If you’ve never played golf before, you might find yourself wondering what all the fuss is about. People all gather together to watch some guys hit a ball into the distance, as they eventually hit it into a hole hundreds of yards away. It doesn’t really seem to be such a big deal. But if you think you could just march your way onto a golf course and emulate what you see on TV, you’re in for a big and likely unpleasant surprise.
In fact, not only is golf much more challenging than you think, it might just be the most difficult sport in the world. Most sports demand a certain physical ability, in which the strongest and fastest athletes usually prevail. Even if they don’t come out on top, their physical gifts certainly put them at a major advantage.
But golf is a whole other animal. It takes tremendous skills, precision, form, concentration, and skill, just to be able to play at an average level. If you don’t believe me, just head over to the nearest golf course and give it a try. Of course, once you improve your game, it will become a much more fun and rewarding experience.
So let’s take a closer look at what makes golf so difficult to play. The game itself requires using a four-foot medal (or wooden) rod, to hit a small ball that is just one inch in diameter. But having the precision to hit it in such a way that it actually goes where you aim is incredibly challenging. The player’s swing must be perfect, or the ball could easily slice in any direction. That’s why strength is less of an issue in golf, and precision is the key to success.
It is incredibly difficult to consistently drive the ball to reach the fairway. If you don’t the ball could end up between some trees, or even worse, within one of the sand bunkers. Hitting a ball out of the bunker requires even more skill, since the resistance of the sand makes it so much harder to hit the ball properly.
In the event that you were able to get the ball onto the fairway successfully, you now have to accurately select the best possible club (rod) to use to get the ball as close to the hole as possible. Again, that’s much easier said than done. If a golfer overshoots the hole, the ball could end up sailing way beyond the hole and into the “rough” (thicker and taller grass), which creates difficulty in properly hitting the ball on your next attempt.
Once the ball is actually near the hole, your next task is to use a putter, which is a rod with a flat bottom, used to elegantly move the ball into (or at least closer to) the hole. One could say this is a game in its own right. Have you ever played on a miniature golf course? That is the essence of what putting actually is. The big difference is the fact that the area surrounding the hole on a real golf course is not flattened. It has various curves and angles that must be taken into consideration, in order to properly guide the ball into the hole. At times, these angles are so drastic, that you might actually not be aiming toward the hole itself. That’s why you’ll always see golfers bend down to get a closer look at the area. They want to “read the green,” or in other words, properly analyze the angle at which the ball needs to be hit, in order to actually get it into the hole.
Until you’ve picked up a set of golf clubs for the first time, and attempted to play the game for yourself, you simply cannot appreciate the incredible talents that today’s professional golfers actually have. Give it a shot. You’ll see what I’m talking about.
