I DON’T know about you but I’m pretty sure I have never, ever made a stupid mistake on a golf course. There was this one time… but that was clearly not my fault.
In this new golf tips video from Neil Tappin at Golf Monthly he reckons they have come up with 12 mistakes every golfer makes at least once in their illustrious careers – from weekend hackers to the pros.
Tappin concedes that may have missed some mistakes – and the comments below the YouTube video certainly offer some other suggestions.
Counting down from 12, I personally have to take issue with #2, which is the ill-advisability of going for “miracle” shots.
Tappin is set up over 200 yards form the pin has, has to swerve around a tree dead in front. over a stream, avoid some more trees up front, etc. “Over ambitious,” he says, before trying it and ending up near the green.
“I’ve been incredibly lucky for very little gain,” he suggests.
I remember going for an absolute walk-on-water miracle attempt in a comp on the NSW north coast a couple of years back and then haranguing myself when the ball pin-balled off several trees to end up behind me – in an even worse position.
But an extremely wise and un-stupid local golfer playing with me said: “If you stop trying to play miracle shots, how are you ever going to get better at them.”
See, not stupid at all!