Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Golfing as a new villager
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Old 09-12-2024, 06:40 AM
Rainger99 Rainger99 is offline
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Originally Posted by MplsPete View Post
Can you define "decent," and "bad?" I've been worrying about this quite a bit. I first swung a golf club as a teenager, and don't think I am any better now than then. I worry about how a golfer as bad as me will be accepted in TV. I have seldom played long courses, and I've certainly never broken a hundred, or come close. One summer I got out regularly to a driving range, and saw no improvement. And with the stiffness and infirmity of a ~70 yo body, my swing is terrible, and not getting better. (And I bet a lot of residents are like me.)
Your post characterizes 90% of golfers in TV as less than good. Hence, the average golfer must be poor.
According to the National Golf Foundation, the average score shot by the 25 million or so American golfers is ~102. A mere ten percent of all players consistently break 100. Only five percent break 90 and less than one percent break 80.

The typical Villages golfer is in the 90% of bad golfers. Unfortunately, a lot of them tend to think that they are in the top 10%!

This is on a regulation 18 hole course and it is following the rules of golf. No mulligans, no kicking it out of the rough, playing out of sand, no 5 foot putts conceded, etc., etc.

But I wouldn't worry about not being a good golfer. 90% of us are not. The best thing about the Villages is that most people play executive courses. And if you play from the front tees (we don't call them women's tees), the holes are very short - almost all of them are under 100 yards. And you can usually avoid having to carry any water if you are playing the front tees. So even if you top it, slice it, hook it, or shank it, you should be able to get on most of the greens in three or four shots. Most people don't need more than 4 putts.

The only time that people might complain is if you are a slow golfer - four or five practice swings, then back off; take a couple of more swings, etc. And some people take a long time to line up their putts.

I have been playing off and on since high school but I rarely played more than 5-8 times a year until I got to the Villages. I try to get out at least once a week. My game has improved somewhat but I am still in the 90% group of bad golfers.

Since coming to the Villages, I have played with a few very good golfers and I have played with people who first started playing a couple of weeks ago. They were bad (swing, miss; swing, miss; then top it for about thirty yards; ;and repeat) but if they aren't on the green on the fourth shot, they usually just pick up or toss it on the green and putt out. But all of us started out at one point so 99% of the people understand that.

Get out and play. I guarantee that if you play three or four times that you won't be the worst golfer in your group.

P.S. My experience is primarily based on playing the executive courses. I think the championship courses attracts better golfers (they pay a lot of money to play so I assume they are good).

So if you are a hacker, I would avoid championship courses. If you are bad, you don't want to have a 500 yard par five!