Have you ever chanced upon a situation where you end up screwing up your game and then regret over the same? Yes, Golf is definitely fun yet one of the most challenging sports. And we amateurs often end up doing vital errors that we could evade with more cautious deliberation.
Here are some of the most common mistakes that amateur golfers make. Can you relate to any of these?
It’s a 330-yard par-4 with trouble from about 250 yards onwards. There are bunkers on both sides and the hole narrows to a bottleneck as you approach the green. So why in Old Tom Morris’s name are you pulling a driver out of your bag? There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that you can reach the green and, at your average driving distance there’s about a four-yard strip of fairway. Anything missing that will leave a devilishly difficult shot.
Just short of the putting surface on a tightly mown apron, there’s nothing between you and the green with the pin well onto the putting surface. Phil Mickelson would whip out his 60-degree wedge and slide it under the ball, imparting incredible spin, sending the ball skyward and stopping it neatly by the cup…. Just so you know: You can’t do that.
But many of us will try anyway. “Wouldn’t it look great if I pulled that one off?” Yes, it would, but it won’t look so great when you’re wading about in waist-high rough after knifing it at knee height, 40 yards through the back. Keep it as close to terra firma as possible when playing shots around the green.
This is perhaps the most common mistake made by amateur golfers all over the world: “OK, so 147 to the front. I’ve got a club for that… It’s a perfect 9-iron.” Yes, but the pin is another 10 yards on, there’s a slight breeze against and you’ve only ever once hit a 9-iron 147 yards and that was on a baked driving range with a rock hard ball and a 20mph wind behind. Try a 6-iron. “No, no, I’ve got this, it’s just right… What the hell? How on earth has that come up short?”
If the average amateur were to take one more club on every iron shot they faced, they’d knock shots off their score. Yes, occasionally they’d fire a bullet through the back but, far more often than not, they’d end up closer to the flag.
How many of these do you fall foul…
Players who struggle with their long game often carry an array of weapons they have no intention of using. Why have a driver in your bag if you simply can’t, and won’t, hit it? Why the gaggle of fairway woods when the longest thing you’re confident of pulling out is the 4-hybrid. You have 14-clubs at your disposal and you’re only going to use 10 of them… Why not carry more short-irons and wedges? Play to your strengths.
Most golfers feel hard done by most of the time on course. It always seems the golfing gods are conspiring against us, doesn’t it? “Why is the wind always gusting against when I play a shot?”… “How did the ball roll out that far? I never even considered that water hazard.”… “Why do the putts never drop for me?” We’ve all heard it; most of us have said it. The point is, your playing partners don’t care – they have no sympathy for your perceived ill fortune. They’re far too worried about the bad breaks they feel they’ve suffered on the links that day. “How can he be complaining about his bad luck? Hasn’t he been watching how my game’s been going?” No, he hasn’t.
You know that hitting a good ball is all about timing. You know that if you swing too fast, you’ll lose your rhythm and the result won’t be pretty. But, with a driver in your hand and a par-5 stretching ahead, the inevitable thought pops into your mind: “This one is going to be a monster!” Tensing every muscle, you pull the club away from the ball with the gusto of a young farmers’ “tug-o-war” team. In a nanosecond, the clubhead is back past your left ear and your balance has gone completely. As you come back towards impact, your energy has been spent, all control has gone and the ball sets off at a most unusual angle.
Golfers can be a bit delusional when it comes to their ability, as we’ve seen. They can also be guilty of misjudgement when it comes to their choice of attire on the golf course. It might look good on Rickie Fowler or Camilo Villegas but these guys are in great physical shape, whereas the last cardio-vascular exercise you did was a charity five-a-side tournament in 2004. That fluorescent shirt with “sporty fit” looked top banana on the mannequin, but it’s constricting the blood flow to your hands and there’s not quite enough material to stretch over your midriff to tuck under that snazzy white belt. Maybe look for something a little more on the “comfort” side of things next time.