Things That Some Club Golfers Neglect or Completely Ignore

What sort of golfer are you? Do you plan things meticulously or do you leave things to chance?

My guess is that most club golfers are actually pretty disorganised. I start every golf season with the best of intentions but usually it doesn’t last very long.

So what are the main things that club golfers neglect?

Maintaining And Cleaning Clubs

Be honest - how often do you clean your golf clubs? If you watch the top professionals you will be aware that caddies clean irons after each and every shot. And I can absolutely guarantee that at the end of every round the looper goes through the entire bag and cleans every club properly. There is one good reason for this - if you have dried mud in the grooves of your irons you will not be able to control the ball properly - and you will have zero chance of applying any backspin. And don’t neglect your driver, fairway woods and rescue clubs - they can just as easily pick up dirt, and that will affect their performance and your game. Another advantage of cleaning your clubs on a regular basis is that they look better. 

Clearing Out Their Golf Bag

This is something I preach on a regular basis. We all put bars of chocolate, biscuits, energy bars, fruit and drinks in our golf bags. Now if we eat and drink them all then all is well and good. But how many of us do? You get to the 10th tee and somebody in your group offers you an energy bar and you take it and eat it. When you get home, do you remove the food from your bag? Hands up - there have been many times when I have failed to do so and, weeks later, have come to regret it when I have gone into my bag for something else and pulled out a chocolate bar that has melted. Yuk!

Updating Equipment

I recently played golf with a fellow senior golfer and realised he was using a set of 20-year-old Ping irons. To be honest with you, these clubs were a work of art. I asked him if I could hit a shot with his six iron. To my utter astonishment, I realised that it still had its original grip. It was smooth and shiny and I had to grip it so tightly that I thought I was going to suffer a muscle seizure. My question is a simple one - why do so many golfers neglect to change their grips?

Clearing Out Old Golf Balls

Senior golfers do not like losing golf balls. In truth, none of us do. But seniors take it to a different level. Three minutes to look for a ball? Not a snowball’s chance in hell. But what really makes me smile is the state of the golf balls some of them insist upon using. For goodness sake, why do so many club golfers neglect to dump old golf balls? It makes no sense to me.

Time at The Range

Why do so many club golfers neglect to spend time at the driving range? These will be the same individuals who play once a week and then complain about the fact that they never seem to get any better. They will tell you that they simply don’t have the time to head to the driving range. Most of us live within easy travelling distance of a driving range - is it really so difficult to find a spare hour or so to go and hit some golf balls? And why do so many people who do head to the driving range neglect to use their time properly? I have lost count of the number of times that I have been aware of a golfer in the next bay doing nothing other than hitting drivers. That would be fine if they were actually working on something but all that these people are doing is grooving in their swing faults.

Lessons

Please explain to me why so many club golfers neglect to take lessons. I simply do not understand this one. If you are a 20-handicapper trust me when I tell you that you are NEVER going to get any better by listening to the swing tips provided by your fellow 20-handicappers. The ONLY way to improve your game is by going to see a club professional and booking a series of lessons. While I am at it, why do so many club golfers book lessons and then neglect to put into practice what they have been taught? Doh! 

Knowing The Rules

I appreciate that the rules of golf are quirky, to say the least, but why do so many club golfers neglect to learn the most basic rules? Why don’t they hit provisional golf balls when their first effort disappears into the trees or thick rough? When they drive the ball out of bounds, why do they think that they can wander down the fairway, drop a ball close to where their first one vanished over the fence and tell you they are playing their third shot? Why do they neglect to learn the rules about water hazards and the penalties imposed when you end up in one? Why do they neglect to learn where they can drop the ball?

Bad Etiquette

If there is one thing that drives me nuts it is people who have no clue about etiquette. These are golfers who chat away while you are trying to focus on your shot, who wander in front of you as you are about to play. They are oblivious to everybody apart from themselves. They never, ever shout Fore! Ever! They tell you that they have taken five when you know for a fact that they struck the ball six times. You look in their bag and they are carrying 15 clubs. They tell you that their handicap is 20 and they proceed to go round in three over par - and then tell you that they have never in their life played like that!

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