On Course "Advice"

T

The SG

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Whilst writing my latest blog I got onto the "advice" that's given out on the course by other golfers.

Things like "you moved your head" or "you swung to fast"

What are the best and worst bits of advice you have been given on the course?
 
Take a year off from the game .... and then quit.
 
First ever comp, N/R'd on the 9th (9 hole course, playing 18 holes):

"Are you going to walk in now? I would, you can't get cut after an N/R". Buffered.

Second comp, bad day on the greens:

"Have you ever thought about a putting lesson?". He then four stabs.

I learned a long time ago to stop listening.
 
To be honest I find most swing advice mid round extremely unhelpful..... it focuses your mind completely on what someone else thinks you're doing wrong. So for me I hate advice mid round, unless I ask for it.

But the worst thing I've ever been told was that I was +3 after the front 9...... as a then 18 handicapper my sphincter puckered and my swing tightened to make a horrific back 9.
 
This could get some interesting replies. Many on here go nuclear at someone giving advice during a round. My son has given me some genuinely good advice during a round, swing slower in bunkers was a good one. I have not been given direct advice by another golfer during a round but one did mention that he only hit his drives at 80% 3/4 of the way through a round. This after he had hit every fairway and I had missed pretty much every one. It was said in a very friendly way, we had got on well, and I took it as the good advice it was. I took it on board and try to follow it now still.
 
I normally hate unsolicited advice on the course. I try to ban technical thoughts from my mind as much as possible when I play and I find that even harder to do when someone tells me something like "don't lift your head" or "you are not turning enough" or anything like that. Once someone says it, even if I doubt their credibility on the matter, it will be stuck in my head and I will think about it during the next shot. I can get downright rude when people think they need to give me advice that way and have snapped at a few people (including my dad and my aunt) for it. They never tried again :mad:

That said, I remember a few times when a piece of advice acutally helped. Once it was a technical thing, but it was delivered very politely and only after my playing partner had asked "I noticed something in your swing, do you want to know about it?" It turned out to be something I was working on at the time anyway and something that was difficult to spot myself (the club dropping away from me slightly on the top of my backswing), so I did find the information very helpful in that case and was able to correct it in the next shots. Another time it was a reminder that I could just take an unplayable and a penalty shot, leaving me in a much better position than awkwardly trying to chip my ball out from between tree roots left handed. It was good solid advice in that case, because even if I had pulled off a little miracle, the shot would not have gotten me any closer to the hole than the drop did. I played a pretty good up and down from there and was really grateful for the hint my pp gave me.
 
I'm pleased the majority hate this as it really winds me up. I was writing about how especially new golfers can really take this advice as gospel and how it does more harm than good
 
"Did you mean to hit it there?"

"No, I thought the snap hook into the adjacent stretch of water was going to give me the best possible angle into the green!!" :rolleyes:
 
road2ruin said:
"Did you mean to hit it there?"

"No, I thought the snap hook into the adjacent stretch of water was going to give me the best possible angle into the green!!" :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

PMSL

Just enjoying the look on a fellow golfers face when after being told that I was swinging to fast and replying that I had slowed my swing down
 
Played with a "all the gear no idea" guy who just wouldn't shut up. On a 140yds par 3 he advised me to "hit a 5 iron coz there's a lot of wind up there." I hit a wedge to 4", to which he said I must have thinned it a bit. His clothes matched his mouth, LOUD!
 
When I play in the Friday evening group I am pretty much the novice there, so I get advice. If usually matches what the pro told me and I am just not doing, so it is more a reminder.I happily take it.
 
Hobbit said:
Played with a "all the gear no idea" guy who just wouldn't shut up. On a 140yds par 3 he advised me to "hit a 5 iron coz there's a lot of wind up there." I hit a wedge to 4", to which he said I must have thinned it a bit. His clothes matched his mouth, LOUD!
Click to expand...

Was that Rick at Hillside?:D
 
I don't mind someone giving me advice after my round but please never during it.

I have taken on board someones advice on my putting and its actually much better so it has its plusses.
 
Not sure there are the words in the English vocabulary to help me or my game right now. I smile politely, nod my head in the appropriate places all the time thinking "just shut the Castlemaine XXXX up" and allowing it to enter one ear and straight out the other
 
If the "advice" is given during a comp, just tell them "that`s a 2 shot penalty for giving advice", soon shuts them up.:thup:
 
snell said:
It's one of the things I hate most about golf...if I want advice I'll go to a professional
Click to expand...

Save your money. Everyone knows that the guy who's ball you have spent all round looking for in the rough and might break 100 at some point knows exactly what you are doing wrong ;)
 
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