Recurring Golf Nightmare - I can't be the only one...

[Socrates]

57 minutes ago, ohioglfr said:

I played frequently until my mom developed dementia.  She was out of town and on weekends we made the 120 mile round trip to visit her at the nursing home.  That compressed my schedule enough that golf was on the back burner and I was okay with that.  I never obsessed about not having time to play.  However, my subconscious must have obsessed about it, because over that five year stretch I had reocurring dreams that consistently went like this:

I would be at a nice golf venue.  It would be a perfect day at a beautiful course.  I'd pay my green fee, walk up to the first tee with my bag (always on a walking cart), tee up the ball, turn around and my bag would be gone.  I would spend the rest of the dream looking for my bag.  I probably had this type of dream thirty times . . .   

Many variations on that theme too.  Getting to play and can't find my clubs or clubs are the wrong ones, etc...  

[PNWGuy]

I've had the obstructed swing dream hundreds of times.  But once in a dream where one foot was on the seat of a bench and I had to swing way in – out to clear the ball washer, I hit an absolute bullet.  That’s the only time I hit anything other than a cold top.

 

I’ve considered moving a bench and ball washer into the tee box when I can’t hit my driver.  🤔

[PostandGhost]

I've had a variation of the OPs dream.  I'm in a qualifier and I'm paired with my dad and another random.  I guess they went by alphabetical order.  Anyways, my dad is a real fast player, like a deer on meth, and he is first to tee off.  The next guy puts wood in the ground and gives it a beating like I haven't seen since the Jackson 5.

 

Then I'm the last to tee off in the group, I press the tee into the ground, place the ball on top of the tee, then look up at my target, and then look back at the tee only to notice the ball has fallen off the peg.  I put the ball back on the tee and then I look up and my dad and the random area already driving down the fairway to their ball, getting away like Casey Anthony.  I look back down and the ball has fallen off the tee again.  I replace the ball and look up to see my dad hitting his second shot.  The starter is looking at me like I'm slower than North Korean internet.  I look back down and the ball has fallen off again.  Then look down the fairway and my dad is on the green.  The ball keeps falling over like the walls of Jericho.   This keeps happening and I see them go to the second hole and the third hole, it's a links course I guess.  I'm getting smoked like some ribs because the ball won't stay on the tee.

 

I have this same dream at least a few times a year.  I need to go lay down on a couch and talk to someone.  Seems like some real abandonment issues going on...

[mshills]

46, and can’t recall ever dreaming of golf. 
 

I do have a routine to get to sleep if I am having trouble. I play one of the golf courses where I caddied. I remember every inch of that course, and I go through shot by shot (excluding time to walk from shot to shot) including yardage, target, etc. 

 

A handful of times when I’ve been amped up about something I have finished 18 and am not asleep! That’s when the ibuprofen PM is in play. 

[LegendJeff]

Ok this is just strange; I had this exact same nightmare for the first time earlier this week!

 

I was stuck on the tee box and couldn't find enough room to make a backswing and when I finally was able to swing, I topped it about 3 feet forward!

 

Previous to the simulation breaking down and playing tricks on us, my dreams of golf were mostly of ariel views of fairways and trees and not swinging the club. 

Edited December 9, 2022 by LegendJeff

[Ferguson]

Not really a nightmare but something I think about more now than I did then.  Had a buddy that lived a few blocks over.  He and I played golf together as kids at the local muni.  We would ride our bikes to the course with our clubs strapped across our backs and play pretty much all day.  Great times.  Anyway, his backyard was a perfect rectangle and the ideal spot for neighborhood football games.  Weird thing - we would hear screams coming from the house next door.  I remember asking his mom about it and her answer was, "we're not really sure."  I guess back in the 80's the standard action for screams coming from the house next door was to "ignore it and it will go away."   

[ksher84]

Never had a dream about golf, but I do have one frequently where I am still in college and I have to take a final for a class I didn't know I was enrolled in.  Alternate version is I'm at school and I don't know what or where my classes are.  Wake up feeling STRESSED

[95124hacker]

My recurring golf nightmare involves playing indoors. Have to tee off in a doorway (restricted swing), down a narrow hallway. The pin is on top of a table. Ball keeps rolling off the table and ends up directly under it. Near impossible to hole out. On stroke #20 and can’t just “pick up”…

[phil75070]

10 hours ago, 95124hacker said:

My recurring golf nightmare involves playing indoors. Have to tee off in a doorway (restricted swing), down a narrow hallway. The pin is on top of a table. Ball keeps rolling off the table and ends up directly under it. Near impossible to hole out. On stroke #20 and can’t just “pick up”…

Mine is very similar, most often indoors. Even if it is an outdoor tee box, my swing is still restricted somehow.

[LegendJeff]

I asked my golfing buddies about this phenomenon and one of them said: "Yep, I've had this nightmare 100x, I am standing on the tee box trying to find enough room to make a backswing in an area the size of half bathroom." 

[caeye0710]

Mine is pretty similar:

- Can't get the ball on the tee

- Keep accidentally knocking the ball off the tee with my driver

- Consistently having someone or some thing too close to where I can't make a backswing, so I repeatedly move the tee only to find the same issue

 

[RmoorePE]

It is so weird that so many of us have the restricted swing dream. I have had it a few times, at least times enough to be memorable. For some reason I place the tee down over and over and every time I  place it down there is something else behind me. It is like I never look to see what is back there until I am about to take a back swing.

 

I also have had it where I am surfing and every time a wave is coming my way my wetsuit is too tight to paddle and the wave just goes under me. In a crowded lineup there is a pecking order and in these dreams another surfer is always saying "go, go, go!" and I just don't paddle. If you blow your wave more than once a competitive lineup typically ignores your turn after that.  I wake up feeling stressed about it.

[CBraynor]

I'm in my 20s and have this dream every once in awhile. It's usually people behind me that won't get out of the way. I try to tell them to move but they can never hear me. I've heard about dream where you can't get the ball on the tee but never had that one. Super weird how a lot of people can relate to these dreams

[bcjim]

A day after reading and posting here,  I had a related scenario where I was supposed to be introducing a speaker at a meeting of some sort and I couldn't get it done.  Forgot his name,  couldn't pronounce it, microphone broken, audience wouldn't take seats, etc etc  lol, nightmare. 

[Chazb]

My nightmare starts has nothing to do with sleeping and being wide awake the fear of every time I stand over a chip shot  I will hit it fat usually pans out.

[Cwing]

On 12/7/2022 at 4:16 PM, bekgolf said:

 

 

Tinnitus here too along with hearing loss from a very noisy career in manufacturing.

A fan works well too.  For the last few years I've incorporated foam ear plugs for a more restful sleep.

 

Not manufacturing (coal-fired power plant) but sounds like me.

 

Earplugs and fan.

[Kaysquare]

The most bizarre golf dream I ever had was one where I was on the first tee box and nowhere in my golf cart or my golf bag could I find a ROUND golf ball.  They were all lop-sided, or oval shaped, or oblong, or just plain weird.  🤣 

[mizuno player]

I've had this Monday times. No room to hit the ball. Have to keep moving around the tee box trying to find room.  Then I song and almost always wiff.  ... Haven't had it in a long time. Maybe because I don't t play as much? Or I now suck and it's very possible I'll actually miss while playing. 

[st1800e]

I’ll bet Jack or tiger never had these dreams….🤔

[sratacik]

Can't tee the ball up....no matter how hard I try I simply can't get the ball to stay on the tee. It's infuriating. 

[djohnsonx]

My nightmare happens at night and while awake, usually in the winter.  Winter here is long so it's a long time between the end of golf season and the beginning of a new season.  My dream is that somehow I'll forget how to hold a club and can't make anything that resembles a golf swing. I'm always worried I'm just going to forget how to do it. It's very unsettling.

[cval]

On 12/7/2022 at 7:32 AM, Ferguson said:

The holidays bring out the best of the worst nightmares for me.  The second recurring dream involves a holiday disaster at Midtown in Rochester where I grew up.  

 

As a kid, they ran a monorail around midtown plaza during the holiday season.  It was important as a kid to ride that thing.  All the kids at my parochial school would be judged by the timing of 2 events during the holiday season: 1. when you saw Santa. 2. when you rode the monorail.  It was downtown, lots of shopping plenty to look at and tons of decorations.   All gone now.  Anyway, the dream starts with my family walking through midtown when my dad noticed some loose brackets on the monorail – he was not a handy guy so why he noticed 8-10 loose bolts on a bracket is beyond me,  but he pointed at the brackets and told us to back up.  His protective instincts took over.  I was thankful for that.  And then people start screaming.  There was a small band playing soft holiday music.  I recall the drummer looked exactly like Milton Banana.  It wasn’t him but it sure looked like him.  The monorail came loose from the track and headed right for the band, but they kept on playing.  The monorail crashed with a loud boom but by that time our family made it to the exit.  I always wake up when we arrive at the car at jump in to go home. 

 

 

 

 

 

I do not remember the monorail crashing but I do remember heading downtown to ride it. 

[Ferguson]

42 minutes ago, cval said:

 

I do not remember the monorail crashing but I do remember heading downtown to ride it. 

 

It didn't crash outside my nightmare. 

[PingC78]

I dont post much, but dang this post.......I have dreams of never teeing it up, or never in right spot, ground to hard moving all over tee box.

 

Also never enough room to swing have to back up and up, with my playing partners just looking at me.

 

I guess we love golf that much haha.

 

 

Edited January 5, 2023 by PingC78
edit

[naval2006]

I used to have a recurring dream when I was a teenager.  I'd drive my ball into the clubhouse.  It was not OB, but you had to play from there and the place was like a far west saloon.  The bartender, an old man with a thin curled moustache, would explain that I had to hit the ball through a small window next to a piano.  I'd tell the guy if I missed the window I'd smash the piano and I'd have to pay for it.  Man, I woke up in the middle of the night! The interesting thing is the dream ended always there, the hitting part never happened. I had this dream for about two or three years and that was it.   

[GB003]

Happens to me all the time as well! I can't get my ball on the tee or tee in the ground, can't put my glove on, something random like a couch impedes my back swing or line of play, I hit a shot and it flies backwards, I can't keep my feet still while setting up, I get impossible pin positions while putting, my playing partners move on without me, I lose my clubs or car in the parking lot, so on and so forth. It's both hilarious and frustrating!

[ChipNRun]

Real world scenarios: On the local amateur circuit, I have a chance to play XYZ course every three or four years. And, someone who plays that course as a regular has the same first and last name as me. Also, I see a cardiologist, and one of his other patients has the same first and last name as me. (Other patient is not a golfer.)

 

Nightmare: I enter an amateur circuit championship at XYZ, along with my namesake. Due to heavy field, play starts on No. 1 and No. 10. After Round 1, I lead my flight by two strokes. But the next morning, bad news as I show up for Round 2. It turns out that on opening day I should have teed off on No. 10 rather than 1, and my namesake was supposed to have teed off on No. 1 rather than No. 10. We both get disqualified from the tournament.

[lazyjc4]

Amazing how common our dreams/nightmares can be.  I've had the "no room to swing" dream a million times, but my worst is the one where I stripe my opening drive down the middle, but then the sun goes down before I can hit my next shot and I have to quit. 

[cbryan]

Amazing how similar we all are.  Count me in for "restricted swing", "no room to tee it up on tiny teebox" and "playing indoors."

[DoughBack18]

I read about this a while ago after having a dream where I was playing basketball and it felt like I was running in quicksand, basically couldn’t move and I was just watching people sprint up and down the court past me.

 

When you sleep there is a chemical that is released that keeps you from making large movements. So when you’re going to tee the ball up in your dream, your body is physically stopping you from doing that while your asleep. Otherwise you would be bending over and teeing it up in your bed while you were sleeping. That chemical and your dream are basically fighting against one another. This is a common thing and totally normal so don’t sweat it!