*Caution* Rant: Snobby young golfers

[Sam-Tee-Time]

I've posted about this before, and I don't like to admit it, but…………I agree with a lot of this post, and also notice the same trend in younger golfers, aged 16-25 or so. There are sour grapes in ANY barrel, but quite a few of younger golfers in this age group exhibit those tendencies, sadly.

 

There are several junior golfers who play at my club - some of them are the nice and most polite young gentlemen, but most of the others………….NOT. Of the rest of the membership's demographic makeup - I don't notice any significant majority of them exhibiting these traits as the younger crowd, unfortunately.

[JMG_02]

Fair enough if you have a rant about their behaviour, but what clubs they play and what clothes they wear should have nothing to do with it.

 

Yeah, I agree. I'm just saying that you don't see this type of behavior (normally) from kids that shoot upper 90's and 100's and who play with off brand equipment. Those guys are just out there to have fun and learn the great game. I hardly EVER..EVER see anyone like that throw a tantrum.

 

But its the guys that shoot probably low 80's,70's that have the high dollar stuff and dress wayyy to seriously that have these tantrums.

 

Granted, there are lots of young guys out there that DO have the nice equipment, dress professionally, and shoot even par and are a delight. I know a few of them.

 

I'm just saying, 95% of the time when you see a young golfer throwing a REALLY good tantrum...he's probably sporting some high dollar equipment that he isn't fully appreciating or taking care of.

 

BUT, like I said in an earlier post...it probably would've been better to leave the equipment and clothes out of this altogether...as some wouldn't get what I meant. I am glad to see that I'm not alone in this though.

[justyn]

When people act like that I just laugh at them, usually right at there face (I know it is a little confrontationl) Usually they stop after I laugh at them a few times and they never say anything to me. I dont get angry with bad shots, I just calmly say that sucks and give out a little giggle.

[cardia10]

I think clubs and clothes have lots to do with it. When a parent thinks their child is the next Tiger and buys them everything asked for, they get a sense of entitilement and seem to lose respect for the game and their property. When you work a job at the age of 15 to pay for wal mart clubs, you are a lot less likely to mistreat them. I'm in my mid 20's and I see it daily. Some of the people I play with are like that. They are 25 years old and their title sponsor is still MOM & DAD. They should get that on a hat like a sponsorship. Maybe you can tell I'm a little bitter not growing up rich and having everything I ever wanted, but some of today's youth need to learn some respect and have responsiblity for themselves.

[kinneywhat]

I'll admit, I'm one of the "younger" golfers at only 24. In highschool, all my friends were on the golf team, but I played tennis. They tought me to play golf and we'd go out just to have fun. Two of my friends were the top two players on the golf team, but they never acted out. In fact, they rarely said much when golfing, especially with strangers.

 

Now we're all quite a bit better, with those friends being around a 3 and 6 handicaps respectively. Whenever we golf with new people in tournaments or league we're always respectfull, help them find their balls that wander off target, are mindfull around the greens, etc. It's just a game and the equipment used to play it is too expensive to throw around. I mumble to myself and swear under my breath every now and then (only loud enough for myself ot hear), when I do something really stupid, but it's my fault 99% of the time and has nothing to do with the equipment, so there's no reason to take it out on your clubs.

 

I haven't had any problems with youger kids at my course. All the kids that work there are very respectufll and helpfull and are all pretty darn good golfers as well (workers, regarless of the job at the country club, get to play free after certain times of the day). Most of them have very nice clubs as well, but they definetly work for them. However, we're also lucky, because there's two courses within a few miles that are about half the cost of my course, so most teenagers in the area find there way to those places.

 

Most problems I have seen have been with guys that are late 20's and early 30's that have had about a 12 pack or more during play and start to get obnoxious and beligerent. I'm not saying I've never been the drunk guy on a golf course, but I know when I drink that I don't play well, so when I do drink, I often take my backup clubs and am there as more of a social event than trying to improve my handicap. :D

 

Anyway, there's no excuse for being rude while playing golf. Getting mad and dwelling on a bad shot will just cause more bad shots. It is supposed to be a gentelman's game after all.

[italianstallion]

There are several junior golfers who play at my club - some of them are the nice and most polite young gentlemen, but most of the others………….NOT. Of the rest of the membership's demographic makeup - I don't notice any significant majority of them exhibiting these traits as the younger crowd, unfortunately.

 

Maybe this is where the problem is most rampid, at the private country clubs. Maybe I'm being stereotypical, but generally, if a kid belongs to a private club, their parents usually have money and money to spend on equipment, and here you get the "spoiled" kid who doesn't pay for anything. Again, you say most are not nice, while I say most at my public course are...SOOOO

 

Does anyone think that this problem is shown more at private clubs than on public tracks?

[oregongolf]

Does anyone think that this problem is shown more at private clubs than on public tracks?

I think it's just a small problem in general. Honestly, I rarely see this at any nice, private clubs. Most of the young kids who play there have a pretty solid repsect for the game.

 

I've seen it pretty frequently at some low-cost public tracks. I think it's more from not being taught the game or the blatant disrespect for a daily fee course. I don't think you can blanket the whole group.

[TexasAg]

Does anyone think that this problem is shown more at private clubs than on public tracks?

I think it's just a small problem in general. Honestly, I rarely see this at any nice, private clubs. Most of the young kids who play there have a pretty solid repsect for the game.

 

I've seen it pretty frequently at some low-cost public tracks. I think it's more from not being taught the game or the blatant disrespect for a daily fee course. I don't think you can blanket the whole group.

 

It's not that common at private clubs. Word of that kind of behavior travels very, very quickly throughout the membership at clubs.

[italianstallion]

I might be the devils advocate here, but is it possible these same private kids who act good at their course, bring bad behavior to public courses when they play them where they can get away with it? For example, you won't speed when a cop car is behind you, but what happens when you are on a road where you know there aren't going to be any cops?

 

I know of at least one kid described in this post. There's this kid who stops by our course every now and then who belongs to one of the most upscale country clubs in the region, but is always at our course cussing and throwing stuff around. Hes one of the bad kids I was talking about in my first post in this thread. He stops by our place because its closer to his house than his country club. I haven't seen him at his club, but I would venture a guess to say he probably doesn't act like the way he does at our course, otherwise he'd have the boot for sure.

 

Maybe I just don't see these kids all that much because we are an upscale, fairly expensive course.

 

I've played many country clubs, and I can't say that I haven't see kids with profiles that match that of the first poster's profile.

 

I really don't know where I stand then. Even though this topic is very real and very legit, I just get angered when people start talking about people in my age group, so I try and pin the blame on kids who are better off than I and belong to clubs. I still wonder what everyone thinks of those adults who get drunk out of their minds on the course, or is that okay because they are adults? That problem is no better than a snobby kid.

 

Rant over, sorry for your time.

[beachgrovejunior]

Maybe this is where the problem is most rampid, at the private country clubs. Maybe I'm being stereotypical, but generally, if a kid belongs to a private club, their parents usually have money and money to spend on equipment, and here you get the "spoiled" kid who doesn't pay for anything. Again, you say most are not nice, while I say most at my public course are...SOOOO

 

Does anyone think that this problem is shown more at private clubs than on public tracks?

 

I wouldnt go around generalizing that its only junior golfers that are at private clubs that are the ones with bad behavior or the rich snobby ones. In my town its either a 400 dollar junior membership to a 3000 yard par 65 track that is brown in summer and soaked in winter, or a great private course with greens running over 11 all summer and a great junior program for 500 dollars.

because i play at a private course which cost 100 dollars more, does that make me snobby, rich or mean i have horrible etiquette? if you show bad etiquette at any private club around here you get suspended from it, so even those bad kids learn fast. There are some kids with horrible ettiquette but word gets around fast and those kids have trouble finding people to play with

[rrd]

i used to be extremely angry when i was about 14/15 on the golf course, i broke a couple of my irons by just slamming them into trees and such, i gave up playing when i was 16 partly cause i didnt enjoy playing, i just couldnt be happy with hitting bad shots, i lost alot of golfing friends back then cause i was out of control

 

i remember one time i was so frustrated with my tee shot on a hole i just kept taking ball after ball out of my bag and slicing every single one of bounds, after i hit about 10 or 11 my friends just walked off the course and left me there, that was definitely a reality check for me

i always remember that moment when i want to be angry whilst playing now

 

looking back now i realize how stupid i was, im 23 now and just started playing again and when i hit a bad shot now, it just makes me laugh!

[tanj]

I think Geoff Ogilvy put it best.... kids, such as myself, only seem to act like this when they are playing with others, as if they are trying to show that they are much better than that one shot was. I've gotten over this... it doesn't help, though I never got nowhere near this... the worst I did was chuck the bag in the club (damaging the clubs teaches you a lesson!). I think that this is just a extension on what Tiger Woods does and his attitude. I mean, I like the guy, but of late, I don't like his attitude on the course by letting go of the club and all.

 

Josh

[charles123]

Give us a fair go on the Clothes and clubs, but angry players just wreck the game and i feel if need be you should speak up and just tell him to drop it down a notch or just make sure he repairs the damage he makes to the course so he feels it is annoying you. Have not really played with a super angry golfer i used to be like that but as i have matured i rarely do it now. If i hit a bad shot rather than take it out on the course/clubs, i accept that it was my mistake and i try to work out what i did wrong usually taking a few practice swings before next shot. I have never thrown or broken a club out a respect to them and I cant afford to buy new clubs and parents won't pay for my temper.

[gjones77]

I can see some people's point of view, but I don't think we should blame all young guys here.

 

There is this kids that works at the range i go to out here (Sand Baggers in Pembroke, MA) and he's a good golfer, and extremely polite and respectful, I actually admire the kid.

 

So you really can't say all kids, and you can say just as many adults act up.

 

I believe it's more or less that kids are being taught that they are all winners and there are no losers, they are all equal in all respects and deserve the best only now a days, it's this entitlement mentality that's doing it.

 

Now I know not all kids get this, some have parents who make them learn the respect for money and hard work, but not all parents, and I'd blame them before the kids.

[JMG_02]

About every other post says something to the effect of, "Yeah, but you can put this on ALL young golfers. Not ALL young golfers are like this. Shoot, there are some old golfers that act this way."

 

But if you read my posts, you'll see that more than once I said that not all young golfers act this way. In fact, its probably just a fraction of all young golfers that act this way. BUT, I would venture to say that MAJORITY of golfers who act this way are YOUNG. See where I'm getting?

 

Again.......i'll state for the record.....I have MANY friends that are young golfers that are really good and a pleasure to play with. Again, i've seen grown men into their 50's act just as bad as this kid i'm talking about. I was just making an observation that most of the time, when you see a golfer with super fancy clubs, that is a pretty good golfer, and throwing the biggest temper tantrums...most of the time he'll be a young fella. And I know this from experience...4 years of district golf (I always joked, that I heard more cussing and tantrums out on the golf course than I ever did in football or any other sport)...and several years of golf since then.

[threetoehoek]

I'm 33 and have been playing since 12 so I've seen a lot of different types of golfers. I bet between age 15 and 17 I broke 10 sandwedge shafts then I realized how expensive it was getting and I havent broken a club out of anger in 14 years.

 

a) There are plenty of useless, constantly whining golfers that are old too. (whine and cry about every little thing)

 

b) I think its pretty normal for a golfer to go through a "stage" where anger is a normal reaction and the key to getting better at some point is to learn how to control/forget about the anger. The kid has probably been working his a** off at the range and on the putting green and thinks he should see immediate results -hehe- And when you look as good as he probably did with his fancy golfin clothes you should shoot under par every time right??

 

c) geoff ogilvy said something in golf digest that I thought was very insightful and appropriate for this topic: "Anger is a way to try to prove to the people watching you that -- I'm not really this bad I promise" (or something along those lines) "once you realize that it dosent matter what the other people think all of that anger goes away"

 

 

I think the most important thing to remember here is that idiocy, social ineptitude and rudeness dont discriminate based on age. I know plenty of "adults" that are as mature as a 12y/o throwing a temper tantrum. You should of started making some comments to your partner just in earshot of the kid -- "its like he didnt get the toy he wanted for christmas!" stuff along those lines.. It would of given you a good laugh and maybe the kid would realize the way he's acting.

[JKB]

Okay I got some great clubs and dress like that but do not act like that at all.

I go out alot with people at my club that i dont know (older people)

These guys really piss me off because they give all juniors who have nice clubs and dress like that a bad name

 

Sorry to hear you had to play with these guys

[lutherham]

I grew up playing Baseball. But one decent round of golf and I was hooked. This was right about the time a certain Jungle Cat said "Hello World". The passion that occurs when you are bitten by the golf bug is unlike any other obsession or vice. I'm 25 now. A junior member of a Championship caliber golf course and I still play competitively. Above all I am incredibly lucky. BUT, I agree 100% that this is a becoming a problem. If you scroll through the WITB portion of Golf WRX, Bombsquad or Sandtrap....Everyone seems to have a bag in excess of $2K. Handicaps may range from Tour Pro to SCARY Bad. Yet we all share a "passion" for the game. It seems the younger kids on trial in this post use this passion to fuel their anger. They HAVE hit good shots, made some putts, played solid rounds. But It's insane to think you will have that same success on a daily basis. It's incredibly nieve to think because you walk the walk you can talk the talk. Tour Pro's treat practice like a full time job. Working with Swing Coaches and Psychologists. It's not a game of perfect. The older we get, the more we mature. It's the circle of life and many of these kids will continue this behavior because they have never been told it's unacceptable. Many of them are children of privillage and their parents encourage this "passion". This trend is going nowhere, because all "kids" evolve emotionally. The best thing we can do is beat them. I tend to fashion myself as a fairly happy go lucky guy with a competitive edge. I personally take great pleasure playing well in tournaments when paired with a spaz. Beat that at their own game, and make them wonder why you were smiling the whole round!

 

Cheers!

[PixlPutterman]

i think the worst i do lately is just let go of the club and let out a big sigh and say " well that sucked". i mean i should be a little unhappy with a bad shot since i practice so much. Its like all sports a bad shot, a bad at bat, bad throw, what ever it is, be unhappy for a few seconds and get over it, dont try and win an oscar

[vinniev]

I think Geoff Ogilvy put it best.... kids, such as myself, only seem to act like this when they are playing with others, as if they are trying to show that they are much better than that one shot was.

 

I definitely agree with this statement. If these golfers acted the same way with no one watching, then maybe they're taking it a little too seriously, but it's probably more of an ego problem. It really fits in with what Gio Valiente says in his book about ego golfers vs. mastery golfers. The ego golfers are more concerned with what others are thinking about their game. Every shot for them is an opportunity to impress, and with every missed opportunity, the golfer then becomes more and more frustrated.

[thenextnumber1]

Im a Junior Golfer. I use to get in massive moods but i realised how silly it was. Now when I hit a bad shot, you might here me whisper a few swear words under my breath. But I think everyone does that. I havent thrown a golf club for AGES because last time I did I snapped my driver which my Dad brought me and i felt so guilty and bad!

 

But, I think al of us junior golfers are perfectionists! And expect to shoot under par everyday and hit every shot flush!

 

Theres nothing worse tho, than being a good junior player and then playing with 2 men and you play bollocks, and then they think ur crap! But really ur not! That really annoys me. Cos I want everyone to see how well I can play,

 

But really NO ONE CARES hahaha! So wasteing my energy!

[vinniev]

Theres nothing worse tho, than being a good junior player and then playing with 2 men and you play bollocks, and then they think ur crap! But really ur not! That really annoys me. Cos I want everyone to see how well I can play,

 

I swear I'm not following you on this site but the above post seemed to possibly answer your other topic about playing poorly in casual rounds. If you're playing to show others how good you are, not only are you adding undue stress to your game, but you're playing based on what you think they're expectations are of you. Don't get me wrong, you can play well with this way, but when things go wrong, you'll be hypercritical of your game. I think we all have a little showmanship in our games but it needs to be kept in check.

[thenextnumber1]

Yes, maybe thats the answer to why I hate playing with my Dad lol!

 

Im trying to hard probably.

[brock122]

hey not all young golfers are snobby. im a 20 year old who has played golf for almost 17 years. i play with the upmost respect for other golfers. i help find balls, let people play with or play through, and i will let people tee of before me because i now that i have a slow tempo to the game. just keep in mind that all young guys arent snobby some of us learned young and have stayed true to what we were taught when we were young.

[JMG_02]

hey not all young golfers are snobby. im a 20 year old who has played golf for almost 17 years. i play with the upmost respect for other golfers. i help find balls, let people play with or play through, and i will let people tee of before me because i now that i have a slow tempo to the game. just keep in mind that all young guys arent snobby some of us learned young and have stayed true to what we were taught when we were young.

 

Okay, read below :D

 

About every other post says something to the effect of, "Yeah, but you can put this on ALL young golfers. Not ALL young golfers are like this. Shoot, there are some old golfers that act this way."

 

But if you read my posts, you'll see that more than once I said that not all young golfers act this way. In fact, its probably just a fraction of all young golfers that act this way. BUT, I would venture to say that MAJORITY of golfers who act this way are YOUNG. See where I'm getting?

 

Again.......i'll state for the record.....I have MANY friends that are young golfers that are really good and a pleasure to play with. Again, i've seen grown men into their 50's act just as bad as this kid i'm talking about. I was just making an observation that most of the time, when you see a golfer with super fancy clubs, that is a pretty good golfer, and throwing the biggest temper tantrums...most of the time he'll be a young fella. And I know this from experience...4 years of district golf (I always joked, that I heard more cussing and tantrums out on the golf course than I ever did in football or any other sport)...and several years of golf since then.

 

Perhaps reading...well nevermind that'll get more youngen's mad at me! :)

[BILL12x]

Although I am not a young golfer, I found myself acting like that on occassion. At one point, I hit a really bad tee shot on #12 and found myself getting very angry with myself.

 

As I drove down the fairway, I saw some Hispanic men, women and boys working hip-deep pulling weeds from a lake. Then I realized that here I was, playing golf ... on a weekday ... in December ... in shirtsleeves and thought, "What the heck am I so upset about? My life is pretty darn good!"

 

I have been much more relaxed on the course since, and my handicap has come down because of it.

[Miskatonic]

I would agree with the notion that being amongst a group of your peers tends to bring out the immature side in some people. Then again there are people like that whose behavior extends into the other aspects of their life besides golf. To put it shortly they are just natural born *bleep* holes. What I see most often is the skilled players (guys that play par golf regularly) who have an ego and are ultra-competitive, looking down at the guys who are still learning and trying to improve. As if they don't belong at this golf course.

[artfulgolfer]

Learning how to deal with frustration and anger just comes more easily to some than others. I'm really impressed with the number of young golfers who have posted on this thread who have learned how to move beyond this behavior and mature. Not everyone does. I'll cut a young kid some slack because they're young, but what scares me is when I see this behavior from men in their 50's 60's, and 70's. I'd hate to see what they were like in their 20's and 30's, or what it was like being their child or spouse!

 

Some of these guys need professional help, but most just need someone to point out that their behavior is offensive and inconsiderate of others. I usually share with them the same thing someone told me when I got really mad once, "dude, you're not good enough to get that mad over a bad shot". That usually shuts them up and stops the behavior. For me, it made a permanent change.

 

If you have a friend who behaves like this, be a good friend and tell him to grow up. Some guys are just clueless about how their behavior affects others.

[jimbonecrusher]

Just a small hint, instead of labeling this thread "snobby young golfers" you could've created a more mature title along the lines of poor etiquette in....

 

Just a thought

 

 

See, now you are playing into the stereotype. If the shoe fits then wear it, if it doesn't fit, then don't wear it. This post obviously bothers you greatly.

 

Don't try to give small hints, because if you read the post with an open mind, then you would notice that it is call SNOBBY young golfers. If you aren't snobby, then you don't have anything to worry about. Playing name brand clubs don't make you snobby, but throwing clubs, causing damage to a course, acting like a baby who has a dirty diaper, or cursing excessively are all traits of a SNOBBY young golfer.

 

I personally love playing with these kids, becuase when they start playing like this, I like to start making the bets and stealing all of there mommy and daddy's money. Another thing that I usually do when a teenage golfer starts doing this, is to be outright rude and start laughing every time they chuck a club or curse. If they toss a club really far, I will generally say something along the line of "too bad you couldn't hit your last shot as well as you tossed that club" or "it was the clubs fault, you should break it." Some may construe that as unsportmanslike, but I feel that what they are doing is unsportsmanlike, and the quicker that they walk off of the course, the quicker I can get back to enjoying my surroundings.

 

I too was a young high school golfer back in the 89-93. I used to get all sorts of upset when I played bad. Now that I have matured and realized that golf is not the end all be all, that I might as well enjoy the fact that I still have the ability to play and play well. It is much more impressive to recover from a bad shot then it is to throw clubs, curse, and then screw up the next 3 shots, because you can't let one shot go and continue on playing.

[dchappy14]

read this post yesterday and sure enough, on the course this morning had a situation that made me laugh, after getting a little angry at first of course. On the eighth tee box I was about to tee off, aligned and clearly about to start my back swing when two golfers drove a cart no more than 20 yards across away from me directly across the intended target. I myself wasnt bothered all to much, but as my wife went to tee off they did the same thing to her going the opposite direction, neither time with any hint of remorse.

 

 

Not entirely on track but I couldnt help but see the relation between the two. Enjoy the game have fun, and don't take away from others experiences.