Your most unpopular Golf opinions?

[ColinKelvin]

39 minutes ago, NRJyzr said:

 

Also a metalhead, and I find I don't have a problem with it on the course.

 

Yes, but other people might...

[NRJyzr]

4 minutes ago, ColinKelvin said:

Yes, but other people might...

 

It's a fair point.  And, except for the one time I played System of a Down to get the country out of my head, I don't play music on the course, for this reason.  😉

 

[becoh]

Stop bragging about owning Kirkland clubs and balls. It's one step up from Walmart. You wouldn't be bragging about having a Walmart branded driver. 

[rd1959]

On 4/23/2024 at 12:02 PM, dugue4 said:

I don't like hitting driver 14 times a round.

Well, there is no law that says you have to.

[Mcfly]

Yesterday I posted my thoughts that OEMs market GI/SGI iron sets with 20 degree five irons, ec…to players needing game improvement clubs at least partly in hopes that buyers of these type clubs will get frustrated at not being able to hit the super loft jacked 5, 6, and sometimes even 7 irons, sell the clubs, and buy something else from the OEM.  That proved to be pretty unpopular.  

[vandyfan]

On 4/22/2024 at 4:11 PM, jmcm87 said:

Tee times should be based on playing ability

 

Love that. I have long since thought that 20+ hdcps should not be allowed to book early morning rounds. If you are up that early and ready for golf....get out there and practice a bit. 

[Mcfly]

21 hours ago, becoh said:

Stop bragging about owning Kirkland clubs and balls. It's one step up from Walmart. You wouldn't be bragging about having a Walmart branded driver. 

Having retired from Walmart in the not too distant past, I can confirm that there is:

1.  No such thing as a Walmart branded driver, and

2.  Kirkland branded clubs are exponentially more than one step up from Walmart 😎

[david.c.w]

On 5/1/2024 at 10:25 AM, jda said:

If any of you ever fired up your cigs or a stogie, spit dip all over the course, you are just as bad as music players.  Even if you think that the wind will blow away your stogie smoke, it still gets into my lungs and I did not ask for that.

 

I think this sums it up well.  Different strokes for different folks.  We as golfers have the ability to organically find the group that fits us the most.  Our club has the 5 man wolf groups, the big money groups, the walking groups, the no betting groups, the music groups, the cigar groups, the solo guys, the couples groups, the plus handicap groups and the 5 hour groups.  We can play with all these groups until we find the one that fits us the best.  

 

That being said, the sunflower seed group can GTFO.

 

[Mcfly]

2 minutes ago, david.c.w said:

 

I think this sums it up well.  Different strokes for different folks.  We as golfers have the ability to organically find the group that fits us the most.  Our club has the 5 man wolf groups, the big money groups, the walking groups, the no betting groups, the music groups, the cigar groups, the solo guys, the couples groups, the plus handicap groups and the 5 hour groups.  We can play with all these groups until we find the one that fits us the best.  

 

That being said, the sunflower seed group can GTFO.

 

Guessing you inadvertently left out the “we played 18 is less than 2 hours, ran to the ball on every shot, parked next to the green on every hole, rode up on ten foursomes all playing at a good pace, and none of us broke 90” group.  

[NRJyzr]

1 hour ago, vandyfan said:

 

Love that. I have long since thought that 20+ hdcps should not be allowed to book early morning rounds. If you are up that early and ready for golf....get out there and practice a bit. 

 

Have a harder time with this one as some of the slowest players I know are low handicaps.  While my wife, who has never broken 100, is considerably faster; she hates the waiting of public golf.  With her part of our group, we've many times played in 3½ hours or better.

 

Though it's worth noting she's not part of the golfer-clown posse, either

 

Edited Friday at 04:09 PM by NRJyzr

[vandyfan]

49 minutes ago, NRJyzr said:

Have a harder time with this one as some of the slowest players I know are low handicaps.

 

Probably a character flaw on my part but when I have been stuck behind slow groups I feel I have less right to be mad when the group is striping it and hitting every green on repeat. On the flipside, when I see guys (or girls) chopping it around out there and making triple on every hole I think "maybe golf isn't for you" or "maybe practice a bit?" Neither situation is good but at least the good players have the game. 

Edited Friday at 04:57 PM by vandyfan

[Mcfly]

26 minutes ago, vandyfan said:

 

Probably a character flaw on my part but when I have been stuck behind slow groups I feel I have less right to be mad when the group is striping it and hitting every green on repeat. On the flipside, when I see guys (or girls) chopping it around out there and making triple on every hole I think "maybe golf isn't for you" or "maybe practice a bit?" Neither situation is good but at least the good players have the game. 

I don’t mind being behind low handicap players who are, for lack of a better word, deliberate .   My experience is those groups tend to be few and far between.  Being stuck behind Thag and his foursome of caveman friends is another thing altogether.  

[Bad9]

2 hours ago, NRJyzr said:

 

Have a harder time with this one as some of the slowest players I know are low handicaps.  While my wife, who has never broken 100, is considerably faster; she hates the waiting of public golf.  With her part of our group, we've many times played in 3½ hours or better.

 

Though it's worth noting she's not part of the golfer-clown posse, either

 

75% of the slowest players at my previous course were low cappers. The ladies were probably the fastest as a group.

[jda]

People saying that high cappers play slow are as bad as the old fogies who think that kids are all no good.  I have seen enough to know that you don't generalize slow play to handicap, sex, race, age or anything, but the slowest players near me are usually the high money betters who read putts from all four sides twice, gather all four to watch a routine drop from a sprinkler head or cart path, each take a turn viewing if a ball is in a PA or OB, etc.

 

When my girls were in high school and brought their teammates to the club on the weekend, they would often take a bunch of garbage before they even teed off from the crew behind them - they played super fast and played real golf.  My oldest would give it right back to them telling the old men to try and keep up AND also play real golf with no drops for lost balls and out of bounds or gimmies and stuff.  They were about 3:45 if nobody was in front of them.  Had one guy see her name on the tee sheet, assume it was my kid and called me to apologize to her... but the rest probably think that the only reason that the HS girls played fast is because they said something.

[Bad9]

3 hours ago, jda said:

...but the slowest players near me are usually the high money betters who read putts from all four sides twice, gather all four to watch a routine drop from a sprinkler head or cart path, each take a turn viewing if a ball is in a PA or OB, etc.

 

Doesn't even have to be high dollar. I've seen loads of groups on different courses who do all this crap for a $1 bet.

[mshills]

It has improved, but a lot of “golf” is still sexist as hell and unwelcoming to women. We have a lot of work to do.

[fowlerscousin]

1 hour ago, mshills said:

It has improved, but a lot of “golf” is still sexist as hell and unwelcoming to women. We have a lot of work to do.

You posting from your companies intranet?

Edited Saturday at 01:36 AM by fowlerscousin

[Foxx]

Don't like courses full of elevated greens. Approach shots are blind, difficult, and no fun.

[Santiago Golf]

23 hours ago, Foxx said:

Don't like courses full of elevated greens. Approach shots are blind, difficult, and no fun.

 

Every approach shot is blind in a sense ... you are never looking at the target when swinging

[Foxx]

On 5/12/2024 at 11:07 PM, Santiago Golf said:

 

Every approach shot is blind in a sense ... you are never looking at the target when swinging

 

That's obviously not what a blind shot means.

Edited yesterday at 01:29 PM by Foxx

[GolfTurkey]

I have a list of unpopular opinions when I voice them in real life although there will probably be a fair amount of agreement here:

 

--"Keep your head down" is dumb dumb dumb.

 

--Unless you have real speed / ability to strike it, ditch the long irons for hybrids / fairway woods.

 

--Switch to graphite shafts if you have finger / wrist / elbow / shoulder pain.

 

--Taking one lesson and then abandoning the changes because it's all too hard / it feels weird is dumb. Do your resarch, pick a good instructor and then commit properly.

 

--The point of a new driver (unless your current one is horribly fitted) is to reduce dispersion / mitigate /the big miss / improve distance consistency, not to pick up heaps of distance on good shots.
 

--Wedge and putter fittings are very worthwhile

[Long_Left]

On 5/10/2024 at 3:23 PM, jda said:

People saying that high cappers play slow are as bad as the old fogies who think that kids are all no good.  I have seen enough to know that you don't generalize slow play to handicap, sex, race, age or anything, but the slowest players near me are usually the high money betters who read putts from all four sides twice, gather all four to watch a routine drop from a sprinkler head or cart path, each take a turn viewing if a ball is in a PA or OB, etc.

 

When my girls were in high school and brought their teammates to the club on the weekend, they would often take a bunch of garbage before they even teed off from the crew behind them - they played super fast and played real golf.  My oldest would give it right back to them telling the old men to try and keep up AND also play real golf with no drops for lost balls and out of bounds or gimmies and stuff.  They were about 3:45 if nobody was in front of them.  Had one guy see her name on the tee sheet, assume it was my kid and called me to apologize to her... but the rest probably think that the only reason that the HS girls played fast is because they said something.

I wish our local high schools taught the kids in this way. The kids, when on their own, play at a respectable pace and are generally "just another group of golfers" out there. When the coaches show up, they slow to an excruciating crawl. Doesn't matter if it's practice, or play tests, or comps or whatever. It's public golf, so 4:30 on a weekend isn't unusual, behind them it's 5:30 minimum.

 

I have a couple friends who work at the course, last JV tournament took nearly 5 hours to play a 9 hole tournament in benign conditions with less than 30 players. I've played with at least a half dozen of the kids involved for recreational golf (I'm at the age where most of my friends have HS aged kids), none of them were slow enough to notice on their own. 

[bazinky]

On 5/10/2024 at 12:00 PM, david.c.w said:

 

I think this sums it up well.  Different strokes for different folks.  We as golfers have the ability to organically find the group that fits us the most.  Our club has the 5 man wolf groups, the big money groups, the walking groups, the no betting groups, the music groups, the cigar groups, the solo guys, the couples groups, the plus handicap groups and the 5 hour groups.  We can play with all these groups until we find the one that fits us the best.  

 

That being said, the sunflower seed group can GTFO.

 

I'm at the point that I want to petition our board to institute a mandatory 3-month suspension if your even caught with a bag of sunflower seeds on the property ...

[jda]

6 minutes ago, Long_Left said:

I wish our local high schools taught the kids in this way. The kids, when on their own, play at a respectable pace and are generally "just another group of golfers" out there. When the coaches show up, they slow to an excruciating crawl. Doesn't matter if it's practice, or play tests, or comps or whatever. It's public golf, so 4:30 on a weekend isn't unusual, behind them it's 5:30 minimum.

 

I have a couple friends who work at the course, last JV tournament took nearly 5 hours to play a 9 hole tournament in benign conditions with less than 30 players. I've played with at least a half dozen of the kids involved for recreational golf (I'm at the age where most of my friends have HS aged kids), none of them were slow enough to notice on their own. 

 

I coach HS kids and they are all taught how to play ready golf and be prepared hit as soon as they get to their ball - they play at the right pace (too fast is as bad as too slow).  Then, in tournaments, other coaches and players get them all freaked out about etiquette and the unwritten rules of golf and they start to wait, measure to see who is further out, take the pins in and out for each player, etc.  I have personally witnessed other coaches (and parents) complain if kids hit out of turn playing ready golf and stuff - but if their students do it, then it was smart and I guess it is like much of the world today where if it is your thing then it can do no wrong but if it is their thing then everything sucks.  It is like this with adults too - tournaments around here with 4 somes play over 5 hours for the most part.

Etiquette and stuff is SLOW - this is why most major tournaments are 2 and 3 players.

[mshills]

Most people exaggerate tales of both slow play and speed golf. 
 

 

EDIT this is my unpopular opinion, found it an appropriate time to post it up. Not meant by any means as calling @jda a liar!

Edited yesterday at 05:02 PM by mshills

[MikeG]

Music on the course is a scourge, but it's also reflective of modern society -- a lot of people have zero consideration for others around them. I listen to classical music most of the time, but unless it's Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, I don't want to hear anything on the course other than my playing partners, birds, the breeze and "FORE!" warnings. 

 

Techie, moisture wicking materials in shirts is great, and I have a closet full of them. On the other hand, nothing matches the classy look and comfort of a well made solid white cotton polo, especially on hot and humid days.

 

Although I might give utility irons a look, I still play a 3 and 4 iron for now. Not because I'm a great ballstriker, but I know my game, my misses, and the courses I normally play. I'd rather risk a Word not allowed long iron shot than stand over a ball in cold sweats while worrying about where that hybrid or fairway wood might lead me. I usually play public courses with fairly generous greens, not TPC Sawgrass or Pine Valley. I don't currently need any extra elevation on any of my irons. 

 

"Amateurs don't take enough club." If I had a dollar for every time that I've overflown the hole and ended up with a tight, downhill chip to a green that runs away from me. 

[vandyfan]

19 hours ago, MikeG said:

but unless it's Miles Davis' Kind of Blue

 

Great shout, just put it on here in the background and my mood is already enhanced.