“Good” Golf Isn’t as Good as you Think

Let me give you this scenario…

It’s Saturday morning on a cool day in October. You booked your tee time on Wednesday afternoon after sending the “You guys down for golf this weekend?” in the group chat.

You see your buddies in the parking lot, and you all get excited to see each other after a long week of work, school or just life in general.

You have a good front nine and you carry the momentum into the back. Once you get to 17, you realize you are having the round of a lifetime, at least thus far. You get a par on 17 and you drive over to the 18th tee box. You take a moment and think…

“I’m about to break _____ for the first time ever.” What score are you thinking of?

For most golfers, that score is 90. In fact, only 26% of golfers ever have the opportunity to break 90.

Does that discredit other people if that score is 100? Not in the slightest. Does it make it more important for someone breaking 80? 70? Not at all because golf is a sport that is all about personal expectations.

How is golf set up to be about personal expectations? Well think of it like this, at any given course there’s between 3-5 different sets of tee boxes that any player can choose to play from. At some courses there’s even more that that!

Beyond tee boxes, each course has a slope rating. This determines how difficult a course is compared to another. Let’s take two separate courses in Farmville, Va. The Manor is a previous PGA Champions tour event course. It is wicked challenging and provides a lot of different styles of play throughout. Then, let’s compare it to the Farmville Municipal Golf Course. It’s a great hometown track, but it’s not holding any tour event anytime soon.

The Manor’s slope rating is 140 from the back most tees. The Farmville Municipal Golf Course comes in at 134. For reference, the slope rating of Augusta National is 148! So, if you’re looking for a challenge, maybe give The Manor in Farmville, Va. a try.

What does this mean for our own expectations? Well, first off, you can’t expect to play your best every time you go out and play. Secondly, if you’re playing a new course, then maybe it’s just a challenging course on top of not knowing all the spots like you would your home course.

Let’s talk about breaking milestones.

One of the best golf milestones I ever hit was breaking 90. I’d been trying to break 90 for about a year and it finally clicked one day. I’d broken 100 with ease but 90 was the demon that couldn’t be slayed for the longest time.

According to the chart via GolfStorageGuide only 26% of golfers break 90 and it takes on average, 5 years of playing golf.

Let’s break this down from my standpoint. I picked up golf about 3 years ago and since I’m in college, I have a lot more time to practice golf especially in the summer since I’ve worked at either a driving range or golf course since I started playing. That allowed for me to practice and put myself in a better spot to break 90 much faster than the average person.

I also looked up a lot of youtube videos on how to break 90 specifically. Here’s one of my favorites that I would put on while I used my putting mat in the living room:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLZtIcpk2tWYmljGpIf0sKgASGb-CRfM27&v=sBHUDqyLDR8

Going further into the chart, only 21% of golfers break 80. And on average, takes an average of 7.5 years of playing golf to achieve that feat.

Now, I’ve broken 80 one time. I haven’t been able to get back to that since, and admittedly I barely count it as breaking 80. It’s a 9-hole course you play twice to get the full 18 and it’s an easier course compared to most.

This might be some ego talking, but I have full confidence that if I played golf as my full-time job, trained and had the same resources as the professionals, and got paid to do it then, I’d break 80 consistently, maybe even 70.

Is there a slight chance that I’d hate golf by the end of it? Absolutely. However, that sounds like a dream life right now.

Do I think I’m a good golfer? No.

Do my friends and parents think I’m a good golfer? Yes.

I think if you ask any mid-handicappers if they think they’re a good golfer, most of them would say they don’t think so. However, if you ask someone who’s new to golf if they think their mid-handicap friend is good, then they’d probably say yes because it’s the expectations in yourself that determines what is good.

One last thing to ponder this week…

Do you remember your first “golf shot”? I’m not talking about your first ever shot, but do you remember the first time you had a “golf shot”. Think about the person and expectations you had then; would you be impressed with the way you are hitting now?

Next week, we’ll take a deep dive into that aspect of golf and the mental side of the game.

-GBS-