean Walker, first, welcome to the site. We like discussion here, and though we won't always agree with one another (everyone on the site, I mean, not just you and me specifically! ), at least on things that are still opinion, we're glad to have you.

The mental game thoughts are my own, and everyone is different. We also have no way of knowing or actually being able to measure these kinds of things. If two golfers can play scratch level golf, but one took 20 years of a ton of practice to get there, and the other took two years and relied on a lot of natural talent… is one more "physical" than the other? Is one more "mental"? Kinda tough to say.

12 minutes ago, Dean Walker said:

People could argue that making a swing change is 100% physical. You go and see your coach, he tells you to do X over a certain amount of time and you physically perform the motion until completion. But in reality, for a lot of golfers, it's nothing like this.

Most golfers could perform physically what they have been showed to do (if not the coach is not doing their job). But why is it that so many golfers never improve their swings?. Of course for a variety of reasons, but I believe a huge reason is the mental barriers that you have to barge through when making swing changes.

Yeah, there's got to be a desire and a drive to keep working on the thing, but the actual work you do is on the physical. You're not changing your mind very much, you're just making yourself do something. This is a baseline mental cognitive function. We decide what we want to eat for dinner. We decide which sock to put on first. Decide how fast to drive, decide when to walk upstairs and brush our teeth. Deciding to practice isn't really "the mental game."

12 minutes ago, Dean Walker said:

I remember when I changed my faulty inside back swing, I had to feel like the club was almost coming back vertically.

The feels were physical.

I don't see practicing, or deciding to practice, as all that mental. I see it as primarily physical.

12 minutes ago, Dean Walker said:

But also, a large part of confidence is due to perception.

I think people often over-value confidence. I've hit some of my best shots when I've been nervous. I've hit some of my worst shots when I was quite confident.

12 minutes ago, Dean Walker said:

I was always that golfer that dwelled on all the negatives. I believe viewing mistakes is an important part of learning, but golfers who dwell on them far too much and forget all of the good stuff, have a much harder time improving than the golfer who perceives the round in a much healthier way.

Stuff like that is not even true. I dwell on the negative, precisely because those are the things I deem need improvement. Then I attack those things.

12 minutes ago, Dean Walker said:

I would trade some of my physical talents for being able to think in a more helpful way.

And I'd gladly be as dumb as Dustin Johnson to have his physical capabilities (if I wanted to be a major-winning PGA Tour golfer; as it is I like my mental capacity just fine, thank you).

12 minutes ago, Dean Walker said:

Setting Goals/Practicing with Intent

This area I believe is mostly mental which again has a direct influence on how physically good you become at this game.

How much mental "ability" does it take to set a goal? And your coach or instructor can show you how to practice with intent.

And again, practice is almost entirely about the physical. Yes, there's a mental component to it, but there's a mental component to putting on your socks in the morning, too.

12 minutes ago, Dean Walker said:

Nerves and fear are so different in my view. Nerves help you, fear destroys you.

That may be true for you. I've seen fear motivate some people to rise up and above. That's why I generally don't like blanket statements.

12 minutes ago, Dean Walker said:

What are your thoughts guys?

I think that, in addition to what I said above, and before:

• People often don't consider what happens after their good shots. They don't look back and think "gee, I was thinking about how pissed I am at my wife, and how I have sliced my last three tee shots, so I'd better not do that again… and I hit a great shot." They just seem to accept "Hey, there's my swing!" as if it's their actual true ability. Golfers have hit great shots after a horrible mental process, and poor shots after a great mental process.
• People only ever seem to want to blame "the mental game" for poor play. They rarely credit it with strong play. This feeds into the illusion that many golfers have, that if they can "just get their mental game under control," they could be a much better golfer because their true physical skills (a lie) would be allowed to express themselves. Golfers seem to love to think that something they can fix pretty easily is the one magic bullet keeping them from achieving new record low scores in their game. If it was that easy, though, people would do it. Golfers con themselves.
• How much work does Dustin Johnson put into his mental game, over the entire span of his life, and how much does he put into is physical game, again over the entire span of his life. That's my point in saying the mental game has little to do with it.
• The better a golfer gets, the "easier" the mental game gets. Shot Zones are so large for a 18 handicapper, for example, that he's likely to bogey the hole regardless of what choices he makes, and a triple is right around the corner. That makes things confusing. A PGA Tour player doesn't have to think about much. Their ball is going to go pretty much where they think. The number of things they have to consider is smaller, because they're not considering the water hazard 30 yards right of the fairway that winds its way 20 yards short of the green. It's not in play for them. Why? Because his physical game is better.
• We're seeing a decline in the number of PGA Tour pros - players who will seek out every edge possible because it's worth millions of dollars - who use mental game gurus. They were hot for awhile, but modern day PGA Tour pros don't even seem to think that they are worth the cost based on word of mouth, let alone actual empirical evidence.

---

I'm biased. I've been a single digit guy for about 20 years. Over that time my swing has improved, and so have my scores. Maybe I was blessed with a good mental game already, a mind made for playing golf, and I can't appreciate the struggles of others. Maybe it's been so long since I 

I don't get too nervous playing in tournaments. My PAT, I passed the first time, even though I knew the entire time where I stood relative to the cut passing number. Maybe I'm an outlier.

But I think the outlier means that, if I'm to go back to my "5%" guess, that I'm a 1% guy. You, with your chipping yips, may be a 10% guy. Or 20%. But I still think the 5% holds, because I don't thin you can attribute even 6% of Dustin Johnson's success to his "mental game." I think, even for a bogey golfer, they shoot the scores they shoot whether they're having a great mental game day or a poor one. They shoot about the same scores regardless of their mental state. Of course, if they get through six holes and are only one over, they feel good about themselves, but that's again a result of their physical skills that day. (They also often then revert to the mean, and end up shooting their typical 91 or whatever.)

Mental game "practice" doesn't really exist. What is a mental game tip? Suppose "swing confidently at a conservative target" is one. Well, okay, if you're going to decide to put that into action, how much effort does it take? Just takes remembering to do it and doing it. It doesn't take 5,000 golf balls to ingrain the move at slow speeds, with short swings, while you scrutinize on your camera to see if your body is behaving the way you'd like it to, etc.

And again, finally, yes, there are outliers. There are people who get so nervous they can't take the club back. Or who have the chip yips. Or whatever. There are also outliers like perhaps me. But my 5% number, not that I want to die on that hill, since we can't measure or attribute things anyway (and the 5% was mostly a reaction to people who said it was > 50%) takes that into account.

[Dean Walker]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

@Dean Walker, first, welcome to the site. We like discussion here, and though we won't always agree with one another (everyone on the site, I mean, not just you and me specifically! ), at least on things that are still opinion, we're glad to have you.

The mental game thoughts are my own, and everyone is different. We also have no way of knowing or actually being able to measure these kinds of things. If two golfers can play scratch level golf, but one took 20 years of a ton of practice to get there, and the other took two years and relied on a lot of natural talent… is one more "physical" than the other? Is one more "mental"? Kinda tough to say.

Yeah, there's got to be a desire and a drive to keep working on the thing, but the actual work you do is on the physical. You're not changing your mind very much, you're just making yourself do something. This is a baseline mental cognitive function. We decide what we want to eat for dinner. We decide which sock to put on first. Decide how fast to drive, decide when to walk upstairs and brush our teeth. Deciding to practice isn't really "the mental game."

The feels were physical.

I don't see practicing, or deciding to practice, as all that mental. I see it as primarily physical.

I think people often over-value confidence. I've hit some of my best shots when I've been nervous. I've hit some of my worst shots when I was quite confident.

Stuff like that is not even true. I dwell on the negative, precisely because those are the things I deem need improvement. Then I attack those things.

And I'd gladly be as dumb as Dustin Johnson to have his physical capabilities (if I wanted to be a major-winning PGA Tour golfer; as it is I like my mental capacity just fine, thank you).

How much mental "ability" does it take to set a goal? And your coach or instructor can show you how to practice with intent.

And again, practice is almost entirely about the physical. Yes, there's a mental component to it, but there's a mental component to putting on your socks in the morning, too.

That may be true for you. I've seen fear motivate some people to rise up and above. That's why I generally don't like blanket statements.

I think that, in addition to what I said above, and before:

• People often don't consider what happens after their good shots. They don't look back and think "gee, I was thinking about how pissed I am at my wife, and how I have sliced my last three tee shots, so I'd better not do that again… and I hit a great shot." They just seem to accept "Hey, there's my swing!" as if it's their actual true ability. Golfers have hit great shots after a horrible mental process, and poor shots after a great mental process.
• People only ever seem to want to blame "the mental game" for poor play. They rarely credit it with strong play. This feeds into the illusion that many golfers have, that if they can "just get their mental game under control," they could be a much better golfer because their true physical skills (a lie) would be allowed to express themselves. Golfers seem to love to think that something they can fix pretty easily is the one magic bullet keeping them from achieving new record low scores in their game. If it was that easy, though, people would do it. Golfers con themselves.
• How much work does Dustin Johnson put into his mental game, over the entire span of his life, and how much does he put into is physical game, again over the entire span of his life. That's my point in saying the mental game has little to do with it.
• The better a golfer gets, the "easier" the mental game gets. Shot Zones are so large for a 18 handicapper, for example, that he's likely to bogey the hole regardless of what choices he makes, and a triple is right around the corner. That makes things confusing. A PGA Tour player doesn't have to think about much. Their ball is going to go pretty much where they think. The number of things they have to consider is smaller, because they're not considering the water hazard 30 yards right of the fairway that winds its way 20 yards short of the green. It's not in play for them. Why? Because his physical game is better.
• We're seeing a decline in the number of PGA Tour pros - players who will seek out every edge possible because it's worth millions of dollars - who use mental game gurus. They were hot for awhile, but modern day PGA Tour pros don't even seem to think that they are worth the cost based on word of mouth, let alone actual empirical evidence.

---

I'm biased. I've been a single digit guy for about 20 years. Over that time my swing has improved, and so have my scores. Maybe I was blessed with a good mental game already, a mind made for playing golf, and I can't appreciate the struggles of others. Maybe it's been so long since I 

I don't get too nervous playing in tournaments. My PAT, I passed the first time, even though I knew the entire time where I stood relative to the cut passing number. Maybe I'm an outlier.

But I think the outlier means that, if I'm to go back to my "5%" guess, that I'm a 1% guy. You, with your chipping yips, may be a 10% guy. Or 20%. But I still think the 5% holds, because I don't thin you can attribute even 6% of Dustin Johnson's success to his "mental game." I think, even for a bogey golfer, they shoot the scores they shoot whether they're having a great mental game day or a poor one. They shoot about the same scores regardless of their mental state. Of course, if they get through six holes and are only one over, they feel good about themselves, but that's again a result of their physical skills that day. (They also often then revert to the mean, and end up shooting their typical 91 or whatever.)

Mental game "practice" doesn't really exist. What is a mental game tip? Suppose "swing confidently at a conservative target" is one. Well, okay, if you're going to decide to put that into action, how much effort does it take? Just takes remembering to do it and doing it. It doesn't take 5,000 golf balls to ingrain the move at slow speeds, with short swings, while you scrutinize on your camera to see if your body is behaving the way you'd like it to, etc.

And again, finally, yes, there are outliers. There are people who get so nervous they can't take the club back. Or who have the chip yips. Or whatever. There are also outliers like perhaps me. But my 5% number, not that I want to die on that hill, since we can't measure or attribute things anyway (and the 5% was mostly a reaction to people who said it was > 50%) takes that into account.

Due to our life experience in golf, we are never going to fully agree on this. The mental aspect has plagued me therefore I am going to give it a much higher value. For you, you don't even get nervous in tournaments, therefore, it's not even a thing.

And TBH, it used to be like that for me. I got down to a 2 handicap fairly early on (I think I was about 13/14) And back then, the mental thing was nothing. I couldn't really understand nerves or self doubt because I hadn't really experienced it a great deal.

And it wasn't until it spiraled a little out of control that I gave it such a high regard. I went from a 2 handicap to barely breaking 80 with the same physical ability. So, now I have to put a tremendous amount of mental work in to be able to play even to same level as I did 17 years ago. 

 

Just to name a few things I do.

 

- I do visualization techniques. I imagine playing my best 9 holes which takes about 15 minutes. 

- I really focus on my post shot reaction. Try to keep it as neutral as possible.

- I focus on my process goals. Pre-shot routine, breathing etc. 

- And a few other things.

 

For me, the ROI on these things is higher than pounding balls all day. I could pound balls until I was blue in the face but if the above factors weren't good, I wouldn't break 75. 

But that's just me. I think the mental game isn't a thing until it becomes a thing. And I do however think we regard mental and physical slightly differently but there's no point in nit picking, we won't agree. :)

Also, maybe for PGA Tour players, the mental game it hasn't really become a thing otherwise they wouldn't be where they were. They already have great golfing minds and how much work they put into that, they could only tell us.

 

P.S It's great to be here. Seems like there's a lot of very knowledgeable people here to learn from.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2018 by Dean Walker

[iacas]

7 minutes ago, Dean Walker said:

For me, the ROI on these things is higher than pounding balls all day. I could pound balls until I was blue in the face but if the above factors weren't good, I wouldn't break 75.

I don't know about that (though just "pounding balls" is pretty pointless). But since we have no alternative universes in which to test this out, we'll never know.

Cheers.

[Dean Walker]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

I don't know about that (though just "pounding balls" is pretty pointless). But since we have no alternative universes in which to test this out, we'll never know.

Cheers.

Pounding balls is probably a bad phrase to use. I think you get the gist of what I meant.

[phillyk]

 

45 minutes ago, Dean Walker said:

Pounding balls is probably a bad phrase to use. I think you get the gist of what I meant.

There are two types of nerves (butterflies), good and bad. 

The bad form is pressure to perform.  You said you got to a 2 handicap and once you started thinking about it, or which ever, you got worse.  I would assume you had this over bearing pressure to continually shoot to a 2 handicap, and it forced bad habits onto the game.

The good pressure is that of building adrenaline because of the pressure to hit a good shot you know you have by doing your routine.  Not perform overall to a standard, but to just hit one shot.  It is a big difference in how you view your game.

My experience: When I first joined the PGA as an apprentice 3 years ago, I had an overbearing pressure to perform because I thought I was a scratch golfer.  It killed me, I tried sooooo hard to perform to that handicap in Pro-Ams, and I shot continually around 80.  It felt horrible.  I eventually got over it by just trying to play the game I have that day, not the one I wish I had or had a year before.  Now, I'm back to shooting between -3 and +3 in virtually every event or tournament.  But I still, absolutely feel pressure, not a pressure to perform to a certain handicap or score, but to just hit the shot I know I have that day.  I remember a hole last summer, par 5 and I had just pounded a drive to give myself 145yds to the pin.  The nerves hit me, because I know I can stick my 9-iron right next to the hole.  I just have to go through my routine and do it.  I put it 15ft left of the hole, pin high.

I don't know how well that explanation will go through.  But, try to play your game, your routine, and do your best to not think of the glory days past or a glorious future you think you have.  Stay in the present and do your best to find and stick to a routine that performs now.  It's never been about the tournament or handicap.  It's you versus you.

[Ty_Webb]

14 hours ago, Dean Walker said:

Nerves/Fear

You hear a lot of the golfers on tour talk about getting nervous...

But do you ever really hear them talk about fear? (Maybe the 17th at the Players :))

Nerves and fear are so different in my view. Nerves help you, fear destroys you.

But also I think there is a fine line between the two.

The guys on tour see nerves as a help rather than a hindrance. I myself used to see them as barrier to playing my best golf. I had this limiting belief that I couldn't play well when I was nervous. When in reality, a healthy amount of nerves is great for performance.

My mindset then caused me to worry about being nervous. Which any nervous person would know is like adding fuel to the fire.

And this mindset had nothing to do with my physical ability. Deep down I believed I was a good golfer who could hit all the shots. It was mentally where my belief was waning.

And this mindset had a negative impact on my physical performance.

I think this is a really well put distinction. There are several times that I am nervous on the course. I have frequently played very well when I've been nervous. In fact, most of my best golf has been played while nervous. 

Fear on the other hand - not so good. I have a suspicion that I don't hit it in water or OB or trees as often as I should. I get very conservative with my lines sometimes because I fear the penalty. Sometimes I have been known to aim it into trouble, because the trouble I'm aiming it at is not so bad as the other potential trouble. The example that springs to my mind was playing at a course in Westchester called Knollwood. My first hole was the 9th (or the 11th, I forget) - a par five with OB tight down the left side. There was a bunker on the right in the semi-rough. I hadn't played in a week and you weren't allowed to hit driver on the range. Some days I come out and I'm drawing it - others it's going right. This day I didn't really know which I was playing with. Probably 90% of the time it's a little bit left to right. I aimed it at the left edge of the bunker. Far enough right that I basically had no chance of going OB. I hit it in the bunker. Not a great lie, my next finished in the rough about 180 out and I wound up making bogey on a reachable par five. If I had aimed it at the middle of the fairway, which would still probably give me only a 5% chance of going OB, I think I would have likely made 5 and possibly 4. @iacas will probably say that is a physical issue, but he and I are going to have to agree to disagree on that.

Basically I would say that fear cost me at least a shot. I am doing better now. I've been reading up on something called Decade, which I really like how it's laid out and how it brings everything basically down to an explicit maths question. I'm much better at aiming it where I should now. I'm also more at peace with the occasional ball going OB (although it's a long time since it last happened).

[iacas]

42 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

Basically I would say that fear cost me at least a shot. I am doing better now. I've been reading up on something called Decade, which I really like how it's laid out and how it brings everything basically down to an explicit maths question.

DECADE = Shot Zones from LSW. Lightest egg.

FWIW.

[Dean Walker]

5 hours ago, Ty_Webb said:

I think this is a really well put distinction. There are several times that I am nervous on the course. I have frequently played very well when I've been nervous. In fact, most of my best golf has been played while nervous. 

Fear on the other hand - not so good. I have a suspicion that I don't hit it in water or OB or trees as often as I should. I get very conservative with my lines sometimes because I fear the penalty. Sometimes I have been known to aim it into trouble, because the trouble I'm aiming it at is not so bad as the other potential trouble. The example that springs to my mind was playing at a course in Westchester called Knollwood. My first hole was the 9th (or the 11th, I forget) - a par five with OB tight down the left side. There was a bunker on the right in the semi-rough. I hadn't played in a week and you weren't allowed to hit driver on the range. Some days I come out and I'm drawing it - others it's going right. This day I didn't really know which I was playing with. Probably 90% of the time it's a little bit left to right. I aimed it at the left edge of the bunker. Far enough right that I basically had no chance of going OB. I hit it in the bunker. Not a great lie, my next finished in the rough about 180 out and I wound up making bogey on a reachable par five. If I had aimed it at the middle of the fairway, which would still probably give me only a 5% chance of going OB, I think I would have likely made 5 and possibly 4. @iacas will probably say that is a physical issue, but he and I are going to have to agree to disagree on that.

Basically I would say that fear cost me at least a shot. I am doing better now. I've been reading up on something called Decade, which I really like how it's laid out and how it brings everything basically down to an explicit maths question. I'm much better at aiming it where I should now. I'm also more at peace with the occasional ball going OB (although it's a long time since it last happened).

This rings a lot of bells with me too and I have to agree that it's mostly a mental thing for me. 

For instance, at my old club there was the dreaded 7th hole. I say dreaded but it was about 340 yards - literally a 4/5 iron and a flick. For the guys I was playing with who were all category one golfers, this was a birdie chance and they were licking their lips on the tee.

But for me - I was often happy with a bogey. 

I literally had a mental block on the tee shot. There were a couple of tall trees left and OB right but for a golfer of my level with a 5 iron in my hand, these shouldn't even come into play, let alone instill fear in me.

I became so fearful of the miss right that I would aim in the left trees and kind of guide it up the left side. But we all know what happens to swings like this and often, I would end up reloading.

Or if it came off, i would often end up left behind the tall trees and having to pitch out.

This tee shot was entirely mental. It didn't matter if I have striped every shot for the first 6 holes and was under par, this same thought/feeling pattern would emerge on this tee.

The fact is fear/tension are often the biggest cripplers to even the soundest technique, but I suppose, if you have never really experienced this, then it's hard to comprehend.

 

 

 

[Ty_Webb]

7 hours ago, iacas said:

DECADE = Shot Zones from LSW. Lightest egg.

FWIW.

I know - they're very similar in structure and advice. I found Decade through a youtube video the guy posted about hitting driver. I went hunting around for books and other things about strategy and I found LSW and from that TST. I think I always knew that I should be aiming at the point which would minimize my score, but I didn't necessarily know where that was and as noted above, I was often too conservative (probably still am, but I'm better and I hit driver a LOT more than I used to - I'm also better with it so that helps too). Decade really helps me because it gives me concrete numbers regarding where I should aim. I have coopted the standard numbers from there and will build my own once the weather gets better and I can use my mevo to full effect. After that it will be very much the LSW process.

One nice thing that Decade does is you can fill out your stats online and from the data he has compiled, he compares your scoring averages from various situations with everyone else in the database and he can show you your relative areas of strength/weakness relative to your peers. So he might say that your driving is in the 73-75 shooter bucket, your GIR fairway 100-150 is in the 76-78 bucket and your short game is in the 70-72 bucket. That would suggest that you need to work on those irons. He has videos that he pushes out to you based on your stats. Based on your stats he can figure out if you're too aggressive or conservative in certain situations and help you with that. For the full service stuff, you have to pay and it's not cheap (for the avoidance of doubt I have not done this). I imagine for the vast majority of people that LSW is the better option. To do it properly is a little more work for the player, but much cheaper. And if you're like me, the "work" is kind of fun anyway. 

[MattM]

I dont know if this is considered mental or not, but how about you are playing amazing golf then halfway through your round nothing feels right!!! Somehow your swinplane is way off you get real steep or you lose the connection your arms had with your body and start duckhooking.  Does anyone else have that happen and how do you quickly get it back then?

[rehmwa]

15 minutes ago, MattM said:

I dont know if this is considered mental or not, but how about you are playing amazing golf then halfway through your round nothing feels right!!! Somehow your swinplane is way off you get real steep or you lose the connection your arms had with your body and start duckhooking.  Does anyone else have that happen and how do you quickly get it back then?

I say to myself "OK - 7 Bloody Marys is ENOUGH".  Then I switch back to Dr Pepper.

[MattM]

I wish my issue was alcohol related but it isnt.

[MattM]

So, noone has had anything similar to what I described happen to them?

[iacas]

58 minutes ago, MattM said:

So, noone has had anything similar to what I described happen to them?

I haven't.

I have had rounds that start well and end poorly, or vice versa, but a lot of the time that's simply reversion to the mean… or pure randomness.

[phillyk]

59 minutes ago, MattM said:

So, noone has had anything similar to what I described happen to them?

 

Just now, iacas said:

I haven't.

I have had rounds that start well and end poorly, or vice versa, but a lot of the time that's simply reversion to the mean… or pure randomness.

To add onto what iacas said.  No one has an autonomous golf swing, as in, no thought is involved, you can just do it.  A lot of people are usually working on something.   You may have a certain thought or routine that invokes a certain outcome, but there is the randomness factor or within error factor.  i had one of those days 2 days ago for a little tourney.  I'd been playing very good the last month, then it was all gone when I was warming up.  Didn't find it until the 15th hole.  It's natural to have these moments of variation.

[mvmac]

On 1/22/2018 at 9:55 AM, MattM said:

Somehow your swinplane is way off you get real steep or you lose the connection your arms had with your body and start duckhooking.  Does anyone else have that happen and how do you quickly get it back then?

Yet if you took a video of your swing at the start of the round it would look very, very similar to the swing towards the end of the round.

If I hit some weird shots during a round I just take a little more time before the next swing to rehearse my pieces/feels.

At the end of the day it all comes down to improving mechanics, so when something is off the shots are still playable. Remember, pros only hit a couple good shots a round, "it's a game of misses". 

[Lihu]

21 hours ago, MattM said:

So, noone has had anything similar to what I described happen to them?

Sure, when you’re a beginner, your Swing is all over the place. It does change from Swing to Swing, but if you e been doing it a year or more it should look very similar.

I was going through a transition period and my Swing did change. When I paid attention I would do what my instructor said, and as I got tired it reverts back.

At this point, I can still change the swing by not initiating the movement with my hips. My instructor tells me I’m doing that and I fix it the next Swing.

Yes, it happens at least to the two of us

[Ty_Webb]

Marvin was a 14-handicapper, but one day he walked up to his club pro — a scratch golfer — and challenged him to a match. He proposed they put up $100 each on the outcome.

“But since you’re so much better than me, you have to give me two ‘gotchas’,” Marvin said to the pro. 

“A ‘gotcha’?” the golf pro asked. “What’s that?”

“Don’t worry,” Marvin replied, “I’ll use one of my ‘gotchas’ on the first tee and you’ll understand.”

The golf pro figured that whatever ‘gotchas’ were, giving up only two of them was no big deal — especially if one had to be used on the first tee. He agreed to the bet, and the pro and Marvin headed to the first tee to start their match.

Around four hours later, club members were amazed to see the pro handing Marvin a $100 bill.

The club members waited for the pro to enter the clubhouse, then asked him what happened.

“Well,” the pro said, “I took the club back on the first tee, and as I started my downswing, Marvin knelt behind me, reached up between my legs and grabbed my crotch, and yelled ‘Gotcha!'”

The club pro just shook his head.

“Have you ever tried to play 18 holes waiting for the second ‘gotcha’?”