Playing with strangers

ahnoyouregrand · 03-10-2019 8:52pm #1

This is probably daft, but please indulge me!

Have recently taken up golf and feel like I have been making reasonable improvements over the last couple of months. I play most of my golf on my own. However, whenever I am playing through a group or join with another group of strangers (basically have to play with others) my game goes to pot completely. I mean mistakes I would never make on my own just occur repeatedly, bladed chips, putts left metres short, horrendous drives, duffed tee shots etc. I hope to start playing competitions fairly soon but am afraid that this will kill me!!

I'm not sure what I am looking for out of this thread, but maybe other people are in the same boat or can share coping mechanisms!

LastLagoon · 03-10-2019 8:56pm

ahnoyouregrand wrote: »

This is probably daft, but please indulge me!

Have recently taken up golf and feel like I have been making reasonable improvements over the last couple of months. I play most of my golf on my own. However, whenever I am playing through a group or join with another group of strangers (basically have to play with others) my game goes to pot completely. I mean mistakes I would never make on my own just occur repeatedly, bladed chips, putts left metres short, horrendous drives, duffed tee shots etc. I hope to start playing competitions fairly soon but am afraid that this will kill me!!

I'm not sure what I am looking for out of this thread, but maybe other people are in the same boat or can share coping mechanisms!

Don’t worry , if my experience is anything to go by, you’ll still be blading, duffing and shanking in 2 years, you get used to it and nobody (except for a few grouches) cares.everyones been there

dan_ep82 · 03-10-2019 11:09pm

Once you get a few rounds where seasoned golfers are having a bad day and hitting poor shots you will lose most of the nerves/keep concentration.

Go over your basics before every shot, it will help you focus on what your doing.Aim, Grip, ball position and posture.

Try to play regular with someone to build some confidence in a group but mix it up aswell with different people and you'll see the benefit of the social side aswell

slave1 · 03-10-2019 11:18pm

Give it time, you’ll be grand, just go out and enjoy it as best you can

04-10-2019 12:57am

Don't worry about it you will calm down in time. If you have hit more than 8 shots just lift your ball.

spacecoyote · 04-10-2019 9:31am

You probably have unrealistic ideas of the standard of the other golfers.

Chances are they're just as likely to duff a shot as you are. They're just average Joe's like yourself.

If its tension and nerves that are hitting you, just try a couple of deep breaths. You'll be amazed how you feel like you relax & the tension drops from your shoulders at address when you exhale a deep breath.

willabur · 04-10-2019 9:47am

ahnoyouregrand wrote: »

This is probably daft, but please indulge me!

Have recently taken up golf and feel like I have been making reasonable improvements over the last couple of months. I play most of my golf on my own. However, whenever I am playing through a group or join with another group of strangers (basically have to play with others) my game goes to pot completely. I mean mistakes I would never make on my own just occur repeatedly, bladed chips, putts left metres short, horrendous drives, duffed tee shots etc. I hope to start playing competitions fairly soon but am afraid that this will kill me!!

I'm not sure what I am looking for out of this thread, but maybe other people are in the same boat or can share coping mechanisms!

One tip I would give is to ask the guys in the pro shop to match you up with either someone who is sound or someone in the same position as yourself.

Dbu · 04-10-2019 11:45am

Had an interesting one on the putting green last weekend.
Said good morning to the guy beside me, who just stared at me and didnt even acknowledge that I had said anything

5 mins later he was been introduced to me on the first tee ....lol
Couldn't resist telling the 3rd guy that we had just met on the practice green.

ahnoyouregrand · 04-10-2019 11:45am

Thanks for the advice folks. Im going to start putting my name on timesheets with different people and hopefully Ill get more used to it. One of my mates did say that i have a totally warped view of how good other golfers are so maybe that is contributing to it!

Season 2, things usually wouldnt get that bad that i would be in 8 territory! Or atleast i would be on the green anyway at that stage!

finglashoop · 04-10-2019 12:41pm

ahnoyouregrand wrote: »

Thanks for the advice folks. Im going to start putting my name on timesheets with different people and hopefully Ill get more used to it. One of my mates did say that i have a totally warped view of how good other golfers are so maybe that is contributing to it!

Season 2, things usually wouldnt get that bad that i would be in 8 territory! Or atleast i would be on the green anyway at that stage!

Just get out and worry about yourself.

I did find it a little strange when i joined a club a few
months ago as i was so used to only playing with mates.

After 2 or 3 games i never even thought about it again.

Stacksey · 04-10-2019 1:53pm

ahnoyouregrand wrote: »

This is probably daft, but please indulge me!

Have recently taken up golf and feel like I have been making reasonable improvements over the last couple of months. I play most of my golf on my own. However, whenever I am playing through a group or join with another group of strangers (basically have to play with others) my game goes to pot completely. I mean mistakes I would never make on my own just occur repeatedly, bladed chips, putts left metres short, horrendous drives, duffed tee shots etc. I hope to start playing competitions fairly soon but am afraid that this will kill me!!

I'm not sure what I am looking for out of this thread, but maybe other people are in the same boat or can share coping mechanisms!

I deliberately Tee off on the 1st hole last and one thing that eases me into it is when one of the lads hits a crap tee shot, i feed off that

Misguided1 · 04-10-2019 1:59pm

I tool up golf last year and had a very similar experience. I was convinced people were looking at me thinking how useless I am.
I started to realise that they have no interest in my game. Only their own. Once I stopped thinking about what others thought, playing with people I don't know became a lot easier.

I didn't have expectations of how others were playing but had great expectations about how I should be playing.

Stick with it!

pakman · 04-10-2019 5:22pm

I had a part time membership for a year and never even got a GUI because I was trying to get good enough to play in the weekend competitions. Biggest waste of time ever and did my golf no good at all playing on my own all the time.

Once you are out there you'll find most people are in the same boat and even a few of the really decent players will collapse in front of you too.

The best part of playing with others for me was learning the etiquette and watching how they course manage. Sooner rather than later I say.

Playing with strangers

Comments