Dealing with people watching you

[3-off-the-tee]

Does anyone else struggle when there are people watching them off the tee? A few of the places I’ve played recently have had people queuing on the tee which immediately puts me on edge.
I’m bad enough if there is one or two people watching and my first shot is almost certainly a duff one when being watched. You can feel their eyes rolling at you as you trundle off up the fairway.

Is there any way to deal with this pressure as currently arriving at a club and seeing people at the tee box makes me immediately want to turn around and go home.

Further to this, if you are booking a tee time for say mid-day, should you have people around the tee box at the same time? Is it not a protected time so you can get teed off and make some progress before the next group?

 

[patricks148]

if you have playing partners, do they make you feel the same??

 

[3-off-the-tee]

if you have playing partners, do they make you feel the same??

It depends. If I’m playing with a mate then no as they are aware of my standard of play. I’ve had the odd knock up with much better players through work and even though I keep up with play well I still buckle under the pressure of being watched by others who don’t play with me regularly.

 

[Grant85]

Does anyone else struggle when there are people watching them off the tee? A few of the places I’ve played recently have had people queuing on the tee which immediately puts me on edge.
I’m bad enough if there is one or two people watching and my first shot is almost certainly a duff one when being watched. You can feel their eyes rolling at you as you trundle off up the fairway.

Is there any way to deal with this pressure as currently arriving at a club and seeing people at the tee box makes me immediately want to turn around and go home.

Further to this, if you are booking a tee time for say mid-day, should you have people around the tee box at the same time? Is it not a protected time so you can get teed off and make some progress before the next group?

Sounds like you are struggling if you are worried about even just arriving at the golf club.

I would say sit in the clubhouse or somewhere in sight of the 1st tee, and have a coffee and watch an hours worth of groups teeing off. What you will see is loads of people duffing their tee shot and carving it well off line and ultimately playing shots that you might be worried about.

Ultimately you have to realise there is nothing to worry about and no one really gives a monkeys if you bang one down the middle or top it 25 yards in front of you.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

When a youngster at Beaconsfield, Luke Donald used to wear headphones with crowd noise, so he could get used to the burble of a crowd.

so your problem in reverse

Just concentrate on the basics, stance posture, grip & alignment and hit the shot
It will be what it will be , find it and hit it again ?

 

[patricks148]

i suppose its something you get used to, most summers our place is rammed with visitors hanging around the 1st tee so you just get used to it

 

[3-off-the-tee]

Thanks for the replies folks, it certainly is nice to know I’m not alone in this.
I think I’ll take the advice and go down and watch a few groups teeing off before my next round.

A prime example of my problem is a few weeks ago we booked the latest tee time we could. I was feeling massively relaxed on the tee box as there was nobody behind us and I could tee off with no pressure.

Just as I stepped up to the tee a mate was leaving the 9th and threw a wave in my direction, then proceeded to stand and watch my shot which was duly shanked into the bushes. He walked on and my provisional tee shot was flushed down the fairway.

 

[hairball_89]

I'm FAR from the best player this game has ever seen.

On the first, or worse - when you've just been invited to play through! - I'll always give myself some room for error. Just get it away. Nearer the hole (hopefully!) than you are before you hit it.

As Traminator said, everyone wants to see people hit a nice shot. Not everyone is gonna stick it 300 yards down the middle. But (nearly!) everyone can hit a nice sensible golf shot.

That's all you need.

 

[clubchamp98]

I used to get very nervous in the scratch league games.
Playing some of the best ams in the county.
We used to delibaretly put each other off when practicing and you do become immune to people over time.
The best in the world get nervous it’s human nature.
My worst nightmare is now complete silence , as any slight noise is heard.
You must learn that they are not watching you, they are just waiting to play.
What you do has no bearing on them.
But a sensible distance should be mandatory on the first tee.

 

[timd77]

First tee I’m usually ok, play me through and I’m all over the shop!

 

[Deleted member 25172]

Thanks for the replies folks, it certainly is nice to know I’m not alone in this.
I think I’ll take the advice and go down and watch a few groups teeing off before my next round.

A prime example of my problem is a few weeks ago we booked the latest tee time we could. I was feeling massively relaxed on the tee box as there was nobody behind us and I could tee off with no pressure.

Just as I stepped up to the tee a mate was leaving the 9th and threw a wave in my direction, then proceeded to stand and watch my shot which was duly shanked into the bushes. He walked on and my provisional tee shot was flushed down the fairway.

The highlighted. He walked on, and within 30 seconds, if even that, your tee shot is a thing of the past for him. He’s seen it hundreds of times before, and will see it hundreds of times again.

I get first tee nerves as well, but that is pressure from myself cause I want to score well. Don’t really care of the ones standing around watching me.

 

[3offTheTee]

I find it annoying when people on the green are talking and not aware of what is happening on the tee

 

[srixon 1]

I used to fear hitting a bad shot on the first tee of home scratch matches if there were a few members watching. Only because they thought that they were watching one of the club's better players. It made me concentrate and was always a good feeling to get a good one away. At away matches I was never really nervous at all.
However, my first competition and first tee shot way back when I first started I was a nervous wreck on the first tee. My legs were literally shaking in my trousers.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

No problem as long as they are quiet when you are getting ready to play and over the shot. No fiercer crowd than a GM meet especially H4H and a large group on the balcony watching you tee off or hole out on the last. We had a full but socially distanced patio watching over the 18th today and having to play over the water for the third as well it definitely made you focus on taking enough club and making good contact

 

[srixon 1]

What we need here is Robin to post his famous air shot from one of the meets, not seen it for ages??

 

[Sats]

I blank out everything, stick to my pre shot routine and make sure I'm as relaxed as possible. Notwithstanding this sometimes doesn't stop me feeling nervous, or duff/top/slice/hook but it's just what I do to mitigate those nerves.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Another one to focus the mind on the first shot, is having the GM photographer kneeling down ahead and to the right taking pictures of everyone teeing off. Had I been hitting iron of the tee it was in prime "shank" territory. Clearly he had faith in our abilities

 

[Orikoru]

It's difficult but you have to remember that hitting a bad shot is not the worst thing in the world. Everyone does it. You have to be able to laugh at yourself if you do make a bad shot in front of people. If I do it, rather than wanting the ground to swallow me up, I'll just make a classic cheesy golfer joke to the people watching, you know the sort of thing, "same as usual then" or "cracking start as always" etc etc. I try and think of it as something I can laugh at rather than be fearful of, then the nerves aren't as bad.

Think back to how many times you've seen other people duff a shot, and almost certainly a number of those would have been better players than you. It's nothing to be ashamed of or worried about.

 

[bobmac]

The first thing you've got to do is think ''watch this''
Then, swing as smoothly as you can and make sure you finish in a balanced position up on your back foot toe and smile.

99% of the people watching won't see where the ball has gone or will even care.
But if you swing nicely, those who are watching will think "nice swing"
Then head off into the rough and set your 3 min timer.

 

[nickjdavis]

Our Club Championship went to a sudden death play off last night. Must have been around 20 people close to the tee watching players tee off and another 30 or so dotted down the fair way who then all followed the game to its conclusion.

Both players utterly ripped their tee shots down the middle....impressive to watch!!