Are you a lucky or unlucky golfer?

[joker2]

Haven't killed anyone yet....

Lucky

 

 

Just say'in....

[Sean2]

If anything, I would characterize myself as "luck proof."

 

"If I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all."

[Matchplay10033]

I think it's even... I just remember the unlucky more because my emotional response is stronger. Last round I hit a 9 iron to a Tucked pin... Pin was about 2 yards from the left fringe. My iron drew alittle to much and should have been on the fringe with a very easy putt from fhe fringe for birdie. When my ball landed it sounded like a gunshot and next thing I heard was the crackling of the trees. Ball his the sprinkler head... Dead on... Straight ob.

 

On the flip side I once tried driving a 330 yard par 4... Hit a high hook about 80 yards offline into the woods. No where near the green. Hit my provisional with a 6 iron. When I was about to play my shot I noticed a ball on the green very close to the pin. My partner checked and it was my original tee shot...must have hit a tree dead in the woods and bounced about 50 yards back onto the green... I made my eagle putt

[Bush Pilot]

Yeah, I'm both, sometimes in the same round, or even same hole. lol

 

Had an interesting 18th hole to win a match recently. Par 5, drove it into the water hard left, dropped, put a 3-hybrid right into the trees, kind of chunked my next punch shot out way short, then pitched it in for a par. Of course I just silently nodded like that was the f*****g plan. :lol:

[bubbagumpshrimp]

I'm "lucky" until I start to think about it. Whenever I start to have a thought like "I've been playing the same ball for five holes..." I'll make the mistake of thinking about it and send it into the woods in short order.

[xoted]

I'm lucky.

I'm a very high handicap, but once you parse out majority of my mistakes as a lack of skill/practie, you start seeing a lot of luck.

 

I get a 35 foot put at least once a round, when any other hole would show I should be happy with a 2 putt starting 10 feet out.

 

I almost never hit bunkers. I go multiple rounds in a row without hitting them. To the point where when I hit one it's a shock. I was taking lessons and he asked me about issues out of the sand and I told him I don't have that problem; he just laughed.

 

I'll hole out from 120 yards on a ball that I hit thin and just happens to roll up onto the green and into the hole.

 

I'll get some sort of ridiculous bounce off a cart path, tree, or rock around water at least once a round.

 

My game is getting much better. The guy I play with most is a 2 hc, and he enjoys the hell out of watching my luck.

 

I think I have it because I'm a positive player. I smile after a screw up because I just thoroughly love this game I just recent found, at the age of 31.

[HatsForBats]

Unlucky - An estimated 2,500 rounds of golf and not a single hole out from over 50 yards.

 

The guy I play with is Lucky. About 500 rounds of golf and has 2 hole outs. A hole in one with a 6-iron and a hole out with a 6-iron on a par 4.

[Under2hours]

Neither or, but mostly unlucky (though having my health and walking when I play is very lucky).

 

It's all about your perspective.

[larrybud]

I have a buddy who I would put on the lucky side of things, to the point where I swear he would win a coin flip 90 percent of the time!

[marmooskapaul]

I'm not only lucky...I'm good looking too!!!

[Roadking_6]

I had a hole the last time I played in league where I was both, but I will claim more skill than anything lol. 500 yard par 5. Set up for the cut and hit it down the left side, ball was coming right back where I wanted, clipped a branch and shot it 40 yards left into the next holes rough. Had to hit over trees, to get back to the fairway, lands perfect to where I am aimed but the hole has a huge dip, Kicks it right into the trees right. No shot at the green, I have to punch up right of the green but still a bad place to be as the green is elevated. Pitch on with no chance of keeping it on the green and ball settles on the lip of the bunker, just in the rough. Chip in from there for a par save. If you would have seen how ridiculous it was playing army golf (left,right,left,right) and to save par and beat my opponent on the hole, his face was priceless when I chipped in.

[katbird]

When I lay a wedge flat open and there's NOOOoooo face there to hit the ball, I'm ALWAYS surprised that it actually results in the intended shot with what I call my "miracle wedge" I don't know how it does it but I ought to patent that for a late-night infomercial.

[Ballgofarboy]

Lucky, yeah I think I am lucky. I have been playing over 45 yrs, been a single digit HCP for 40 yrs, have a number of rounds that a I have shot under par. Won my share of matches and tournaments. Won a Post championship while stationed at Ft Stewart, GA.

 

I have had a good run and hopefully it continues.

[flip flappy]

I'm so-so when it comes to luck in golf but I have a friend that is lucky in golf and everything in general. His mother and father are both low single digit golfers. We were playing a round with them a few years ago. He hit his drive into some trees on a par 4. He sees a small window and goes for the green. He hits a low chaser through the trees right at a bunker. The ball makes it through the bunker and he starts hollering for it stop. His mother says, "How many miracles do you want on this hole"? I could not stop laughing!

[kgk]

Lucky. My friends call me "horseshoe" for a reason.

[baloo]

Balances out over time

[rtran]

I'm lucky. I draw and hook the ball into the woods while others hit people's houses and windows with their slice.

[larrybud]

Balances out over time

 

It doesn't necessarily balance out over time, which is why there are people on here who are "unlucky" and others who are "lucky".

 

Let's take 100 people, and each have a coin which says "lucky" on one side, and "unlucky" on the other. Each flips a coin 20 times, and then reports back on their "luck" score.

 

The distribution of lucky and unlucky will essentially be a bell curve, where there WILL be people who will have an "inordinate" amount of flips which point to either lucky or unlucky.

 

Now, that's not to say there's some supernatural force which is affecting that and someone is either "blessed" or "cursed", but just the law of averages.

[HatsForBats]

Balances out over time

 

It doesn't necessarily balance out over time, which is why there are people on here who are "unlucky" and others who are "lucky".

 

Let's take 100 people, and each have a coin which says "lucky" on one side, and "unlucky" on the other. Each flips a coin 20 times, and then reports back on their "luck" score.

 

The distribution of lucky and unlucky will essentially be a bell curve, where there WILL be people who will have an "inordinate" amount of flips which point to either lucky or unlucky.

 

Now, that's not to say there's some supernatural force which is affecting that and someone is either "blessed" or "cursed", but just the law of averages.

 

20 is a terribly small sample size for even just 2 results. The smaller the sample size the wilder the variance. Get a large enough sample size and it will balance out over time.

 

I ran the 'coin flip' through a random number generator. For 100 'people' with just 20 flips the highest unlucky rate was 75%. For 100 'people' with 10,000 flips the largest unlucky rate was 51.68%.

[larrybud]

Just trying to give a simple example to demonstrate why those may think they are lucky or unlucky, outside of any perception of being lucky or unlucky.

 

Sure, a larger sample size matters, but in golf, is the sample size really that big? Certainly not in the memory of most people. I would say that most people will only remember the most recent "lucky" or "unlucky" breaks, and in those sample sizes, there may be very little balance.

 

But then there is perception. I would say that people who are pessimists remember mostly their unlucky breaks, and the optimists remember their lucky breaks.

[HatsForBats]

But then there is perception. I would say that people who are pessimists remember mostly their unlucky breaks, and the optimists remember their lucky breaks.

 

Yeah, I can mostly agree there... though the guy I play with is a bit of a pessimist (like me) but agrees he seems to get more lucky breaks. Exceptions to every rule.

[Clubhoe]

Its a bit like Karma, the universes way of levelling things out. I'm a very unlucky golfer, but I've been quite lucky in life. 

I have a mate who is the luckiest golfer I know, however not so much in life.

 

[Roody]

One of my golf buddies is absolutely convinced I am the luckiest golfing SOB on the planet. He refers to some of my lucky bounces as "Roody bounces". There have been many many times we've played together where I seem to get a few of those lucky bounces, but one round a couple years ago with him stands out. 

The first instance happened on hole 5, a short par 3. I slightly pulled my shot left, and it was heading towards the left edge of the green. Before the ball even landed my buddy said out loud "don't worry, he'll get a good kick". Sure enough it lands, and I'm not really sure how, but it kicked almost 90 degrees to the right, rolled up to 2 feet from the hole. He just shook his head and said "you a-hole". 

I think the next instance was hole 12. Long par 4, tight on both sides. I put it in the pine straw just on the left. I had a small branch in my backswing, and when I hit the ball, it kinda came off the toe and started heading towards OB on the right. It came down and hit the curb on the cart path only mere feet before it would have been OB, bounced back into the fairway, and up towards the green. That elicited a bigger reaction out of him. 

The final instance on that day was two holes later at 14. Par 4, on the green in 3, left myself with a downhill crazy curving putt for par. Like no one would expect you to make the putt, best you should hope for is snuggle it up within a couple feet. 

I think you can guess what happened. 

What my buddy doesn't seem to understand is that there are plenty of other times where I am not playing with him where I get some awful kicks, bounces, bad breaks. What's also funny is there have been times that I have gotten a bad break while playing with him, and when I grouse about the bad break he gives me a hard time. "Wow, Roody got one bad break in a blue moon. Booo hooo. I don't wanna hear it!"

[RmoorePE]

I am a bad golfer so I have a lot more opportunities in a round to test out my luck than many of you, and I would say I tip the scales to the unlucky side.

 

I believe that better golfers have better luck and it is not because of the rub of the green it is as simple as their best shots behave better. If I hit a wicked sidewinder slice into the woods chances are it is spinning so much that if it hits anywhere on a tree the carom is going to be somewhere even righter than where it hit the tree. A good golfer's wicked slice doesn't have that nasty swipe that causes it to spin as much and their carom is generally better. I have a friend who is a pretty good golfer and while he hits some wild shots off the tee every now and then, he tends to find them because they just settle better than my ball ping ponging around the woods.

 

Most of my best rounds I have had luck and been able to cash in on it. I.e. I had a great front 9 (+2) the other day and in that front 9 hit 4 provisionals, but never had to use any because my first ball always stopped in a good place. If I had to play all of them, I would have been struggling to break 50.

[EDT501]

Once I was playing a tournament and had 160 in to a well guarded green that slopes right to left with OB left and long and a deep bunker and mounds right. I flushed my approach and it landed on the front right fringe, just as I planned. Sadly it hit a sprinkler head that was there and took a massive bounce over the green OB. Dropped a few inches away from my divot and hit another beautiful shot. It hit the same sprinkler head, this time coming to rest directly against the stone wall that marked OB. Had to take an unplayable and ended up with a 9 on the hole. 
 

That should sufficiently explain my luck on the course. On the other hand I’ve hit plenty of bad shots that ended up okay. Luck is part of golf, sometimes good shots don’t get properly rewarded and other times bad ones aren’t properly punished. 

[Forged4ever]

Our 8th grade football coach told our team that luck was nothing more than the intersection point of preparation and performance and that the mediocre and worse do not get "lucky," at least not consistently, not against the best and/or not under the gun. Looking back on those words almost a half century later, across all of the arenas in life, I would say that he was spot on, and yah, looking back over my life and just the fact that I'm still here and typing this post tells me that I'm the luckiest son of a b*tch on this board😉

 

Have a Great Weekend My Friends👊
RP

Edited March 12, 2021 by Forged4ever

[Soloman1]

I think it was Gary Player who said that the more he practiced, the luckier he got...

[MtlJeff]

Haha, i started this thread 4 years ago. There's been some strange thread bumps lately!

 

My OP was somewhat tongue in cheek, however mathematically there is still an argument to be made that luck exists. Some people will get more "good breaks" than others because of just mathematical probability. This theoretically will even out over time but only if you play enough golf

 

If a billionaire told you to flip a coin 20 times and if it comes up heads at least 10 times he'll give you 10M dollars....Mathematically that should be the average....but there's a chance it could come up tails 15 times. If that happened to you, you got unlucky. Over time the math would even out....not that it helps your case at all

[lefthack]

The only luck I have is bad. I have to rely on my skills and that sucks.

[Roejye]

I would regard myself as more lucky than unlucky, but I put that down more to my skill level. For the most part if I hit it bad, it's either really bad and no amount of luck will help, or it's the duff/top that went pretty straight just short.

 

As far as lucky bounces off of trees and such, I mostly remember the good ones. Actually I can only really think of one shot where I hit it great and it should have been middle of the fairway just couldn't find it.