Anyone Quitting Golf?

Modern day practice on the driving range; hit off the mat, maybe the top tracer is overhead. Hit away half an hour with a large bucket ( 70-80 balls).
The way it used to be; hit off grass surface, 70-80 balls in an hour or so, take a look at the ball flight and think of the procedure. No rush and fully absorbed the practice session to maximize it effectiveness.

Very rarely we could find grass surface to practice near any metro area. All had gone to the low maintenance artificial turf now, and it is very different than hitting off real grass surface. Some brands advertising their artificial turf is similar to the real thing; not any where close. The packed in schedule for the modern day will not be a good fit for the game.
I don’t know how many times I had to walk off the golf course leaving a few holes unfinished because I had to allow time in the traffic to my next appointment or family obligations. No big deal, right ?
The first few years, I tried to push the group ahead of our group to speed up a little, then I realized, the only way to get the most of the time is to relax and take whatever it could give me. Typically walking off the course at 16th or whichever hole was closest to the club house.
Many times had to leave 4-6 holes on the table to have ample time to make the next appointment. Better to lose play with one additional hole than had to rush in traffic.
Quitting? Perhaps many times in the past. However, this game taught me one thing, amongst many other virtue; is to be patient and be courteous.

Great golf is hard. And just like other sports, not everyone can play great golf. Not everyone can hit a curve ball, not everyone can ice skate, and not everyone can run really fast. We all are not created equal. Maybe your Holy Grail is scoring 80 or 90? I have played with a number of professional athletes and while they were Hall of Famers in THEIR sport they definitely were NOT going to make the PGA Tour or LIV. So maybe you need to figure out, realistically, what you want out of playing golf and what your expectations should be. I mean we have all see guys out on the course and say " I am not sure golf is the game for him’. Baja 1000 is coming up and I have a friend who builds $1M trophy trucks that win a lot of races. Just in case you want to try something different.

1 Like

One of the guy I know, who never going to be a single digit golfer. His best score ever was an 87 at his home course which is about 6100 yards from the white tee.
He text me last week that he would go play another golf course , asking me how should he expect from that track which he had not seen before.
I text him back telling him I played that track long ago and it is very short and very tight with some water hazards. From the back tee it is a par 65 at 4800 yards. We used to practice our iron game there.
He called me right after his game, all excited , telling me that he shot a 79, a first which he had gone below 70 at any regulation 18 hole golf course.
I was happy for him and didn’t want to burst his bubble by telling him it’s like an 85-86 at his home course without the par 5’s. It is an accomplishment for his level of play.
I congratulated him and told him to get more sub-80 rounds, since the ice been broken now.
As many had said it before, move up a set of tee if you can. You still need to chase the golf ball into the cup no matter how short the hole is.
Have some fun, play at your own level. Enjoy the time on the golf course.

Ha, when I went cold turkey on golf about 20 years ago, I started sports car racing, some of which was pretty high end. Best year I had I made about $100k but in doing so spent twice that. Racing is a good way to turn a good sum of money into a small sum

The only way someone MAKES money racing is using someone else’s money!!

1 Like

Exactly! e.g. Norman using someone else’s money for his own purpose. You can tell many of the media posters are not golfers but they’re in to stir up the heat.
Racing cost a fortune. I heard story of many got into the racing because of their passion for the sports, not for the money. Sponsorship is usually the one who’ll shell out the money. Not sure if racing is as popular as decades before. Seems less audience and fans these days.
In a selfish way, I think golf will go through this ups and downs , maybe that will bring down the green fees for the retiree .