Lydia Ko ... downside of professional golf

[ssp]

Pretty interesting answer ... not one I had thought of before.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 16 by pga43
link off Golfwrx removed

[kwcsports]

Candid answer from Lydia, well said. 

[Ronnie Mundt]

I love me some Lydia Ko. That is an awesome and very introspective answer.

[Mike_Honcho]

I think she's one of the best interviews in ANY tour.

Edited February 16 by Mike_Honcho

[Hawkeye77]

Actually, she didn’t say all that much - clearly an honest answer but also pretty obvious. 

[third-times-a-charm]

Yes, scoring (evaluation, numbers, etc) is how you see results in sports. 

 

[MFBach]

27 minutes ago, third-times-a-charm said:

Yes, scoring (evaluation, numbers, etc) is how you see results in sports

Golf is a little different than most sports though. Yes, it’s results/scoring oriented, but it’s not like you can play recreational football as an adult. I think she was referring to enjoying playing the game without the pressure of having to play/score at a high level every time she steps on the tee. 
 

I haven’t played competitive golf outside of club tournaments since I was in school and I still play most rounds with the intent of scoring well, but sometimes it’s more enjoyable to get out with friends or family and just enjoy your time on the course. 
 

When someone plays at a professional level (any sport), it turns into a job. It’s a grind. That’s not always fun, even if it’s something you love. 

[PuffyC]

There are plenty of team sports where you can throw out a lackluster performance and most won't notice. Not a lot of defensive linemen in the NFL scoring points either. I like her answer and can see how that would create a great deal of stress. When you lose or hit some bad shots, there's no one else to hide behind and no one to blame but yourself.

[Rapidcat]

How is that any different to business If you are in a responsible position with KPI's, budgets, reports etc ad infintum?

 

Every day you are being evaluated and judged with your income and tenure based on your performance.

 

You may be scrutinized by a smaller audience but you are scrutinized nonetheless.

[Simpsonia]

22 minutes ago, MFBach said:

Golf is a little different than most sports though. Yes, it’s results/scoring oriented, but it’s not like you can play recreational football as an adult. I think she was referring to enjoying playing the game without the pressure of having to play/score at a high level every time she steps on the tee. 
 

I haven’t played competitive golf outside of club tournaments since I was in school and I still play most rounds with the intent of scoring well, but sometimes it’s more enjoyable to get out with friends or family and just enjoy your time on the course. 
 

When someone plays at a professional level (any sport), it turns into a job. It’s a grind. That’s not always fun, even if it’s something you love. 

 

Yep, and that it's so results oriented even in practice rounds or just on the range. For a pro being a being a bit off with your spin or carry with your scoring clubs, or your drawing/fading a few more yards than you'd like, you see absolute metrics and results in every single little aspect of the sport. No other sport (other than maybe the highest levels of racing like F1) are so result and metric oriented. Think if a NFL wide receiver had constant exacting minutia of every single practice play dissected, like if they were told "you were .02 seconds off your normal acceleration, and you cut half a yard too early" for literally every play. It would be an absolute mental drain. 

 

That's why I think what separates the best golfers from the rest in the world isn't talent, but mental fortitude. 

[RainShadow]

1 hour ago, Mike_Honcho said:

I think she's one of the best interviews in ANY tour.

Concur....

 And her answer reveals why there's a lot of burn out in pro golf, along with some of the other issues that come from that kind of constant pressure, like depression, self medication, relationship issues, etc.

Edited February 16 by RainShadow

[nvr3putt]

Meh.

[jonsnow]

[TiScape]

Should have ended with “but it definitely is preferable to working 9-10 hours a day Monday through Friday in a cubicle for a business/company that you have no passion for or interest in for roughly 1/3 of the $ until your in your mid 60s because you have to pay the bills.”

🤷🏼‍♂️

Edited February 16 by TiScape

[nitram]

I can see where she's coming from. At the end of the day it can be difficult for a golfer to look themselves in the mirror.

[PedronNiall]

All in the perspective. What are the quotes about the best golfers having short memories and never being at fault when something goes wrong? No doubt the pressure of trying to win is always felt, but the majority of those who amass the most wins have said little to make me think their mindset is that they're stressed over every single result on every hole & round every day of the tournament.

 

She really needs to learn the art of blaming it on the equipment or getting through it by switching swing coaches the way many others do, hah. "The irons were off today." "The driver just wasn't dialed in." "Traj was just a bit wonky and I need more glute activation." Pass the buck, delegate, and reason your way to not having it in your head that you effed it up but instead there's a continual progression to something better and any bad is just part of the process. 

 

I get that it's her take, but it's not what comes across as being the norm behind the scenes for most who compete at the top in any sport. Pretty sure that kind of outlook would get you dead or at least DFL racing in F1, MotoGP, etc. 

[byoung14]

A lot of people forget she was 15 when she got her first win on the LPGA Tour so going from just playing amateur golf to all of a sudden getting these massive expectations on your golfing career overnight can weigh on a person. She’s an introverted person and given how the media will nitpick each and everything to create a narrative/storyline probably has worn on her as her career has progressed. It’s not like she’s a case of a young prodigy who flamed out early in their career, she’s on track for the Hall of Fame.

[Lobby]

Being really competitive, the way Lyds is, means that every day, whether practice or tournament, she questions her worth. 
 

In regular jobs, we all can afford a longer term perspective. Heck, we can even separate our professional life from our self worth. 

[Lobby]

Quoting Hermione Granger, some of “you have the emotional range of a teaspoon.”

 

🙂

[TiScape]

17 minutes ago, Lobby said:

Quoting Hermione Granger, some of “you have the emotional range of a teaspoon.”

 

🙂

Here is to hoping wherever you work has one of those “safe space” rooms and they allow you to bring ur “emotional support” animal to work 😊

[Mcfly]

 

Edited February 16 by Mcfly

[TiScape]

57 minutes ago, Lobby said:

Being really competitive, the way Lyds is, means that every day, whether practice or tournament, she questions her worth. 
 

In regular jobs, we all can afford a longer term perspective. Heck, we can even separate our professional life from our self worth. 

Seriously tho. Seeing she been a pro golfer since age 15 and knowing nothing else, doesn’t really allow her the true perspective of her job. I can assure you if she went and worked as a waitress at Applebees or in a meat packing facility for a year or two and came back to golf and was asked again, her answers would be “no downside, I’m very fortunate to do this for a living.” I’ve had day laborer jobs. Was a mover for a summer. Hung and finished some dry wall for a bit. So when I finally had my own gig which allowed me to retire quite early, no matter how bad my day was, I never complained as I would think to myself, it sure beats the heck out of…  Just my opinion. 

[JohnnyCashForever]

Re-Ranking of the World's Most Difficult Jobs Where You're Evaluated Every Single Day:

 

1002. 1. LPGA Professional Golfer

2. Brain Surgeon

3. Heart Surgeon

4. President of the USA

5. Secret Service Agent

6. Airline Pilot

7. Police Officer

8. Fire Fighter

9. Pope

10. Air Traffic Controller

 

 

[Ironman_32]

5 minutes ago, JohnnyCashForever said:

Re-Ranking of the World's Most Difficult Jobs Where You're Evaluated Every Single Day:

 

1002. 1. LPGA Professional Golfer

2. Brain Surgeon

3. Heart Surgeon

4. President of the USA

5. Secret Service Agent

6. Airline Pilot

7. Police Officer

8. Fire Fighter

9. Pope

10. Air Traffic Controller

 

 

To paraphrase Bill Burr, you probably need to have "being a mom" up there, definitley ahead of manual labor or jobs that could get you killed. 

[Ironman_32]

On one hand, I understand what shes saying. Usually in other sports its not swing to swing, or play to play. No one says to Justin Jefferson "your running style go a little sloppy on the 8th play of the 3rd quarter". And like any other business, you can have a good day of golf and just not have it come together, and you have to answer to that. So, a businssman can develop a lot of good contacts, but a day without sales is a day without sales at the end of the day. 

 

On the other hand, to quote Donny Draper, "that's what the monies for". Reminds me of when Eminem or Jennifer Lawrence would complain about being famous, I always say, you can give it back easier, tons of trailers out in 8 mile to go back to or Walmart is hiring. I mean, sometimes people don't know how good that have it, and I know at the end of the day it becomes a job, and I'm not trying to hate on Lydia, but a lot of people would probably want her job and to be as good as golf as her. 

[aenemated]

Lyds: "The constant scrutiny is the worst part of the job."

Thread: SCRUTINY

[Mrgreen36]

32 minutes ago, Ironman_32 said:

To paraphrase Bill Burr, you probably need to have "being a mom" up there, definitley ahead of manual labor or jobs that could get you killed. 

 

Whatever. All I do is pick up the slack from my kids mother.  

 

I'd be more inclined to say good parent, the bar for parenting keeps getting lowered. 

[jholz]

Was the OP's passage taken from a major print publication?

 

Regardless, someone needs to learn how to use the word "bias" in a sentence. 

[ssp]

6 minutes ago, jholz said:

Was the OP's passage taken from a major print publication?

 

Regardless, someone needs to learn how to use the word "bias" in a sentence. 

It was a 'msn.com' article that the Golfwrx admin removed.

[pjc]

MSN...ok, I think that explains it...