Why is golf so hard?

It is a question I often ask myself in my love-hate relationship with this beautiful game. I have witnessed both amateurs and professionals lose their minds when chasing a golf ball around a course.

On one occasion, a family friend threw his clubs into the water on the 17th hole at my local. He had just lost the Provincial Amateur Open and was so consumed by emotions that he took it out on his golf equipment. But let me leave the stories for later.

This article looks at why golf is so hard, and how you can enjoy it more. Plus, I will provide ways to improve your golf game and reduce frustration.

Why So Many People Find Golf to Be So Hard

People find golf difficult because it is a target sport. It requires precise swing mechanics and calculations to get your ball from one point to another. Aside from consistent ball striking, you need to accurately judge the wind, altitude, and moisture for optimal distance control.

Another main reason is that the average golfer does not divide their time at the driving range. I see many amateurs bombing drives away and becoming masters of the tee box. However, their irons and short gameplay are erratic and cost them dearly on the golf course.

If you are not guilty of focusing on one element of your game, yet you still struggle, the answer may boil down to your golf club. Proper equipment is vital for success. High handicappers or beginners should be playing with game improvement irons and an oversized driver head.

These clubs are highly forgiving for the average person and offer consistency. They generally possess expanded sweet spots to combat slices and hooks and produce straighter shots. Plus, they maintain ball speed on off-center strikes for maximum distance.

Good golfers may not appreciate the forgiveness and sidespin correction of game improvement irons. Blade irons are best suited to these players looking to work their shots around the course. In addition, those clubs provide a superior feel and acoustics for an improved experience.

How Golf is Hard Physically

When non-golfers look at John Daly and Des Terblanche, you can understand why they think that golf is not a physical game. How wrong they are. Sure, you can play golf and navigate the fairways in a cart, but swinging a golf club requires stamina and core strength.

You need optimal rotation to get your club face on path for impact to produce consistent distance and accuracy. If you are out of shape, it is a mission to execute effectively, and you run the risk of injuring your hips, lower back, neck, and knees.

According to the National Health Statistics, recreational sports like golf have a higher injury rate than team sports like volleyball or rugby. Only by 0.3 points more per 1,000 people, but it still highlights the injury risk. Over 40% of amateur golfers report injuries every year. That number is higher than double that for professionals.

Bryson DeChambeau is an excellent example of a player who has improved his golf game by optimizing his fitness. He boosted his swing and ball speed by gaining 20-pounds of muscle and conditioning his body. The result is one of the longest hitters on tour.

Gone are the days of the “real” athletes like JD and Rocco Mediate, who navigated the course fuelled by vice.

How Golf is Hard Mentally

Besides being a target sport, golf is as much a mental game. Honestly, that’s where I went wrong. As a junior, I played a host of tournaments across my homeland and abroad but struggled with mental factors.

I was a 4-handicap at that point and knew what I was capable of. I had carded the odd round under par but was a mid to high 70s golfer for the most part. Whenever I played stroke play tournaments, I imploded after a single bad hole and forgot I could birdie holes and pull back strokes. Effectively, I defeated myself.

Weirdly, when it came to matchplay, I lost one match in my last two years at high school. If I hit the ball into one of the hazards and had a disastrous hole, I only went 1-down. There was a different dynamic, and I had improved confidence in those scenarios.

Another personal example of how difficult golf is mentally occurred when I was 13. My buddy and I were playing a 2-ball better ball matchplay knockout event and were 7-down after 9. After a couple of long-range birdies, we clawed back to 4-down on the 12th. But, we still had our work cut out for us.

On the par 3 13th, my partner’s tee shot lipped out of the cup and came to rest a foot from the cup. He tapped in for a birdie, and our opponents needed to chip in from the side of the green to halve the hole.

Instead, the one opponent, a 2-handicapper, topped his shot and sent his ball 1-yard. He snapped his lob wedge and screamed every profanity in the book as my friend and I took the hole and walked the stroke 1, 14th. We went on to bring it back to level after 18 and won the sudden-death playoff, advancing to the semi-finals.

The purpose of that story is to highlight the importance of maintaining a strong and composed mental state on the golf course. The angrier you get, the less confident you become. It is near impossible to play an enjoyable round of golf in that mind frame.

Besides the mental frustration brought about by an unsuccessful golf swing, there is the matter of focus to discuss.

A split-second loss of focus can destroy your shot. You might lift your head and chunk your shot. Alternatively, you try to generate the clubhead speed of Kyle Berkshire and leave your clubface open at impact, leading to a slice.

Developing a pre-shot routine can help you focus on your next shot and forget about previous mishaps.

The 9 Keys to Getting Better at Golf (and Having More Fun Along The Way)

1. Take Golf Lessons

If you are no longer enjoying golf because of constant bogeys, lost balls, and broken clubs, it might help to take golf lessons. Stop listening to your playing partners and seek expert golf instructors to root out the cause of your woes.

They have the equipment, knowledge, and experience to put you on the right track. They will also assess whether you are using the correct equipment for your swing. Now, I make these experts sound like bullies who point out every flaw in your repertoire. Lessons are far from a demoralizing experience.

You can read a full breakdown of the importance of an instructor in my post about the value of golf lessons. The gist of it is that lessons give you the means to improve your game of golf. Those that have never had lessons should absolutely pencil in an appointment with the golf doctor.

2. Structure Your Training Program

What I mean by structuring your training program is to diversify your routine. Instead of spending two hours on your long game, break it up. Spend 25 minutes on each element of your game.

One example is to hit your wedges and short irons for 25 minutes, then focus on your long iron and hybrid shots. Next, take 25 minutes to hone your driver and fairway wood skills, and end off with putting practice.

Do not stand in the hitting bay and plow through balls. Practice with purpose. Maybe spend one day of the week working on the flop, pitch, and bunker shots, then spend the next session working on long, and mid-iron draws and fades.

Alternate the sessions so that you dedicate sufficient time to every element of your golf game every week.

3. Account For Wind And Elevation

As if golf wasn’t enough of a difficult sport, we need to contend with nature. That requires you to understand how slopes, wind, and even the time of day impact the distance and direction of your shot.

You can purchase an affordable rangefinder with slope mode, which factors in the incline or decline of the gradient. For example, if the green is located above the level of your ball, you may need to take an extra club. Conversely, if the green is downhill, one club less may do the trick.

The Callaway 300 Pro rangefinder features slope mode and provides precise measurements for improved distance control. However, if you seek that includes barometric and temperatures in its calculations, the Bushnell XE may interest you. Naturally, it cost more than the Callaway.

4. Learn How To Scramble

Casual golfers often train in unrealistic conditions for a golf course. Our hitting mats are smooth and easy to strike from. Plus, the range offers yards of space to aim at. This does not teach you to scramble and escape tricky positions.

A strong scrambling game is what took me to single digits. When I was at the range, I often worked on shaping my shots. I also turned my clubhead around to resemble a left-handed club. In addition, I spent hours on end in the bunkers, hitting shots from all lies.

The purpose of these drills was to help me escape trouble and get home without a scratch. My proficiency in recovery shots reduced my stress levels. I could escape thick rough or a plugged lie in the bunker. Plus, I could maneuver my ball around a tree.

Not every shot will fly down the fairway and onto the green in regulation. You need to train yourself to escape trouble and recover strong. In the below video, Tiger Woods shows why creative shots are vital to a successful career in golf.

5. Only Your Next Shot Matters

After a bad shot, take a deep breath and move on. Your duff already happened, and there is nothing that you can do to change it. Let the frustration go and focus on hitting the best next shot.

The longer you dwell on past mistakes, the more it eats into your thoughts. Trust me, it impacts the remainder of your round.

6. Take A Cart

Personally, I find golf more enjoyable when I am walking. However, I understand that not many share that opinion. If you are miserable walking a golf course, take a cart. Remove the worry of the walk from your mind.

Driving around the course helps you conserve energy for maximizing your swing power. It also keeps you cool on a scorching day.

7. Have A Drink

I have played numerous rounds in my life where cold beers are flowing like the Mississippi River. Naturally, some golfers get rowdy and are a nightmare to be around. For others, a beverage helps take the edge off and encourage relaxation. It may work for you and boost your enjoyment.

8. Focus On The Positives

Often we can beat ourselves up over lackluster scorecards, which further destroys your fun. I find focusing on the positives and looking at my growth keeps the game exciting and helps me focus on what is important.

For example, I look at how many fairways in regulation (FIR) I hit this round compared to the last. As well as the total number of putts.

In one round, my overall score may be terrible. However, I may have hit more FIR’s than in the previous round. Pat yourself on the back and take the small wins. Golf is a journey, and it is a slow rise to a low handicap.

9. Play For Fun

My final word of advice is to play for fun. Golf is a game, after all. When you are serious and focused on lowering your scores, it can be detrimental to your overall performance. Take it easy, and look at casual rounds as nothing more than practice.

You and your playing partners can gift one another a mulligan on each nine to promote the practice feel. In addition, focus more on the positive elements of your round rather than the score.

Matt Stevens

Matt Callcott-Stevens started playing golf at the age of 4 when Rory Sabattini’s father put a 7-iron and putter in his hand. He has experienced all the highs and lows the game can throw at you and has now settled down as a professional golf writer. He holds a Postgraduate in Sports Marketing and has played golf for 28 years.

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My non-golfing buddies often joke about our game not being a sport. Their ignorance makes them believe there is no athleticism required, but that could not be further from the ttruth. Golf is hard because it requires a strong mental state, hand-eye coordination, and precise swing mechanics.

All of these factors need to gel for you to produce consistently long and accurate shots. In addition, you should aim correctly and account for the wind to get your golf ball to the target. There is much to think about without inducing anxiety to remain calm during your swing.

1. Grip Pressure

Bobby Jones once stated that “…a correct grip is a fundamental necessity in the golf swing. It might even be said to be the first necessity.” It sounds obvious, but it is true. This is something that amateur golfers often forget.

Your grip needs to offer increased control of your golf clubs to generate optimal power on the downswing and a square clubface through impact. These 2 components deliver long, straight shots for optimal distance and accuracy.

You tend to leave the clubface open at contact when your grip is too weak. This prompts a fade or slice. Conversely, a firm grip causes your bottom hand to close the face at impact, creating a hook or draw-shape.

As a baseball grip guy, I can confidently say that the type of grip you employ is irrelevant. Those are your 10 fingers, Varner, and interlock grips. What matters is the strength of your grip and the level of control you enjoy over your club.

Our guide, titled proper golf grip, gives you 8 simple steps to improve your golf club handling. You can read that for a detailed rundown. However, I will provide the top tip below on how to improve in this area.

Tip on How to Overcome This Challenge:

Fewer Knuckles For A Lighter Grip

Golfers consistently hooking their shots should consider loosening their grip to enable them to control the clubface through impact. This is done, by increasing the number of knuckles visible on your left hand, if you are right-handed.

More Knuckles For A Stronger Grip

Conversely, you need to see at least 2 or more knuckles for a firmer grip. This will help you close the clubface to a square position before impact, unlike a weak grip, which limits your control and prompts the clubface to open through impact.

2. Ball Position

My playing partner is currently struggling with this issue. At one point in his life, he was a 2-handicap, but an accident destroyed his ambition to be a professional golfer.

Regardless, he puts his ball too far forward for iron and fairway shots and excessively behind his back foot on wedge strikes. This causes him to chunk every shot from the tee box to the green. It is an easy fix, but the man is stubborn and takes advice from nobody.

When he sets up for a long iron or fairway wood shot off the deck, the ball is too far forward in his stance. As a result, his golf club sole strikes the fairway or rough at the swing’s lowest point before catching the top of the golf ball. This leads to a bad shot and a couple of throwing clubs around the golf course.

On the contrary, his back ball position in his short game prompts a steep angle of attack, causing the club to bounce off the turf and into the upper part of the golf ball. Sadly, that is the best-case scenario. Sometimes, the club digs into the soil, and it doesn’t make contact at all.

Tip on How to Overcome This Challenge:

Tee Shots

When your ball is teed up, it should sit parallel to the heel of your front foot. The aim is for your swing’s low point to occur before impact so that your clubface catches the ball on your upswing.

Long Iron, Hybrids and Fairway Woods

Long iron, hybrid, and fairway wood deck shots require the ball to be forward in your stance. But, it should sit approximately 2-inches back from the tee shot position. Your mission is to catch the ball at the low point to compress it to produce high ball flight for maximum carry distance.

Mid Irons

Ideally, you should place the golf ball towards the center of your stance for a mid-irons shot. Like a fairway wood strike off the deck, you must catch the ball at the low point of your golf swing.

Wedges

Wedges contain the shortest shafts in your bag. That means you need to move your ball to the center-back position of your stance to enable you to catch the ball cleanly on your downswing to get it up and spinning.

Putter

The way you set up for putts is dependent on your preference. However, I suggest placing the ball in the center of your stance to simplify the alignment process in the beginning.

3. Alignment

Golf is a target sport, and besides worrying about your grip, ball position, and swing mechanics, you have to know how to aim. There are two elements involved here, your feet and clubface. Your clubface should aim at your target while your feet run parallel to that mark.

Alignment is typically the culprit when the average golfer gets everything right in their setup and swing but misses the target.

Tip on How to Overcome This Challenge:

Alignment Aid

We recently compiled a list of the 10 best alignment stick drills you can do. It is a versatile training aid that you can use for multiple facets of your golf game. However, in this instance, you use it to keep your clubface on target.

Place an alignment road down, and point to your target. Next, place your ball 2-inches behind the rod, and address the ball. Your clubface aims at the target, and you are ready to strike the golf ball. The more you use this tool, the easier it becomes to achieve a precise aim.

4. Swing Mechanics

If you were not convinced that golf is a difficult sport after the first 3 points, prepare to be humbled. You seek to achieve 2 core objectives with your swing. The first is to optimize your clubhead speed to impart on the ball at impact, leading to maximum distance in your long game.

Secondly, your job is to get the clubface square at impact. And none of this is possible if you do not produce ample hip and shoulder rotation. That reduces your power and restricts your ability to get the clubface into the desired position for impact.

You can achieve an accurate long shot whenever you combine optimal rotation with a smooth rhythm and tempo. The orchestra of muscles activating and bones rotating accelerates your swing speed and prompts you to square your clubface through impact.

If your tempo and rhythm are off, you can produce catastrophic results, such as sending your ball out of bounds.

Besides tempo and rhythm, you need to focus on your swing path. If you swing along an outside line on your backswing, you generally swing inside on the way through. This line prompts fade or slice sidespin and causes your clubface to remain open at contact.

Conversely, an inside-out golf swing encourages a closed clubface through impact and creates draw or hook sidespin.

Tip on How to Overcome This Challenge:

Short and Slow

I resort to short and slow whenever my swing mechanics are a mess. That means I shorten my backswing, between ½ and ¾ length, and slow my clubhead speed down. Sure I lose a couple of yards with each club, but it improves the consistency of my fairways in regulation record.

5. Suitable Equipment

Winston Churchill famously quipped, “golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose.” Fortunately, the equipment has advanced significantly since the late Prime Minister navigated the links.

ESPN ranks golf as the 51st hardest sport, which I utterly disagree with. But, personal opinions aside, the game is impossible when using inappropriate equipment.

If your clubs possess lofts that are too strong for your swing speed or shafts that are too stiff, you are on a hiding to nothing. These clubs will promote a low-flying golf ball, which costs you carry distance.

Conversely, weak lofted clubs with flexible shafts are a nightmare for faster swingers. This construction can cause you to generate excess backspin and sky your shots. As a result, you have less forward momentum, flight, and total distance.

Do not purchase clubs for the sake of it. Ensure that they match your needs and will help you card fewer bogeys and the odd birdie.

Tip on How to Overcome This Challenge:

Get Fitted

Golfers unsure of their idea specifications should consider getting fitted for the correct clubs. This helps you understand what works for you and why making it easier to find your equipment in the future.

6. Course Management

An area where most casual golfers fail is course management. As Kenny Rogers said, “you gotta know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.” The same rings true on the golf course.

Be smart and pick your battles. In the event that the hole is tight and leaves no margin for error, you should play it safe. On these holes, you know to hit a long iron from the tees instead of a driver. In addition, you cannot attack every par 5 green in 2. Sometimes, you should lay up to avoid the sand or a water hazard.

Furthermore, play for position on doglegs. Pick the side of the fairway that gives you the clearest line to your target. A simple slip up to the wrong side of the fairway can rule out a green in regulation.

Finally, if your options are limited, do not try and pull off a miracle shot. Simply execute a routing chip shot to get back onto the short grass.

Tip on How to Overcome This Challenge:

Use Common Sense

Play smart, and pick the right moment to attack the flag. In addition, play to the safest side of the fairway to set yourself up for an easy approach shot. Be patient and earn the right to card a birdie. When the shot is not on, do not go for it and ruin your round of golf.

7. No Golf Lessons

Far too many casual golfers have never had a golf lesson and complain that they struggle to play the game. PGA tour players work consistently with their coaches to master every aspect of their game, from drives to bunker shots and putts.

An instructor sets you on the straight and narrow by correcting the basics in your game. They teach you the fundamentals to victoriously navigate from the tee box to the green. Without lessons, you traverse the grassy terrain of a golf course ill-equipped with the knowledge to successfully play golf.

Only if your finances permit and you are serious about improving your swing, book a weekly lesson with your instructor. This ensures continuity to consistently reduce your net score. Those without the budget should book at least 5-lessons in to cover the basics.

Tip on How to Overcome This Challenge:

Take Lessons

The solution to this problem is simple. Call up your local teaching professional and book a lesson with them. This may be a costly endeavor, but it is an investment in your golf game and will pay off as you shed strokes from your game. If your budget is tight, start saving up and follow our in-depth tips and drills to lower your handicap.

Related Reading: If you are reading this, you are likely questioning your motivation for taking up the game. Relax, and read our steps to help you avoid asking questions such as why I suck at golf.

Matt Stevens

Matt Callcott-Stevens started playing golf at the age of 4 when Rory Sabattini’s father put a 7-iron and putter in his hand. He has experienced all the highs and lows the game can throw at you and has now settled down as a professional golf writer. He holds a Postgraduate in Sports Marketing and has played golf for 28 years.

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