Question of the week [December 2-8]: What’s the worst golf advice you’ve ever received?
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The worst golf advice I ever received?
“Golf is easy. It’s fun. Try it.”
Ed Randolph
Plymouth, Michigan
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I’m pretty sure after 60-plus years of playing golf, the worst — and most annoying — advice I’ve received is how you must play as fast as you can, preferably to play 18 holes in less than four hours. Rubbish.
To all whose mantra resembles the above, stay home and hit as many balls into a net in your garage as you can with your car running. You’re taking up valuable space on the course for those who want to play the game the way it was meant to be played — enjoying fresh air and friendship.
Golf is not meant to be played with a stopwatch, get over it.
Pete Croppo
Bayfield, Ontario
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“Tee off very early and be home well before noon.”
Here are six of the reasons why that just didn't work for me:
1. I’m a night owl and this advice meant shutting down the fun much too early the night before.
2. In the late fall and winter I ran into more than a few frost delays.
3. It takes me a while to warm up and 7 a.m. starts don't leave much time to do so.
4. In the summer, early tee times face freshly watered fairways and rooster tails take a lot off your drive, and do not help your score. Also, very little, if any, wind and these wet fairways make for much higher humidity.
5. Yes, the early tee sheets are usually the fullest so my friends can't be wrong, but that also means that it backs up very quickly. I don’t need to watch slow play by my fellow hackers when I can watch the pros do it later on TV from my recliner.
6. You get home in time only to get stuck with a long list of chores.
So, I enjoy our evenings out, sleep late, get some chores done, tape the big games/tournaments on TV, take plenty of time to stretch and warm up, and choose from several tee times on dry fairways with a nice breeze. Fewer golfers also reduce the time it takes for a round.
And since I’m retired I have only one boss — and she golfs with me.
Steve Moore
Birmingham, Alabama
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There have probably been a 1,000 tips or suggestions that I have heard given over the years. Many from people who are well meaning, but try to translate a tip read in a magazine or on YouTube, which not only don’t work, but in many cases make players worse.
Probably the worst I have heard is “Keep your head down, I’ll watch the ball.” How many good players have you seen that follow this method? I suggest not many. Restricting your head translates to restricting your body core. Allow your core and arms to rotate your head as a part of a normal follow through.
P.J. Vicary
The Villages, Florida
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Keep your head down.
Christian Brooks
Florham Park, New Jersey
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Sounds like it's the worst, but it might have been the best: "Lay off two weeks, then quit." I didn't.
Jim Pomeranz
Cary, North Carolina
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Watch out for snakes in the rough.
Greg Galen
Rockford, Illinois
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A teacher, who I will not name, wanted me to lean my left shoulder well in front of my head and trunk at address. He taught other people well enough to be employed, but he badly misread my abnormal spinal curve. I need to retract my shoulders as a way of life. I declined a second lesson.
Donn Rutkoff
Oceanside, California
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The worst advice I have ever received is from warm weather golfers who tell me to put my clubs away for the winter and give them a rest. My group from here in the tri-state area plays year-round, weather permitting. I already have 40 rounds in this year.
Bob Norris
Cincinnati, Ohio
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I was playing the Champion course at PGA National in West Palm Beach, Florida. We had to take a forecaddie. Freddie, the forecaddie, knew golf and the course, but he was a real smart-ass. My brother is way better than I am, and Freddie was giving him lots of club advice. I was struggling.
We were on the back nine, long par 3 over water. Freddie tells my brother to hit a 4-iron. I look at him and ask "What should I do?" Freddie says "Take up tennis?"
I looked at him and asked "Are we supposed to tip you after the round?"
Not the type of advice I expected, nor appreciated.
Mark Koszyk
Prospect Heights, Illinois
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