Everyone makes statements and some people agree or disagree. I have had some people, in this forum and other places, laugh at me when I have said. Golf is very hard to play. It is a battle between you, yourself and and course architect. Kinda like a casino…the architect wins 98% of the time. Nice to have a GOAT athlete, who has played all the sports agree with the way you feel! What do you all think? https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/michael-jordan-believes-1-sport-is-“hardest”-to-play/ar-AAP5G5V
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I guess it depends on the standard you want to use. How close to perfect performance do you need before you’re performing to the desired standard.
While acknowledging that Jordan’s done all of those sports, done them at an extremely high level, and disagrees, I’d think the toughest feat in sports is hitting a 98 MPH that looks like it’s going for your head. And! Being able to tell in hundredths of a second that it is actually a fastball, and not an 80 MPH curve ball that’s going to break downwards two feet. Of course, you can get away with only successfully hitting that ball less than one time in eight (counting fouls, balls, strikes), and be one of the best in the world.
As Mickey Mantle apocryphaly said to Sam Snead, “What?! This game can’t be that hard. The ball doesn’t even move!”
“Yeah, Mickey. But we have to play our foul balls…”
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Just to make you laugh…Here’s what I’ll tell you. Before I took up golf, one of the sports I played was baseball at both Legion and college level. I’ve had to face a pitcher (just 1 guy) that threw over 100, and he had, shall we say, not the greatest control. The first pitch, I never saw it, I only heard it. I turned and looked at the ump and said WTF 3x, What, where and why…LOL. He laughed and said Son, I sure hope that helmet fits right! At which time, I put 1 foot in the bucket! I went 0/3 with a walk. We lost the game on a no hitter. The pitcher was drafted by Baltimore, but never made the majors. In baseball, I never touched him, he was way outta my league, BUT I still could get on base. Ya can’t hide in golf…too many aspects and in general, depending on who we are comparing ourselves to…i either suck or my game could be a 15hdcpers dream.
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Agreed.
I think anyone on this forum, and other forums like it, is also on their own personal quest to get “better” - whatever the term means to you - both with their golf swing and at the game of golf.
How each golfer defines their own success will vary from individual to individual.
Some people are happy to ride in a cart on a weekend afternoon and drink a few beers and smoke a few cigars, or whatever, just to be out with buddies.
But the game at its core is really the external you swinging the club vs …
…the internal you analyzing and making decisions and
…vs the course architect’s plan and
…sometimes vs the weather and vs how you and your body are feeling that day.
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Yes, many variables at one time! Then there are physical condition/injury issues. After a year off, I MAY get a game or two in, another warm fall here! Will do a game practice at the driving range first, may have forgotten how to swing! Hopefully my carpal tunnel issue will allow me to hang onto the club now.
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The strange thing about golf is that every day is different.
The best way to approach it is to realise there are many factors that you cannot control including how you wake up in the morning. Just be thankful that you are playing golf with your mates and enjoying life.
As a Scottish mate of mine said to me- is there anything else but golf in life!
Enjoy every day as you never know what comes next.
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To the first, it’s really surprising to me how addictive this game can be. I read of a new technique and I want to try it. “Want” is not strong enough of a verb there. Intermittent, unpredictable rewards. That Skinner guy was really onto something…
But really, I chimed in to plus 1 your second point. We aren’t guaranteed tomorrow. Even though it’s really, really likely to happen again for us, we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow, next week, next month.
Act accordingly.
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There are essentially two different types of Golfe™ -
- Golf
- Golf when you and your wife both play
Trust me, these are two different games! It’s like sex, only different.
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Yea…I say Fudge alot more than I say Fire Truck! I enjoy the one with the wife alot more when we get home tho…lots of extra puttering around!
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Still better than your wife and you in a tandem kayak or bicycle… -1, would not recommend.
My current GF doesn’t like golf, but doesn’t mind me practicing/playing it, within reason. Oh well.
Golf, is a game imitate life.
It has the ups and the downs, and all the downs make the up so much more appreciated.
That’s why they say, the few near perfect shot in a round is what makes one keeps coming back. Like chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
If anyone expect to master this game with just lessons and new equipment ( fitted or not ), then they’d better off seeking other ways to entertain themselves.
The life long chase is exactly what makes this game so attractive. Don’t believe me ? Take a close look of what the best of the best in the game could achieve. They have the physical ability, had been training both on the mental and the physical since their childhood, They have the customized equipment as they demand. they are the best examples this game could produce. And, they make lots of blunders on the golf course, even when their livelihood depending on the outcome of the tournament.
These, are physically fit and able, mentally tough, bag the sponsored equipments… and they’re not perfect in the game.
Jack Nicklaus said onetime, he won most of his tournaments without his A game. Imaging that !
The game is tough, if one sets to chase the pie in the sky. Ben Hogan said one time, there is no reason why one could not birdie every hole. That was his ego speaking, but it shows the man really believed so. His chase for perfection never stopped even into his later years.
The game is easy, if one wish to play it adequately to be able to enjoy oneself on the golf course.
Looking at your handicap index, you’ve achieved a level many will never even be able to peek into. As you have found out, the closer one gets near the perfection , (birdie every hole as Ben Hogan said ), the tougher the progress will be. In Tournament golf, only a few times the elusive 59 had been achieved ( a few were set with par 71 ).
So, yes, if one expect to game like they witness the professionals in the tournament play, it’ll be tough if not impossible.
At least we know where the bar is set.
The secret of a low scoring bund is not GIR in every hole, which is not possible. It is the ability to recover from those bleeding shots. All the better golfers I had the chance to be paired with have the amazing ability to recover from their bad fortune. If one does not have those shots in their bag, then they can’t be expecting to play like the best.
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Ben Hogan said one time, there is no reason why one could not birdie every hole
Ben being Ben… Another hard-ass in the “expectations” game is instructor Pia Nillson. The name of her teaching program ‘VISION54’ is a tell. Also, IIRC, she has provided an inspirational thought to motivate her pupils. Basically, it’s to look back over your golfing ‘life’ at any particular course and count the number of holes that you’ve birdied. That aggregate score is an indication of your golfing potential. In a sense, she’s correct; in my two decades at my muni, I’ve probably birdied 12 of the 18 holes. So, my scoring potential is 71-18 (time-lapsed birdies) = 59! When you stand on the first tee, it’s an inspiration. When you walk off 18 with an 85 (or worse), it’s exasperation.
I’m from the Walter Hagen school. He is to have said that he expects to make seven errors per round, so when he flubs one, that’s one of seven. I’ll assume that Walter’s definition of "error’ is more stringent than mine, so when I push-fade into the heather on #4, welp, that’s just one of several to come.
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To be frank with you, if one does not even dare to dream the impossible, there will be zero chance of getting there. Anyone dreamed that human could “fly”, or to cover the distance interstate in one day ?
When I was much younger and standing on each of the tee box, I could see chances for birdie. Different prospect after the tee shot. Some times the wish did come true and some times the dream will last until the putt fell in the cup, and some times the dream down graded to wishing a saved par after the tee shot.
In theory, Ben Hogan was correct that with his ability to propel the golf ball, there is no reason why he could not have a good chance of birdie every hole.
I’m a conservative on almost everything else except with this game. ambitious to do better each time I get out. If only I knew what I know now when I was younger.
And yes, you can say that I’m hooked for life. There were time I even dreamed of golf ,usually it’ll be time to wake up after the first few holes.
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Yes, exactly! Live it, love it 
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I strongly agree with you. I am a beginner, Now I realized golf is a tough but an interesting game.
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I just read a story I never heard about Mr. Hogan. Went like this: a young pro (who idolized Hogan) was playing a practice round with Mr. Hogan and the young guy was trying to pick his brain. Mr. Hogan, as per his usual persona, just kept quiet and ignored his questions. On the 9th hole, going out, Hogan hits a shot by the pin and the kid asks him again— what he hit. Hogan, probably being exhausted by the questions, dumps every ball in his bag…then from 125 yds, hit every ball, each shot with different club in his bag from 3W to putter onto the green! Turns and says, does it really matter! Play your own game and walked off the course…leaving everything there for the youngster and the caddies to retrieve. My guess, for some people, the game isn’t as hard as it is for others! Good story though!
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This and many other similar stories. I call them “stories” because no one could prove or disapprove the truth to all of them. However, some of the stories were quite credible, as they were originally told by supposed eyewitness.
People back then were no different than today’s; we all want to know “the secret” , or the “short cut” to success. Ben Hogan was not kind to those who thought of getting the “secret” from him.
He himself said that he knew his golf swing was not the best, so he had to work harder to be competitive ( video of Mr. Hogan during an interview ). He worked hard and the other caught on so everyone practice harder, then Mr. Hogan just have to put in longer hours to stay ahead of the heard.
Mr. Hogan had one thing to his advantage, he said that he “loved to practice”. When one love to practice golf shots then, the long hours would not matter, the bleeding hands would not matter.
His “secret” to his consistent game was to practice and “own” your own golf swing, besides he was one the first to actually “manage” his golf game.
He paid attention to details like no one else at the period. He to Ken Venturi one time to avoid missing to the right side of the green on one of the tournament hole ( think it was The Masters at Augusta ? ). Venturi asked why ? the answer was, because all the players would exit to the right of the green to the next tee and the gallery trampled the ground in the area to the right of that green. Things like this made Mr. Hogan one of the best golf players.
Think a youngster nicknamed Tiger learned his method of paying attention to the details on the golf course ?
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I’ve no idea if Venturi was who he told that to, but he famously said about #10 at Augusta, at least I think it was #10, ‘if you see my approach hit the green on Sunday, I missed’. Guess it was easier to get up and down with that pin.
I think Hogan would have loved the data we’re blessed with today: about maximizing driver carry, the importance of distance in scoring, the ball flight laws from Trackman et al. It would have helped his work be more efficient.
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No idea, I was not there.
It was told by Venturi on one of his video interview . I watched a lot of the video and archives during the last couple of years. Helped to patch up the gap from missing being on the golf courses.
Of course Mr. Hogan would love to dabble with today’s technology in helping to maximize golfer’s game. Almost all of the top golfers like to work on their equipment. Arnie was another one. Not to mention the invention of the Sand Wedge ( bounce) by Gene Sarazen. They didn’t have the technology and the tools like we have taken for granted.
Tech, cuts down the chase, to fulfill the ultimate goal which is better performance on the golf course.
Instead of days and weeks of trial and error, we could get a general answer within minutes and refine / focus from there.
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