I think it’s safe to say that golf is one difficult game. Even though we love to play golf , it is hard to not get caught up in its frustrations from time to time. For some it may even be that constant challenge that keeps them coming back, but, for others it is often that frustration that drives them from the game.
Last spring I read an article in the NY Times that talked about how golf participation has pretty much stagnated over the last ten years. For every new person that starts golfing each year there is someone who quits the game. The article listed the major reasons why people quit and ,probably to no one’s surprise, most people quit golf because it is too hard to play.
I know that personally, I have contemplated quitting over the years, but, for whatever reason, I would always come back. My frustrations were most visible in my earliest years of play; years when I was hell-bent on being a great golfer. I had become proficient enough that I would have a number of holes each round where I would make pars or even birdies, but, inevitably, I would have my share of ‘others’. This would bring out behavior in me that, looking back, I was not proud of.
So, what happened? I finally realized that I was never, for whatever reasons, going to be a great golfer. In effect, I lowered my expectations and two things happened. I actually became a better (not great, but better) golfer and I sure did enjoy playing a whole lot more. I;m guessing the people that I played with enjoyed playing with me a whole lot more also.
I still get frustrated on the course. That is just my nature, but, I keep my frustrations, for the most part, in check and I am able to put them aside in a hurry. I realized that even though I couldn’t be a great golfer, I was OK with being the best golfer that I could be.
So to anyone playing golf who has hit the exasperation level, my advice is to step back and examine your own expectations. How often do you play? How often do you practice? And, most importantly, determine what part of the golfing experience is the most important to you. For some it may be the actual playing. For others it may be the camaraderie or the two to four hours away from our normal lives or it may even be the post round beers with your buddies. Once you have discovered your own expectation level, trust me, golf will once again become the passion in your life that it once was.
I wonder where the NY Times got this information. Did they take a survey? Did they ask 50 people and formed a whole article based on what 50 people said?
There are many other factors involved in why people quit playing. I ask people who tell me they used to play,why they stopped and no one ever told me it was too hard.
Most of the people would tell me two things, the time it takes to play and expense.
I read these articles and they are just so transparent. It sounds like golf was too hard for him or he needed to pen some filler for the paper and just made it up.
Anyway, I agree that the more you let go the better you seem to play. Golf is a game, nothing more.
None of us are playing for a living. I enjoy it because it gets me away from kid,bill and general life madness. I enjoy being outside and it makes me feel like for at least 4 to 5 hours nobody can bother me or get to me when I am at the course.
Well said article. Really thinking about why you play in the first place goes a long way. If you don’t know why you play or what it does for you you end up quitting.
You most likely say this takes too much time. I could be doing something more productive. Or you say this is too expensive and I could be doing something more productive with my money.
I rarely hear anyone say I stopped because it is too hard.
Yesterday, I played a course for the first time and it was a real treat – one of Walter J.’s finest, at least according to the letter I read in the Walter J room in the clubhouse. And, my experience of that course was truly wonderful.
But there was one thing lacking – exercise. We rode around in carts.
I often wonder how much we are losing by not walking our courses. And then I wonder if the game I love wouldn’t be better if we were limited, in general play, to 8 or 9 clubs, some number that we could carry comfortably, so that we could walk and play. Vardon played with nine. Evans won his US Open and Amateur championships with 7.
We have wedges for this, and wedges for that, and drivers that hit high tech balls unbelievable distances. Which fact, of course, makes it easier for course architects and greens committees to justify longer, and more penal playing fields.
My experience with hickory golf, which is an even harder game, is that playing from forward tees – maybe even way forward tees! – with a limited set, can be loads of fun. The guys with which I play hickory golf have limited expectations, and rarely quit because the game is too hard.
Maybe there’s a common ground.
Something to think about.