Played with a pretty good player

[VtDivot]

Make no mistake though this Vt guy and a thousand or so others across the country have the same physical capabilities.

I agree with that. The problem is they can't repeat it every time like a tour pro can. Why? No fecking idea. Is it mental? Nope. I don't know what it is other than to say, they aren't good enough.

 

[Esox]

you guys crack me up lol.

It's funny.

I'm sitting here watching the Bridgestone and it seems to me their distance control, spin control, ability to work the ball, oh let's just say their ball striking, may be a bit better than you're typical low handicapper/State Am winner. Just a little bit. A tiny bit. A smidgen.

Kevin

 

[Wi-Golfer]

It's funny.

I'm sitting here watching the Bridgestone and it seems to me their distance control, spin control, ability to work the ball, oh let's just say their ball striking, may be a bit better than you're typical low handicapper/State Am winner. Just a little bit. A tiny bit. A smidgen.

Kevin

Damn straight! It's not as simple as mental toughness & short game, sure those are important as hell but so is your natural ability. Some have & most of us don't. Sure we may get lucky & have a good rd every now & then but that's it.

How many of you believe that if were to practice for years you could ever beat Jordan in basketball? For those of us who like racing, I am pretty decent on the track with my bike & have ridden on tracks such as Daytona with the AMA pro's. I am giving it 105% & those guys were looking back at us & waving for us to speed the hell up. For them it's nothing, they have the natural ability & instincts.

Your local course pro, goofball that works at Dicks & claims to be a pro, etc would get their ass handed to them by the worst guy on the PGA tour, no question about it.

 

[SilverUberXeno]

I think Fisher and Piper are right here, fellows.

Take your state Am winner and tell him that all he needs to do is play golf all day, every day, and that all his equipment and expenses will be covered.

That "other worldly" control comes from the fact that a tour player can stand 100 yards away from a tour-manicured green somewhere and hit 1,000 shots at the flag with 3 different clubs, all day long, if he wants to. It's NOT other worldly. It's opportunity. Tiger is the only player who virtually never misses cuts.

If it's NOT all about short game, then it must be all about GIR. I'd bet your state am winner would have a very close, if not equal to or better than, GIR % versus an average tour pro. With as much as these guys practice, ballstriking just isn't that involved.

But everyone misses greens. Tiger misses a LOT of greens. He, and the best, can not only make par from a missed fairway, but BIRDIE. And they scramble better than your state am winner.

I think you guys have this wild idea that the pros have some secret to playing golf. They're confident, they practice a LOT, and their short games don't fail them. When their short games DO fail them, they don't make par.

Golf isn't basketball. If the ball was dropping for you one day, and you hit a lot of GIRs, you're going to post a good score. Tour pros are the same way. But when you, and they, can't scramble, you, and they, are not in contention.

They make more out of their misses, and miss less. They make better scores out of their opportunities, and make more opportunities for themselves. They putt better.

That's it.

 

[Sandpiper3]

VT, it is mental toughness why they aren't as good as the Pros. Those guys who win their amateurs all the time and compete all the time, the only reason they can't do it on tour is they aren't mentally tough enough to completely repeat the EXACT swing everytime. They DO have the swing, just can't get it out everytime.

That and the umpteenth level of the short game you need to be at to play on Tour.

 

[ezra76]

All I was saying is this guy is pretty damn good. It's public record that he beat Sheehan his 1st time winning the state am. Not that Sheehan is like a great pro or anything. He's been back and forth from Nationwide to PGA for years. Another recent winner is Brad Adamonis, also got his tour card through the Nationwide. Past winners have included Faxon, Andrade, Brett and Dana Quigley. Not exactly the cream of the crop as far as tour pros but pretty damn good none the less.

So I guess we have a pretty good track record here in RI. Consider that in the last 20yrs., 5 winners have gone to the PGA tour. Also consider multiple winners and that goes up to like over 30% of the RI state am winners have gone on to get a PGA tour card, not bad.

 

[LeftyHoges]

the only reason they can't do it on tour is they aren't mentally tough enough to completely repeat the EXACT swing everytime. They DO have the swing, just can't get it out everytime.

Wouldn't not being able to do something repeatedly be a SKILL DEFICIENCY instead of a lack of mental toughness???? I have a great swing 1 out of every 5, thats not mental toughness stopping me from doing it all the time.

Any person posting on this forum, any person winning a state amateur and any person over the age of 30 are absolutely kidding themselves if they think for even a second that they can match it with the also-rans of the PGA tour, let alone the BIG boys.

Couldn't agree with you more VT. I've got game, and I would likely say that I'd be around top 10-20 of the REGULARS that post on this forum and I'm under no illusion that I'd come within 10 shots of a PGA tour pro on their courses. Even if I'd played the courses 100 times before.

If you want to even think about making a living from this game you'd better be shooting in the mid 60's EVERY TIME by the time your 18 around your pissy little course before anything else.

NO CHANCE anyone on here is making it even close with the exception of 1 or 2 guys, and even they better practice their nuts off for the next 5 years!!!!

Tour pros do EVERYTHING better. They average 70% fairways on 15 yard yard wide fairways. They average 70% GIR on 7000+ yard courses. They scramble better, they play out of bunkers better, they putt better. Hell they probably know a way of pissing better than we do, they are that far in front of us.

Keep dreaming boys!!!!!

 

[gwlee7]

There's a guy I play with from time to time that I met on a swing instruction board. He is 35 years old. He thinks that in 15 years he'll be good enough to play the Champions Tour. I keep telling him that in 15 years, he'll have to be able to beat Mickelson, Leonard, Els, and only have a couple of years to try to make money before Tiger, if Tiger chooses to play. On top of all that, he can't even beat me and I certainly have no illusions about my mid single digit handicap game. I am the 58th ranked player at my club. Not city, not county, not state, not nation, not world. Club. My friend has a "lofty" goal for sure.

 

[VtDivot]

NO CHANCE anyone on here is making it even close with the exception of 1 or 2 guys, and even they better practice their nuts off for the next 5 years!!!!

Good post, but not even 1 or 2 guys that post here have the game to play on tour.

 

[ezra76]

I agree with that. The problem is they can't repeat it every time like a tour pro can. Why? No fecking idea. Is it mental? Nope. I don't know what it is other than to say, they aren't good enough.

I agree to an extent. I'm sure there are a lot of guys that can play as good as the pro's when there is nothing on the line. Putting up the scores when it counts is another story.

Also, there is a big difference between the guys I talk about and the upper echelon of tour pros. I'm sure the guy I played with could have taken a run but what is at stake? Adamonis played on the Nationwide for 10yrs. and only made $200K. He made more in his first PGA event than he did in those 10yrs.. Now consider a guy like I played with. He was/is a doctor. At the time he probably had considerable loan payments from school and entering a field he's starting at probably $200K a year, the same Adamonis made in 10yrs.. The decision is obvious. Why risk a garunteed 2-3 million over 10yrs., during which time he still played all the top amatuer events and did well, to go out and take the risk on the Nationwide? Now, if you're a guy with not much of a lucrative career outside of golf and the same talent, along with some sponsors, of course you are going to go out and give it a shot.

You can rest assured there are no Tiger beaters working at the local CC. If these guys had the talent to be a lock to make the PGA tour, they would be there. There is just way too much money out there not to. Look at a guy like Brett Quigley. He's never won on tour and still has over $10 million in career earnings. He turned pro in 1991 so that's about $550K a year. Not a bad way to make a living.... but for every Brett Quigley I'm sure there are dozens of guys that tried and are putting "Dr. Pirie's" bag on his cart for the club championship today, working as a 1st or 2nd assistant pro at the CC.

 

[Sandpiper3]

Good post, but not even 1 or 2 guys that post here have the game to play on tour.

See you in a few years .

Put it this way, I have three years of school left. I am playing terrible golf right now and I haven't been over 75 in the past month. I had two rounds where I felt like I made less than 5 really bonehead moves, and those two rounds were 63 and 65.

And I'm improving a ton, and still know I have another 5-6-7-8 shots out there every round. And just ask gwlee how my putting stroke is .

 

[N.V.M.]

i think ShotTalk needs a FIGJAM award. and the winner is....

 

[SilverUberXeno]

Mental toughness has a lot to do with whether you can bring that swing every shot. Think about it. When you get to the 14th hole, are you slowing down? I know that I lose focus on the ass end of a round, let alone my 4th round in 4 days. It's so easy to let it go a little, and you're in the woods.

Also, guys, think about this. Best amateur versus a good tour player is how many strokes? The PGA magnifies this difference by having FOUR-ROUND matches. That 4-5 strokes over 4 days is TWENTY strokes. That's mental toughness-- being able to stay focused and make good decisions for 72 holes, not just 18.

I don't think it's out of the question that the best amateurs could beat a good tour pro once in a while in an 18 hole match. But I wouldn't take any odds that he's going to beat him in a stretch of 4 rounds. It's fortitude and stamina, physically and mentally, and obviously outrageous skill that makes a tour player. But the outrageous skill, I think, is more common in amateurs than the fortitude. See: Michelle Wie.

 

[ezra76]

See you in a few years .

Put it this way, I have three years of school left. I am playing terrible golf right now and I haven't been over 75 in the past month. I had two rounds where I felt like I made less than 5 really bonehead moves, and those two rounds were 63 and 65.

And I'm improving a ton, and still know I have another 5-6-7-8 shots out there every round. And just ask gwlee how my putting stroke is .

Are you playing tournament golf right now? The kid I play with at my club, Jesse, has been playing tournaments all summer. He was gearing up for one at Newport National last time I saw him. He's on a Div. 1 scholarship at Univ. of Hartford (Jerry Kelly's alma matar).

Get all the tournament experience you can under your belt. Our asst. pro played 4 yrs. Div. 1 at URI and is putting bags on carts. He recently won some tourny with a bunch of New England club pros.

I'll see if I can get some more info on scores and such. I know Jesse carries a .5 cap and is 19. Good ballstriker, great short game and blows it 25yds. past me dead up the gut like every time. TBH I'd think he must not enter scores or really care what his cap is. I've never seen him over par but have only played 9holes with him. He's been 1-3 under every time. Flat out just hits GIR and makes putts. Makes it look easy with 290 off the tee and hardly ever out of the fairway.

 

[gwlee7]

See you in a few years .

Put it this way, I have three years of school left. I am playing terrible golf right now and I haven't been over 75 in the past month. I had two rounds where I felt like I made less than 5 really bonehead moves, and those two rounds were 63 and 65.

And I'm improving a ton, and still know I have another 5-6-7-8 shots out there every round. And just ask gwlee how my putting stroke is .

That's great that you are playing well Ryan. I honestly hope that you make it. But, remember as good as your putting stroke is, I won. You haven't beaten me yet. The road to the Tour goes through me.