The Last time I played Golf I sucked

The Last time I played Golf I sucked

I remember back when golf was not an addiction and I had gotten some expertise advice from my buddies who spent hours and hours on the green bragging how good golf is for your health and all the exercise they got walking and chasing that little ball all over the place. I couldn’t believe them but I had to find out for myself if they were telling the truth so I invited them to teach me how to golf.

I hadn’t really considered how many people out there played golf but that day we went the course was light and the mood was to simply play as relaxed as possible and take as much advice as I could from these experts standing beside me. Knowing I did not play this game well based on my poor performances on the driving ranges I knew I was in for some heavy criticism. I tried not making an idiot of myself but it seemed to happen naturally. 

I think the biggest mistake I made that day was to listen to these inexperienced yet well-bragged wannabee semi-professionals who seemed to know everything about the sport. They were indeed filled with a few thoughts or ideas how I could play better and do better than I was. Basically speaking, I sucked but they insisted I had potential. 

Now not to brag but I was often the champion putter on the mini-golf courses in my area and I often challenged friends and neighbors to a match. Of course, miniature golf is nothing like real golf but I already knew that therefore I reserved my right not to play real golf. Having no background on real golf I knew I didn’t qualify to give advice but playing with my buddies there that day, it didn’t stop them from giving me all kinds of advice how to play and analyze my style. 

I messed up on the fairway as I couldn’t stay in the green part. If there was a sand trap around I found it. If there was water nearby I dunked the ball into it. My worst habit was hitting trees and losing sight of the ball as it flew down the fairway either to the left or the right side but never down the middle. 

They said it was the way my stance was turned to the wrong direction. They told me it’s my wrists and don’t bend your knees or keep you head down and then telling me what golf club to use was the final straw. Yelling don’t use your woods and hit the short with the irons got me bedazzled and confused. I couldn’t keep all that advice under my hat and it exploded. I was a better player than I showed that day but my frustration took over and the ball won.

They said I didn’t understand the natural laws of the ball in flight. They said fix your golf swing and don’t worry about the speed or angle of attack on that little ball. Just be centered and make good contact. Lecturing me on the curvature of the landscape I threw my hat off in disgust and decided it’s over. 

I am done slicing, pushing or pulling or hooking myself this day and I never came back. I really don’t care what my buddies thought of me once we were united and shared our day at the golf course. I knew I sucked. 

Not being on any tour of any kind and the fairway being fairly light, I thought I could do better is I slowed it down a bit. Putting and driving and losing my balls was too much to handle that day. I was getting flustered and it was too early in the morning to get so upset. It wasn’t working with these experts around me telling me how to play golf so I asked them all to just let me do my own thing. Obviously offended but not so much they couldn’t stop making fun of me, they decided to go to the club house, have a cold one and wait on me.

In the meantime, I had packed up my gear, found a trail back to the parking lot and drove down to the nearest fast food joint to sit, relax and eat something for breakfast. If I ever get the time to practice learning this game, I could improve my golfing game but for now, I will put it on hold for I certainly enjoyed the driving range much better than the fairway as pounding on buckets of balls seemed to lower my stress a lot more than teeing up with a bunch of hacks who know it all.