Being flukey vs being deadly

blue note

Where do you draw the line between the two? The best shot you've ever hit thread got me talking about this, because I'd bet a lot of great shots people call lucky and vice versa.

My criteria is pretty straightforward though. You have to do what you were trying to do and the way you were trying to do it to be classed as being deadly. If you nail a 5 iron to the pin taking on all the danger it's a great shot. If you meant it. But if you were aiming for the middle of the green and just happened to pull it, that's flukey in my book.

But when you try the low percentage shot. Maybe you're bending a 3 Wood around a corner and taking on a big carry. If you pull it off you deserve the credit for it, not to be told it's flukey!

But what do others think? If you try a stupid shot and pull it off were you lucky you did it? Or are you just the man!?

willabur

So yeah I posted in the other thread about a nailed 5iron over trouble

I totally meant to hit that shot

Seve OB

You make your own luck in this game.
A well executed shot going in the hole will have an element of luck, but it took the skill to execute the shot in the first place.

A shot bladed stuttering up the fairway which goes into a cross stream and hits a rock to bounce back out.....well that’s flukey

GreeBo

You are deadly if a shot with a high margin for error comes off more times than it fails.
Your are flukey if that same shot comes off when you need it.
You are normal if it comes off when you are practicing on your own and it makes no difference to anything!

Sultan_of_Ping

It depends on your ability, I think.

If you go for a low probability / high risk / high reward shot and it comes off, that's great, but it's a bit of a fluke because if you tried it again and again it might only come off 1 out of every 10 or even 100 shots.

I think "deadly" players are consistent to the point of almost being boring....they're like Ice Man in Top Gun - no drama because they make no mistakes (or very few) and so don't have to go for the Hail Mary shots. They also don't get taken in by sucker pin positions and their course management is excellent.

willabur

I think flukey is when you hit objectively a bad shot and you get a good result.

I know a guy who is a great golfer and has 1 hole in 1 to his name. It was a bladed pitching wedge that didn't get more than six inches of the ground but whacked the pin and dropped in. Thats a fluke. Same lad I've seen hit the same club 20 feet past a hole and spun it back to 10. Those are great shots

blue note

To me if you're of the opinion that it's flukey to pull off a low percentage shot it would follow that it's unlucky when you don't pull off an easy shot. And that doesn't sit with me. However good you are a bad shot is a bad shot. If rory McIlroy misses a green from 100 yards it's not unlucky, it's bad. And similarly, if I hit a green from 200 yards it's not flukey. It's just me being deadly. Every once in a while

BigChap1759

You eventually learn to keep your mouth shut - the cry of “****e” thinking you’ve thinned you’re SW to see it take two hops and then pop in the hole.......

FWIW I’ll always call a flukey shot.........if asked

blue note

BigChap1759 wrote: »

You eventually learn to keep your mouth shut - the cry of “****e” thinking you’ve thinned you’re SW to see it take two hops and then pop in the hole.......

FWIW I’ll always call a flukey shot.........if asked

I often accept praise for shots I accidentally pull off. Generally when I end up taking on a flag because I pulled / pushed a shot I'll enjoy it rather that fess up. I like to let people think of me as a deliberately mediocre golfer rather than an accidental one!