Do we expect too much of ourselves ?

[mickh68]

After attending The Open on Saturday & watching the pros up close, I started thinking do we expect too much of ourselves. Indeed some their play was exceptional & I know weather conditions were not great but so many times I saw putts lag up ,greens missed, errant drives that would be reloaded without the aid of ball spotters. So after seeing some of the best in the world make these mistakes, why do we as mere mortals (speaking as a 18 HC ) expect so much of ourselves.
So come on guys & girls let's give ourselves a break..

 

[pokerjoke]

I agree,how could a pro miss the green from 130 yrds or even come up short by 2 clubs,or even go through the back of the green from close range.
I think your right we do expect too much.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

A golf pro once said to me "I can't stop you making mistakes, all I can do is try to reduce the number you make"

Everyone, no matter what level you are at, will make mistakes, what makes the Pro's better than the rest of us is that they make fewer of them and don't usually compound the mistake with another one. Anyone who thinks Pro's never make mistakes is deluding themselves, we just don't see them on TV very often.

My attitude is that if you never expect more, you never improve.

 

[palindromicbob]

After attending The Open on Saturday & watching the pros up close, I started thinking do we expect too much of ourselves. Indeed some their play was exceptional & I know weather conditions were not great but so many times I saw putts lag up ,greens missed, errant drives that would be reloaded without the aid of ball spotters. So after seeing some of the best in the world make these mistakes, why do we as mere mortals (speaking as a 18 HC ) expect so much of ourselves.
So come on guys & girls let's give ourselves a break..

Good point. Some of the shots into rough would never have been recovered on a standard day for the average golfer and would have been a stroke and distance penalty. The difference I suppose is the fact that the pros once played at amateur level and despite these types of mistakes still obtained a better than scratch handicap.

I think that we will always strive to improve ourselves. We may never see the heady heights of the open but the beauty of golf is we can have our own little comps on the highest level courses and play the ground the pro's do and thanks to the handicap system we could actually attempt to compete with them! Can't see to many other sports where that can happen.

It'll be interesting to see what the handicap committee at Royal Portrush say if Darren plays in the Father/Son comp in August.

 

[RGDave]

My attitude is that if you never expect more, you never improve.

I agree. However, it does often pop into my mind that maybe I should have just "stuck" on 18 or something and avoided all the frustration of trying to be something I'm clearly not cut out to be. I managed to stop once, and I kept on the wagon for many years, until someone asked..."Golf?"

 

[Mongoose]

Remember the guys you are seeing at the Open are those that have proven themselves at target golf, they got to where they are as they are skilled at firing at pins from good lies to receptive greens. If the players at the Open were all links players you'd see lower scores. Because some of them once played links golf, or do now and then, is not relevant really as its because of their scoring at target golf that they are there.

 

[Region3]

Apart from the obvious difference about the pro's playing better shots and making less mistakes, they are able to accept their mistakes far easier than amateurs do.

It's great to expect to hit a good shot, but you also have to be able to accept the result of a bad shot, before you've hit it.

 

[Achilles]

I think we probably do, but that's what I love about his game - the quest for perfection. No matter how bad the last round was, the next one could be 'the one'.

It's very easy to beat yourself up after a bad round and I did just that for most of the weekend after playing like a complete tit in our monthly medal. Played again tonight and despite a few ropey holes on the front, I managed a pb back 9

No pain, no gain!

 

[Matty]

I know I do. Ball in a awful lie and you know you should chip it out but you think - "No, I can hit the green from here", you've seen it on TV, you know it's possible. You pick a club and slash your ball deeper into trouble and then realise you REALLY should have just chipped it out!

 

[USER1999]

Thing is though, they know if they make an error, they can probably recover from it.

If I chip out sideways, I might still then miss the green, which compounds the error. For them, they know they might still hit the next one close.

 

[Oddsocks]

murph is on the money, its not hitting the bad shot, or wide drive, its still having the technique to be able to hit GIR or up and down saves on missed greens that make them pro's.

For a few weeks i lapsed my attitude slightly and scores have suffered from it, it depends what you want from the game, the drive to improve or the the odd hack here and there.

 

[Snelly]

The biggest differences between the pros and is simply that the pros can do it when they need to. There is a good story about Tom Kite that illustrates this but I can't write it out now as I am busy! Sorry.

Second big difference is the skill level from 100 yards and in. It is a big difference.