Have you ever been genuinely surprised by someone's game?

[elwhippy]

My game surprises me every time I play.

 

The guys to watch our for ...the older players who haven't changed a club in years but still shoot under their handicaps.

 

The easy pickings are the "all the gear, no idea" crew. £4000 of gear but won't spend £30 on a lesson. Had more fittings than Brooks Brothers and still clueless. 

 

[NewToGolf19]

This was 2 years ago. I had just picked up the game as a 40something father of 3. I had taken lessons, so my swing looked decent. I had all new clubs because I was just picking up the game. (In hindsight, I should have started with used clubs.) My buddy worked in the golf industry, so I was wearing a new golf hat and shirt that he gave me.

 

I shot a 115 for the day, and the random guy paired with me said, “you look like a million bucks, but you play like sh*t.”

[Schley]

Twice, and both are pretty interesting for those that know the courses.

1. Back in 1999 i was playing in a 5some (not unusal) at Los Verdes in Palos Verdes, CA. on a Saturday morning as we knew the guy who ran the place for American Golf. The starter put a guy in his late 60's with our of foursome who was walking with a push cart. I was thinking oh great we have a 6 hour round anyway here, now it will be slower!

 

After about 5-6 holes I noticed that Luis was not only keeping up, but most of the time ahead of us waiting for us to play as he was in the middle of it seemed like every fariway. Had a very weird putting stroke but what a great lag putter. He wasn't long by any means, but radar with his irons.

 

So at Los Verdes you get quite a few backups and towards the end of the front 9, I ask Luis as we are standing waiting on the tee what he is shooting so far as he is hot. He says I'm even par. I ask him what his handicap is. He says I'm a +1.  We all had a chuckle and looked at each other for we were all in the teens. I ask him , "if you don't mind, how old are you?"  He says I'm 69. Now this is really unique.

 

Los Verdes at that time was probably the most crowded course in California (except Rancho Park), played 5 somes, was not a particularly long course but had some wind and small greens. You have a 69 year old hispanic guy with a beat up set of clubs walking (we were riding) who is going to shoot his age! He ended up shooting 71, but his low was 67 he said.

 

The next weekend we talk to the starter and ask if Luis is around to join us and he says no he unfortunately passed away 3 days ago. We were stunned with the weight of that news and how fragile life is. Very nice and humble man, who obviously was a great self taught golfer. He was retired from one of the military branches. RIP Luis.

 

2. Me and my dad took a trip to Scotland in 2013 to watch the Open (Mickelson) and this day took the train from Leuchers (fife) to Carnoustie. We get paired up with a father and son as well. We get to BS'ing with them and he is a doctor and his son is in med school IIRC from Florida. The dad goes on to tell us they take trips a couple times a year, but have never actually played Carnoustie. He says well I'm a 5 and his son is a 7 so we are going to play from the back, which was not the back back, but the blue tees in essence. Me and dad were playing the members tees.

 

It was a crappy day, which is normal for Carnoustie really. Winds were 3-4 clubs and the course played hard and fast. It was around 45 degrees and not Florida weather by any means. I think it is the third hole, where the dad keeps launching his drives into the bushes. I counted 4 tee balls that the wind would catch and blow them short right into a huge group of bushes 4 straight times. He finally just dropped one in the fairway. They were used to shooting in the 70's according to dad, but they were eating a slice of humble pie right now.

 

After the halfway house at 10 they move up to our tee box and dad misses another one off the tee. He waits until the end and says, "Guys, um I ran out of balls and they didn't have any at the halfway house. Can I borrow a couple balls?" His son was down to his last one as well. I remember both me and my dad put 18 balls in our bag for the round just in case. I had 12 left and my dad had 14. So we each gave them 4 balls to play the last 8 holes. We said sure no problem and my dad goes, "you may want to put away the driver" as he hands them over.

 

I don't know their score, but it HAD to be well over 100 and I would venture to guess close to 120 as you just can't keep launching lost ball after lost ball, without blowups on the scorecard. So they went from bravado to humble.

 

BTW I played decent that day and shot I think a 93 as a 14 handicap, which I was happy with. Including absolutely crushing my drive on 18 and had 50 yards to the green! I'm not joking and was shocked to see how far it went.  Almost rolled into the burn. Of course it was probably because it was 30 mph downwind and hard as heck. Probably close to 400 yards and I caught it so pure, great feeling even now 8 years later. I did birdie, which felt good, but was thinking eagle, eagle, eagle. 😀

 

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by Schley

[aenemated]

I'm usually on the other side of this, honestly!

 

I'm fortunate to do pretty well for myself and thus have played some pretty great and exclusive courses. And since I tend to do golf trips solo, I'm getting grouped with ... well, whoever. And I'm pretty sure this is what most pay attention to when meeting my on the first tee:

 

 

I've certainly gotten some "What the hell is THIS guy doing here?" looks ... which usually go away after my first tee shot. 🙂

 

I guess being on the other side of this means I don't really judge anyone's game by how they might look or present themselves. I recall a buddy of my dad's who'd play with us often when I was a kid. He had the most ridiculous looking swing but I can't recall him ever shooting over 75. I asked him one time "Mr. Fred, where'd you learn to swing like that?"

 

"Well, I took some dancing lessons once ... "

[BigTerf]

On 1/27/2021 at 5:31 PM, caniac6 said:

Mine. Some days I'm really good, and some days I really stink!

Completely agree.  I don’t know how I can shoot 86 / 71 on back to back days!  It happens though...  more often than I would like to admit...  Frequently, it is due to a wonky back, but it is amazing how little you can “off” on a day and how much of a difference it can make on the score card!

[Medson]

5 hours ago, MattTerfehr said:

Completely agree.  I don’t know how I can shoot 86 / 71 on back to back days!  It happens though...  more often than I would like to admit...  Frequently, it is due to a wonky back, but it is amazing how little you can “off” on a day and how much of a difference it can make on the score card!

Well, there were couple of tournaments DJ couldn’t break 80 last summer. Then ... The rest is history. 
 

That’s golf for you. 

[TheDeanAbides]

Joined up with a two ball 20 years or so ago. I was shooting mid 70s at the time so definitely wanted to play with guys who didn't spend all day looking for balls, but when I saw this fella on the first tee my first thought was "I'm going to be making excuses to play ahead after three holes". He was warming up and I saw that he gripped it cack-handed and his backswing was around his waist. Ho-hum! 

 

Anyway, his opening teeshot to the shortish par four dogleg left was a 5 wood that hooked about 30 yards around the corner but went miles. Okay... 

 

He proceeded to hit this same ballflight around the entire course and shot something like 75 - the same as me by plodding it down the middle and missing putts all day. 

 

His playing partner said that he shot 68 around the same course the weekend before. After that I decided to let ballflight tell me who could play instead of their swing. 

[vbb]

2 hours ago, TheDeanAbides said:

After that I decided to let ballflight tell me who could play instead of their swing. 

Bingo.

[Fiddy3]

Few years back at my home course, buddy and I got paired with a 20 something for a late afternoon leisure round that from the 1st tee was smoking a joint on basically every tee thereafter. By the 5th hole I'm still not sure how even sure how he could see his eyes were so "cashed". Guy proceeds to shoot a 69 with two eagles, all while keeping stride on his puff per tee box. Turns out he was a very high end realtor in the area ( I had not heard of him being new to town). Guy could flat out play stoned. I asked late in the round if he scored as well sober, and he replied "never tried". 

[TheDeanAbides]

1 hour ago, Fiddy3 said:

Few years back at my home course, buddy and I got paired with a 20 something for a late afternoon leisure round that from the 1st tee was smoking a joint on basically every tee thereafter. By the 5th hole I'm still not sure how even sure how he could see his eyes were so "cashed". Guy proceeds to shoot a 69 with two eagles, all while keeping stride on his puff per tee box. Turns out he was a very high end realtor in the area ( I had not heard of him being new to town). Guy could flat out play stoned. I asked late in the round if he scored as well sober, and he replied "never tried". 

I've tried this. It did not go well at all.

[Fiddy3]

Same....

2 minutes ago, TheDeanAbides said:

I've tried this. It did not go well at all.

Same...

Edited February 11, 2021 by Fiddy3

[TheDeanAbides]

7 minutes ago, Fiddy3 said:

Same....

Same...

I can't even drink a beer or strong coffee and play. Coffee makes my transition begin before I've taken the club back, and even one beer and I think I'm Bubba. 

[RSinSG]

When you get my age one of your bucket list items is to shoot your age. I did it once and my regular playing partner has done it twice. I did it right on the number which is probably pretty normal.

 

A couple of years ago I was playing with the multiple times club champ. I think he was 83 at the time. Laser straight 200 yard max drive, great with fairway woods and a killer short game. He typically shot his age every round but this day he shot 16 shots under his age. It was a very boring 67. Amazing display actually.

[phizzy30]

I thought the guy I played with yesterday was a total sand bagger.  He was 68 years old and was talking about having knee surgery and what not.  Tells me he's a 15 handicap.  He has a fundamentally solid swing and a decent short game.  Tells me he hasn't played in over 10 years and only has a few rounds under his belt.  He shoots 2 over on the front.  I was thoroughly impressed.  Totally blows up on the back nine and shoots 12 over.  So in the end he wasn't lying.  Boy did I feel like a dumbass. 

[br61]

On 1/31/2021 at 2:12 AM, aenemated said:

I'm usually on the other side of this, honestly!

 

I'm fortunate to do pretty well for myself and thus have played some pretty great and exclusive courses. And since I tend to do golf trips solo, I'm getting grouped with ... well, whoever. And I'm pretty sure this is what most pay attention to when meeting my on the first tee:

 

 

I've certainly gotten some "What the hell is THIS guy doing here?" looks ... which usually go away after my first tee shot. 🙂

 

I guess being on the other side of this means I don't really judge anyone's game by how they might look or present themselves. I recall a buddy of my dad's who'd play with us often when I was a kid. He had the most ridiculous looking swing but I can't recall him ever shooting over 75. I asked him one time "Mr. Fred, where'd you learn to swing like that?"

 

"Well, I took some dancing lessons once ... "

Ha, you're not getting any second looks from me. A good buddy of mine's has lot of tats and he's a hellva player, a +3 or +4. I've had many people who do not know who I am previously whenever I play somewhere away from home as I'm known as a local legend, then they will judge me before the round due to my certain physical condition. But it goes away once they get to know me. I'm not worried because it's perfectly understandable for them to doubt me whenever they meet me.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 12, 2021 by br61

[TheDeanAbides]

10 hours ago, phizzy30 said:

I thought the guy I played with yesterday was a total sand bagger.  He was 68 years old and was talking about having knee surgery and what not.  Tells me he's a 15 handicap.  He has a fundamentally solid swing and a decent short game.  Tells me he hasn't played in over 10 years and only has a few rounds under his belt.  He shoots 2 over on the front.  I was thoroughly impressed.  Totally blows up on the back nine and shoots 12 over.  So in the end he wasn't lying.  Boy did I feel like a dumbass. 

Happens so often. I play a guy who often has a stellar front nine and looks like a 5, but blows up on the back as his tempo become ragged. 

[mizuno player]

Not sure this applies. It was and still is the most unbelievable round I've play with strangers. 

 

Many years ago a buddy and I got teamed with a father and son in a better ball. Both smoked. A lot. They seemed to hardly know each other. Had a few beers in the cart. The kid seemed to be our age, 26-28. 

 

Every other word was F this F you, to each other, S itty greens. F ing bunkers. They cussed so much at each other and called each other names we couldn't believe they were father son. The dad would tee his ball on par 3's as high as a driver. The son was throwing clubs. 

 

At the end of the round the dad shot 69 and son 73. It was just a crazy round of golf. We could hear them at each other as we out our clubs in the car ..... 

[curt_jr]

Got paired with a dude who had on some baggy jeans and an older golf polo. Decent clubs, nothing flashy at all. By no means did we mind, but didn't expect too much. Granted, I'm an 8 and my buddy is a 13 or so, so we're not too high-horsey about our games lol.

 

He lights a dart on the tee box, and keeps a cig fired up most of the round. Worked for an airline hauling bags, and had a day off, so decided to hit the links. Great guy, if a bit quiet.

 

I didn't see him blow up a hole once, barely saw him miss a fairway, but other than that wasn't really paying too much attention. We get to the 18th tee box, and he mentioned how he was hopeful to break his personal score record for that course. We asked what he was at, and it was something like +1 or +2, and we were floored. That's when I started thinking back at how I have barely seen him make a mistake, and we've definitely seen him make a few quiet birdies. This guy regularly shoots mid 70s, and we would've had no idea. 

 

Would love to play with him again. Self-taught swing, played a low trap draw most of the time, just a solid guy to share a round with.

[shagmoreline]

Played several times with a guy who was a finish carpenter and painter who usually played after work in clothing having mild paint splattering,  but his FootJoy classic nails were always polished, always had a newer glove, never a hat or visor just a decrepit old carry bag with irons showing some rust. 

 

It was quite the sight.  He was often so high it would be a sure bet he couldn't tell you at 10:00am what he ate at 9:00 am, but he could play, he could really play. 

[AdExec]

Newer coworker and I got out to play for the first time. Former mini tour player in his late 40s now. I have never seen elite tour level speed in person before. He had not bought new clubs/played more than a couple times in almost 20 years since leaving the game. He still had sleeves of original prov1s in his golf bag if that tells you anything. 
 

showed up with all tour issued Titleist set up from 2003 era. 680 blades with rifle 7.0, sonartec 3 wood, 983 E with pro 95 shaft, etc. 

 

we stayed fairly even because his short game was rusty, but the sound, flight, and general ballstriking quality was unreal. I watched him hit a Titleist 680 3 iron 265 yards with towering height. 330 yard carry on a 983E driver. 9 iron from 165 yards. It was a sight to see. 
 

Got him over to the pga superstore a few days later to check his speed/spin with a modern driver and he was hitting 187-191 ball speeds. 
 

I used to think I hit the ball a long way, now I know how the shorter guys on tour feel competing against the longest guys. We had 30-60 yards between us off the tee box and combining that with the height and spin he generates on iron shots made for a hell of a challenge. 
 

 

 

[TheDeanAbides]

A couple of years ago, one of my best friends happened to mention he played when he was a kid. I only know him from the small town gig venue he's the president of, so I asked him if he fancied a knock on an easy 9 holer. 

 

We met up at the range (so I could see what kinda game he had) to warm up. He had no clubs, no golf shoes, nothing. I was hitting it pretty terribly, tbh, but Nathan just casually picked up my tipped x steel shafted 3 wood and striped half a dozen shots in a row about 250 yards with a gorgeous draw. First time the guy has picked up a club in 25 years and he hit the ball like that with everything. I still won because his short game was rusty as hell, but I wish I'd known he was a 3 in his previous life before we went out! 

[MikeW2]

A friend of mine called me one night and asked if I could play the next day. He had some type of match amongst members but his guest couldn’t play last minute and he needed a sub around a 12 cap, which I was. To this day I still have no idea how all the matches/betting worked. He told me we were going to be grouped with a guy that had kicked around the tour back in the 70’s. Ok cool, I’m in. Get there before my buddy and was brought to the driving range. Just me and one other guy about 15 yards from me. Coke bottle glasses, an ancient black vinyl MacGregor bag, and a swing that looked like Kevin Costner doing his Arnold Palmer imitation in Tin Cup, in short...I did not think this was the guy that tried to play on the PGA Tour. Totally surprised when introduced to him realizing that he was that guy. He was so freaking good! That swing produced steady fades with every club. Hit all 18 greens and shot a really boring 64. Putted so purely, it was awesome to watch especially as a relative novice. He also tweaked my putting grip a little and to this day that has helped my game more than any other lesson/tip I’ve ever received. 

[TiScape]

I’m one of those guys that people probably think is gonna be a lot better than I am. Look like a +2, play to a 10. I like nice things. Shoes, clothes, clubs.  Being a 10 I can definitely string some impressive shots together. If I happen to do it on the 1st few holes I generally get comments like “wow you have some game”, “ you really hit the irons a mile” or “someone knows what they’re doing”. I’ll always say, just wait. Haha. Playing well or not, any day out on the course is a win in my book and I could care less about what someone thinks about me on the course. 

[Divot License]

On 2/20/2021 at 2:26 AM, MikeW2 said:

A friend of mine called me one night and asked if I could play the next day. He had some type of match amongst members but his guest couldn’t play last minute and he needed a sub around a 12 cap, which I was. To this day I still have no idea how all the matches/betting worked. He told me we were going to be grouped with a guy that had kicked around the tour back in the 70’s. Ok cool, I’m in. Get there before my buddy and was brought to the driving range. Just me and one other guy about 15 yards from me. Coke bottle glasses, an ancient black vinyl MacGregor bag, and a swing that looked like Kevin Costner doing his Arnold Palmer imitation in Tin Cup, in short...I did not think this was the guy that tried to play on the PGA Tour. Totally surprised when introduced to him realizing that he was that guy. He was so freaking good! That swing produced steady fades with every club. Hit all 18 greens and shot a really boring 64. Putted so purely, it was awesome to watch especially as a relative novice. He also tweaked my putting grip a little and to this day that has helped my game more than any other lesson/tip I’ve ever received. 

So what was the tip? Did you ever get to play with him again. 

[Divot License]

I got  burnt a couple of time growing up due to judging adults by their appearance/bag set up and discovering the hard way that they could really play. 

 

Most humbling experience was as a 17 year old scratch golfer got paid up via a fried of my day with an older gentlemen (mid 50's) who flat out took me apart around a relatively tough course. I found out afterwards he had played in the walker cup during the 70's and was a top UK amateur in his day. 

 

I leant that day not to judge anyone until I had seen them hit a ball, I also arranged a second "social" round with him and took the 4 hour opportunity to pick his brain apart about how to golf my ball. That second round was probably the moment I went from someone who could hit a nice ball to someone who could actually play golf and score. 

[MikeW2]

@Divot License. I’m right handed and putt traditional style with my right hand low. At the time I was placing the pad of my right thumb  on top of my left thumb which in turn moved my right forearm in essence outside/on top of my left creating occasional pulls. He simply moved my right thumb and hand to behind the grip from on top. Explained to me the benefits of having it set up that way. Putting has since been the strongest part of my game.

[LeftDaddy]

These are fun stories. At my previous club, I got paired with the club pro and 2 of his aides one morning in the winter when no one else was around. I had knocked it around with the club pro a time or two, but expected him to be a real stick. He was good, but not nearly as good as I expected. 
 

One of the aides was an older guy, who had old clubs. He had this Callaway 3 wood that I later looked up and it was at least 30 years old. His swing didn’t look like much.  He took it back really short like Finau or Rahm. But he hammered that 3w. It was long and dead straight all day long. Drove me nuts because I was a longish hitter myself, and I could get after my 3w. But he outdrove me a couple of times 3w to 3w. Good guy, was a single digit handicap. His swing would not have led you to believe that. 
 

I also played a match in our match play tournament against this guy, 82 years old. Sweet old man. Had lost his wife a little bit before and said he played golf every day. He had literally one of the worst swings I have ever seen. He rocked his whole body and the club back and forth in this dance-type motion. I saw the swing and thought “there’s no way he can make contact with the ball with any regularity with all of that movement.”  And he was a 25 handicap, so I thought I was in for an easy match. Lol, boy was I wrong. The problem was that he did make solid contact every single time. The ball went 100 yards dead straight, never getting higher than 10 feet off the ground, with every club. So playing from the senior tees he would only need 2-3 strokes to reach every green, and with no clubhead speed every ball was in play. So he basically made par or bogey on every hole (and with 25 strokes to play with...). He wasn’t a great putter but wasn’t terrible. I could see how he was supposed to be a 25 handicap, and maybe he just had an insane day, but it was so annoying watching every single ball travel exactly 100 yards straight as an arrow every time, when every part of this guy’s body moved in this Gershwin-style motion. Lol. 

Edited February 22, 2021 by LeftDaddy

[RmoorePE]

Funny how many of these stories are about people who "used to be good" and turns out they still are. Myself, I spend so much time tinkering, reading, watching youtube, changing equipment, etc for no appreciable gain (except the fun of it). Whereas someone who is just good, is always good.

 

I feel like there is a difference between someone who works hard and gets themselves down from a 10 to a 3 handicap or better (via practice, lessons, etc) and then someone who just walks out on the course, with no handicap, haven't played in months, and with any equipment and feels like they will probably shoot around par because their body just moves correctly. IOW there are players who are good because they know the game and work to keep their game and there are players who are good because they were born with free hips and great hand eye coordination. I believe there are probably a lot of good golfers out there who have never swung a club.

 

[DaveMc82]

Last summer I had my partner drop out of one of the club competitions and a random add his name to the vacant slot. Nice guy called Roger with a no name stand bag, irons from the 90s and woods 15 + years old.
 

He introduced himself to me as I was warming up in the net and hit a few in the adjacent one. His swing was almost as ugly as his well paid for belly catching up with it. 

 

We got chatting on the way round and noticed he had a slight limp we he caught me spotting. He laughed and said ‘I wondered when you’d notice?’ With a big grin. He went on to explain that he’d slipped using an SDS drill and gone clean through his right foot breaking 2 metatarsals for good measure. 
 

Roger swing SUPER flat and nearly jumped to a face on finish as he’d had his right foot fused/pinned back together and couldn’t turn to a normal finish. It did go straight to a slight fade and a decent distance. His putting was ridiculous though. 1 foot away on a lag putt from 30 feet was unacceptably poor! 
 

By the end of the round he’d matched me shooting 74 in soggy English summer conditions. Turned out he is a member of another club and a widower who plays every second he can. Shows the state of a lot of English members that when he put the card in, I got grilled to check that it was legitimate and that he wasn’t a cheat! Nobody apparently has the right to shoot that score swinging it that ugly. 

[BlackDiamondPar5]

Yes...I look at him every day in the mirror 🤣