19th Hole

Kim Anders
Director of Instruction
John Jacobs Golf Schools and Academies Estrella del Mar Golf and Beach Resort
Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico, AZ
jkanders4@gmail.com

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Don’t Get Mad –You’re Not That Good

I get tired of people bringing broken clubs in to be fixed, saying they hit a tree or rock, tripped over it, the cart ran over it, got stuck in the bag when I was pulling it out, the twins were having sword fights... forget the excuses. You lost your temper over your golf game and broke a club! Pretty silly when you consider…”You aren’t that good”!

Golf is a leisure sport. We do it for fun, relaxation, to get away from the stressful world we live in. And, what happens? We end up getting so upset we develop ulcers, lose sleep, and worst of all while we’re on the course doing all this relaxing we have temper tantrums, break clubs, slam them into the ground, and on occasion we even use questionable language.

Why do we let this game do that to us? I doubt there are any tour players who will read this article, but they are about the only ones I can think of who have any right to be upset with their golf games. They make their living playing golf, it is their job, and they deserve to get upset from time to time.  

But do they? Rarely. The best in the world, who take this game more seriously than anyone, almost never let their frustrations get the best of them. A missed putt can be thousands of dollars, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars.  

So, why do the tour professionals take a missed 5 footer in stride and we non-tour players seem to think we should make 100% of these putts, always hit our approach shots next to the hole, never go out of bounds or in a hazard? And, when something does go against us we react like a child that’s been denied candy at the checkout stand.  

Let’s face it – we’re not that good! We have no business getting upset about our golf games. Golf is incredibly difficult. The best players in the world frequently hit bad shots. Most of us “normal people” spend little time practicing and when we do play our mind is frequently on something else of higher priority.  

Look at it this way. If you have a year to prepare for a special round of golf, and you practice and play in preparation for this one round, the only thing you know for sure is you are going to hit some good shots and you’re going to hit some bad shots. That’s it!! Hit some… miss some! That’s golf! Get over it.  

Once I realized I’m not that good, I started enjoying this wonderful game a lot more. Bad shots didn’t tear my heart out because I now understand they are part of the game. I’ve seen Tiger and Rory hit quite a few bad shots, by anyone’s standards. If they can hit bad shots and not explode, so can I.

I can hit a lot of bad shots and it’s OK, because golf is hard and I’m just not that good.