Joel Tadman runs through the 10 biggest problems only golfers can relate to. Whether it's temporary greens or leaving a club behind on the previous hole, we know how frustrating certain things can be to a golfer and we highlight them all here. Hopefully you haven't had to deal with too many yourself!
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00:00Hello everyone, Joel Tabman here from Golf Monthly and in this video we are counting
00:03down the 10 biggest problems that all golfers can relate to.
00:08Now at this point I need to remind you to click the subscribe button to the Golf Monthly
00:11YouTube channel so you don't miss any of our videos.
00:14Make sure you click the like button if you like what you're watching and also comment
00:17on the video, tell me if there's any problems that we've missed in this video, I'd love
00:21to hear from you.
00:22But for now, let's head on to the golf course here at Burley Park Golf Club in Stamford,
00:27Lincolnshire and count down the 10 biggest problems that golfers have to deal with, starting
00:32with playing partners offering advice.
00:35We've all got that one person in our foreboard who watches one instructional video on YouTube
00:44and suddenly he thinks he's Butch Harmon.
00:47And while I'm sure they mean well, I do have two main issues with this problem.
00:52The first is that this person is almost certainly no better qualified than any other Tom, Dick
00:57or Harry to dish out swing advice and therefore I would advise you to take it with a pretty
01:01heavy pinch of salt.
01:03And the second issue I have is that people really shouldn't be giving advice during the
01:07round.
01:08Fair enough if they want to offer some sort of tip or a bit of feedback after the round
01:12because if you do it during the round that can really play havoc with your mind, you
01:16start to think about it during your swing and it can have an adverse effect on the shots
01:20that you hit afterwards.
01:22So my advice to you would be that if you are thinking about giving advice, really think
01:26about whether it's necessary and if you're all in the receiving end of some advice, maybe
01:31just politely ask them to wait until after the round to give you that advice.
01:36And hopefully you won't have to experience this problem that much out on the course.
01:41Now the next problem on our list refers to putting on temporary greens like this one
01:53or holidying greens.
01:55Now I'm of course aware that temporary greens are important to maintain the integrity of
01:59the actual playing surfaces in wintry conditions but it is a frustrating problem.
02:03You see the pins in the fairways 20 yards short of the green, you get that instant deflation
02:08known that you're going to be playing on some pretty substandard surfaces, let's be
02:12honest.
02:13The surfaces are a lot bobbly, they're a lot longer and it really is difficult to judge
02:17the consistency of the roll and hole out from short range.
02:20And the level of ice and frost that thaws during the round is really difficult to judge
02:24when you're pitching and chipping onto those greens.
02:26Sometimes you get a really firm bounce that shoots over the green and sometimes it digs
02:29into a soft patch.
02:30It's impossible to judge.
02:31And the other problem I have with temporary greens especially is that it really does equalise
02:36the kind of handicap.
02:37So the high handicappers have much more of an advantage because the course is a lot shorter
02:42and the skill that is required for chipping and putting is taken out of it from the lower
02:46handicappers.
02:47It is more luck based so really high handicappers do have a much bigger advantage when playing
02:52on temporary greens.
02:53Similar for holidying greens to be fair, although you are as likely to see a putt bubble back
02:58online as you are offline, hopefully they kind of even itself out during the course
03:02of a round.
03:03So that's just another problem that golfers have to deal with unfortunately out on the
03:07course.
03:08So the next problem golfers have to face relates to the rules of the game and I would say golf
03:17compared to pretty much every other sport out there has one of the most complicated
03:21sets of rules.
03:23And USJEA and the RNA have made some changes for this year attempting to make them simpler
03:28but even then the players edition of the rule book has 24 different categories over
03:32120 pages so it's going to be impossible for golfers to know every single rule.
03:37For example, I've hit my ball in this penalty area now it's called, it's got red stakes.
03:43How are they different to yellow stakes?
03:45You start dropping it from shoulder height and then you realise you've got to change
03:47to knee height.
03:48There's an awful lot to remember and obviously you're playing an outdoor sport and your ball
03:52can get in a whole host of different scenarios and there's been situations where I've been
03:57asking my playing partners for advice and none of them know what the actual rule is.
04:01So it's an incredibly frustrating problem that golfers have, they'll end up calling
04:05the pro shop asking for advice, shuffling through the pages of their rule book, maybe
04:09going on the app which is really good by the way but still can be difficult to find the
04:12ruling that you want.
04:13So my advice to you would be try and learn the basic ones, the simple ones that you're
04:18going to be experiencing most out on the golf course.
04:21The Golf Month YouTube channel has some great rules videos that you should definitely check
04:24out to swat up on your knowledge and if you do that, hopefully you won't face these problems
04:29and you'll become the John Paramore of your foreball.
04:36Right so the next problem on our list relates to lessons which will usually take place on
04:42a driving range as you can see here and the big problem golfers often have with lessons
04:46is the fact that often they make you play worse before you play better.
04:51Now I'm not for one second advocating the idea that golfers shouldn't have lessons.
04:55Lessons are really important to improve your golf and they're definitely the fastest way
04:59of improving your golf over things like club changes or other methods but the problem with
05:04lessons is you have that phase of unfamiliarity with the swing chain so maybe you change your
05:10grip or your posture or your swing plane and there is that inevitable kind of transition
05:14period where you're going from your old swing to your new swing where everything feels alien,
05:19feels strange and on the golf course you feel like you're not even going to make contact with
05:23the golf ball let alone hit a good shot and often golfers fall into the trap of going back to their
05:29old ways just because it feels comfortable for them. Obviously my bit of advice for you around
05:35lessons would be to really stick with it, have a plan and really accept the fact that maybe your
05:40results out on the golf course aren't going to improve straight away. There is that period of
05:44bedding them in, getting them ingrained so that they feel more natural and if you do that hopefully
05:49those changes will then produce better more consistent results. Also think about when you
05:55have lessons so maybe peak height of summer isn't the best time to do it because that's when all the
06:00competitions and you can be playing a lot more golf so think about having lessons during the
06:04offseason and don't space them too close together. Give yourself a few weeks apart so you can really
06:09work on it and embed it in time for your next lesson. If you do that hopefully you won't
06:14experience the problem of lessons making you worse before you get better.
06:19Right so the next problem that golfers often face relates to leaving stuff behind without you
06:28realising. There's a lot of things that can potentially fall off for example your range
06:32finder if you haven't zipped it up properly might fall out of its holder, you might drop your towel,
06:37the head cover might fall off or the most common one is you've taken a wedge up with your putter
06:41to do a chip by the green here, you hole out and you walk off without realising you've left your
06:47wedge by the side of the green. You might only realise that you've done it say four or five holes
06:51later when you come to use that wedge for your next shot and obviously there's two problems there.
06:55The first problem is you haven't got that wedge that you really like to use for that next shot
07:00and therefore you have to use a different one you're unfamiliar with and the performance and
07:04the results could suffer as a result but then you've got the other problem of the fact that
07:07you're worrying about where that club is, who's got it, whether they're going to hand it in a pro
07:12shot, whether they're going to try and give it to you during the round and that can affect your
07:16concentration and affect the quality of your shots after that. Obviously the problem is compounded
07:21even more by the fact that product is often worth quite a lot of money and you're kind of worrying
07:26about whether you're even going to get it back at all but hopefully you know you will rely on the
07:29good nature of your fellow members, they would try and give it to you or hand it back in the
07:34pro shop afterwards. Often golfers will get into a bit of a flap and a panic and start waving at
07:39people frantically or two fairways across in some sort of unwritten awful golfing code as to have
07:45you got my club or towel or whatever it is you've dropped and it all can get a bit embarrassing but
07:50you know the problem that golfers face it is annoying but I guess the moral of the story is try
07:54and keep track of all your bits of kit and hopefully your playing partners will spot it if you have
07:59dropped something behind. Right so the next problem relates to winter mats. Now I know they are there
08:10to preserve the integrity of the actual tees and they are in use during the winter months but
08:16there's a lot of problems I have with winter mats. The first is that they generally get a lot of wear
08:20and tear and they can become quite muddy and therefore quite slippy which is not what you
08:24want when you're trying to hit a drive but my main issue with winter mats is how it can be very
08:29difficult to get the correct tee height for the club that you're using. Now obviously a lot of
08:34golfers have different tricks on this and there are a lot of different heights of tee you can use
08:38so for example I use this pink castle tee for my driver it's the perfect height for it so if you can
08:44get it in the ground fully then that's problem solved but if you're hitting say for example this
08:49hole is a risk reward par four here at Burley Park the fourth hole I like to hit a three wood
08:54so I need to get the ball teed up ever so slightly but it can be quite difficult to do it especially
08:59if the mats are quite firm as they are at the moment. You can get these very small castle tees
09:05which are ideal but they only work if you can actually get the tee physically in the mat which
09:09can be very difficult. My advice to you would be try and use holes that have been previously used
09:14and don't go forward with the shot if the ball isn't teed up to the correct height because you'll
09:19only end up either roofing the shot and putting a horrible mark on the top of your club if you've
09:24got it teed up too high and if you give up altogether and use the off the mat especially
09:29on a par three and you like to use a tee with your irons and you give up and don't use a tee
09:33then you probably end up thinning it or hitting a pretty bad shot so persevere with it invest in
09:38some very small green castle tees like I've got here and hopefully this won't be a problem for you.
09:49Right so the next problem golfers face is a pain so excruciating I wouldn't wish it on my worst
09:55enemies it is the dreaded ankle bash where you knock your putter head against the little bone
10:01that sticks out on the side of your ankle I would liken the pain to standing on an upturned plug or
10:07a piece of lego in barefoot it's that bad and really something you want to try and avoid because
10:12it can leave you hobbling around the side of the green it often happens also if you're in the bunker
10:16maybe you've played your bunker shot and you're tapping the sole of your shoe to get the sand out
10:21of your cleats and suddenly you miss your shoe and the club strikes that part of your ankle so
10:26my only advice to you would be to be very careful where you swing your wedge or your putter.
10:41Right the next problem that golfers face comes in the bunker and specifically if you're playing
10:45on a dry windy day often the sand when hitting a bunker shot will pop up and if you're hitting
10:51into the wind it'll then fly back right into your face and that can be a really uncomfortable
10:57situation you get sand in your eyes it's incredibly painful but also the sand can get down your top
11:03and it gets very very itchy in all sorts of different places and it's very very uncomfortable
11:07and difficult to shake off you find yourself walking funnily after in the next few holes trying
11:12to shake it out and get it all out of the areas where it feels uncomfortable I guess my only advice
11:17to overcome that problem is to turn away as quickly as you can so you hit the shot you know
11:22the sand's going to be blowing into your face obviously don't turn away too soon you need to
11:26hit the shot properly but then just kind of turn away hopefully the sand won't get into those
11:31places where you don't want it to but that's the best advice I can do I'm afraid it's a problem
11:35golfers have to experience sometimes unfortunately out on the course. Now the next problem that
11:46golfers have to deal with relates to these premium golf balls now we all know if you want
11:50the best performing golf ball you have to pay a premium price for example this Pro V1X golf ball
11:56that I play comes in around about 50 pounds per dozen which equates to just over four pounds
12:02a golf ball which in the grand scheme of things is quite a lot of money when you consider how long
12:07these balls potentially last we've all done it we've picked up a brand new Pro V1X on the first
12:12tee that brilliant white finish is gleaming back at you and then you hit a raging snap hook
12:17into the cabbage or the out-of-bounds never to be seen again and that four pound golf ball
12:21has lasted literally 10 seconds of course Titleist have less expensive offerings that
12:26might well be worth considering but if you don't want to go down that route the chances are at some
12:30point you will lose a brand new premium ball and unless you're on tour that's a pretty painful
12:36experience but unfortunately it's just a problem golfers have to deal with
12:45right the next problem on our list relates to pockets now pockets are really important for a
12:50golfer because golfers have to store a lot of different items during a round whether it's tees
12:54markers pitchmark repairers pencils that sort of thing and often those sorts of things can be left
12:59in your pocket for longer than you might like so for example maybe you're out shopping and then you
13:04suddenly realize you've got left your glove in your back pocket and you obviously feel incredibly
13:09embarrassed about it and another problem that golfers have to deal with when it comes to pockets
13:13is perhaps leaving your scorecard in your pocket when you put your trousers through the wash taking
13:18your trousers out for this next outing having put it through the wash and then finding that you've
13:23left your scorecard in the pocket and it's turned to that horrible papery mush material that's
13:28almost impossible to get fully out of your pocket and you spend the next few days really trying to
13:33brush everything out of there it's a horrible feeling hopefully you haven't done that after
13:36your competitive round but after your social round you might have left your scorecard in there so
13:40that's one of the big problems golfers leaving things in their pockets for too long right so
13:46that concludes the 10 problems that all golfers can relate to hopefully you really enjoyed this
13:50video and if you did make sure you give us a thumbs up by clicking the like button and comment
13:55down below i'd love to hear from you how many of these problems have you had to deal with and have
13:59we missed any out so make sure you let us know but for now from Burley Park Golf Club here in
14:04Stamford it's goodbye from me we'll see you next time