The Luck thread:

[Little Jockey]

Hi Guys,

Interested to hear some thoughts on luck. Personally I dont really believe in it either way, but a regular fourball I play in always bemoans their luck and debates who has been the luckiest player on the day.

Now it's all good banter but I suspect that low handicappers never talk about it where as higher handicappers use is as a crutch.

Interested to hear about your comps and how many other folk play/ bemoan their luck?

 

[Hobbit]

I'd expect low handicappers rarely talk about it because they get little chance to experience it. To get lucky you've got to hit a bad shot, and low handicappers tend not to need the lucky bounce because they're hitting the middle of the fairway/green.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

On my last but one game I visited the heather and gorse on nine occasions and found my ball each time. I was also perched 2" over a steeply revetted bunker. I did not see the shot finish but how it got to be where it stopped defied all logic..Please don't tell me that there is no such thing as luck.

In the clubhouse you hear many bad luck stories but few good luck stories, that is human nature.
Luck balances out over different games.

 

[moogie]

Have to say.........Ive never lipped in, but only ever lipped out, of a hole, any other form of Luck, I reckon u make your Own

 

[GuitarRich]

I'd expect low handicappers rarely talk about it because they get little chance to experience it. To get lucky you've got to hit a bad shot, and low handicappers tend not to need the lucky bounce because they're hitting the middle of the fairway/green.

Agreed - don't believe in luck - its just coincidence. I've had some "lucky" and "unlucky" bounces - but mostly when I don't hit where I'm aiming at. Occasionally I'll hit it sweet and catch the lone branch sticking out... but that's more down to taking on a risky shot I think.

 

[Whee]

'Luck' in golf is usually just an excuse.

Never understood people using it in football either. "We were unlucky, we hit the post 3 times" - that's not unlucky, it's just innaccurate.

Having putts lip out isn't unlucky, it's poor technique or execution. Some days there seems to be more than others, granted.

 

[Lawrence22]

I had both good and bad luck yesteday. I hit a nice straight drive on our 14th but it took a horrible bounce as it landed and ended up about a foot out of bounds. Then on the 18th hole I was in the rough below a raised green with a sand wedge in hand. I needed to get up and down to beat my previous best score. I completely miss hit the shot thinning it. The hill thanfully took the speed out of the ball and it ended up 6" from the cup.

 

[Little Jockey]

Did you make the putt though?

 

[Little Jockey]

Seems like most people think you get what you deserve overall.

 

[Ethan]

Luck is simply randomness dressed up in some mystical clothes.

Very rare things happen, but only very rarely. Common things happen a lot more often. You often read in the papers that something happened and it was a 1 in a million chance. Perhaps it was, but if a million things happen, a one in a million is very likely to be among them. Some of the odds calculations used show a basic misunderstanding of probability.

So if you sky your tee shot, it sticks to a crow's beak, the crow flies on, and the ball then falls off as he crosses the green and falls in the hole, you may say 'what luck', when what you mean is 'Wow, I don't think that will ever happen again'. The player who frequently skies the ball, hits it towards trees or buildings is more likely to get these breaks than the player who just nudges it down the fairway tall the time.

 

[Lawrence22]

Did you make the putt though?

Yes I made the putt for a 95. Which is my best round to date.

 

[JustOne]

Yes I made the putt for a 95. Which is my best round to date.

Would have been a better story had you unluckily hit a spike mark and missed!... just to even things out a bit

Well done on your PB :thup:

 

[USER1999]

If it wasn't for bad luck I'd have none.

 

[Little Jockey]

Congrats on the PB... hope you are keeping your cards like the rest of us losers!

 

[HickoryShaft]

Couple of times I have thought - damm that was bad luck or I would have had a better score on the day. However thinking about it afterwards realised that the odd shot that I didn't hit so well but ended up good or the putt that was racing past and off the green only to catch the hole and stop close or even drop were also in the same rounds so it all evens out.

Is it good luck when you cannon off a tree onto the green or poor shot because you hit it in the first place? I tend to think that you make your own bad luck by the wrong shot choice or decision making on the day.

Its easy to blame luck but does it get you anywhere? Damm I was unlucky 3 putting 12 greens on Saturday !!!!!

 

[chrisd]

if my playing partner were to hit 10 trees on our tree lined course he would flip out onto the fairway, on average, 6 times - me, on the other hand, would be lucky to come out twice! This has been the case for the 12+ years I've played with him and everyone refers to his pet squirrel who has the heading ability of Alan Shearer.

That, as far as I am concerned, is luck!

 

[Toad]

If you think about it we get some good and some bad but really only remember the bad luck.
I don't see it as being lucky it's just that sometimes but not very often the bounce goes your way.

 

[bluewolf]

I'm gonna echo some of the sentiments already on this thread and state that I don't believe in Luck. Good or bad. The ball goes where I put it. Nowhere else. Luck is like religion, it's an easy thing to lean on when things aren't going your way.

 

[Matty]

I think if you hit a shot, it cannons off some trees and heads out onto the green or fairway it's still a bad shot.

Surely nobody intentionally aims for a tree planning to ricochet the ball onto a green. They were aiming for the green.

Call it luck, entropy or the rub of the green if you like but sometimes you will get away with a bad shot and sometimes you won't.

 

[Tiger]

I hit a shot that is heading out of bounds. It hits a tree and richochets back into the middle of the fairway. That for me is good luck.

I hit a putt that is on its way into the hole because the pace and the line is perfect but two inches from the hole the wind blows a sycamore seed into the balls path and it ricochets off target. That for me is bad luck.

Lipping out, hitting a spike mark, getting a bad bounce etc that's just part of the game...