Do people in your group affect your score?

I shot a pb of 39 on the front 9 of the hardest course I play on today. The slope of this course is 141 from the blues and 144 from the golds. I played the blues. I shot a 49 on the back . I played with my neighbor who only playes a few times a year. His slow play finally got to me on the back. I dont mind playing with someone who doesnt shoot well but there are things he could have done to keep pace. He lost 15 balls today. After looking for balls all day and waiting on his 5 minute preshot routine to watch him top it 20 yards I could not maintain the concentration I had on the front. He is a nice guy but ugh....he was killing me today.

__________________
"You've just one problem. You stand too close to the ball after you've hit it." -Sam Snead

"Golf tips are like aspirin. One may do you good, but if you swallow the whole bottle you will be lucky to survive." -Harvey Penick

"I hit two of my best balls today......I stepped on a rake ".

It is hit or miss with me. It really is hard to say if I would have played any different on my own, with others of the same skill, with better golfers, or in match play... I am the one who pulls the trigger not people I am with.

In an ideal world, we would all be completely oblivious to the trials and tribulations that our playing partners go through in their respective rounds. Absolutely without thought or regard of the effect that it might be having on our round.

As far as I'm concerned, had the "President's Mobile Phone Scandal" a couple of weeks ago and was more angry in myself that I allowed him and his phone interfere with the good round I had going rather than being angry with him for his apparent thoughtlessness.

IMHO events such as this simply serve to reinforce that good golf is played "between the ears" and we all need to harness and or supress the negative self talk we have with ourselves during any round we play in order to get the best result possible on the day....

Something like that...

Cheers

__________________
Look at the Target, Look at the Ball, Swing... Dr Bob Rotella...

As I've matured as a golfer, more often than not I do not worry about the quality of the person I'm playing with. They now don't get in between my ears.

I'm learning to only worry about what I have control over.

One thing I would like to add, is better the golfing group, the better my golfing game!

Never a truer word spoken than by Scrags above!

Players with the admirable mental discipline to be be able to block out exactly what they want and need are blessed indeed. The rest of us have to work at it as best we can.

As Mr Burns would say...........excellent.
Between saying to myself about him "please just hit the ball" I kept telling myself dont let this get to you. But even when you tell yourself dont let this get to you , you are not thinking about your next shot or strategy.
I guess I could always say his slow play helped me shoot my personal best on the front .

Your last paragraph hit the nail on the head.

I am happy to play with others of any standard but slow play does affect me, I go off the boil when standing around for long periods and do get a bit irritated when someone spends an eternity looking for their lost tee or their ball when it has obviously landed in the pond or out of bounds in the woods. Not considering the shot and club needed when you approach your ball, taking excessive practice swings then deciding to change the club, not letting faster players through.

Slow play is the scourge of golf and seems to be getting worse, three and a half hours always seemed a fair time to play a game, so often it gets into four and a half to five or more these days.

__________________
Best Regards
Brian

________________________________
Funny o'l game!

Slow play infront seems to affect me more than in my own group. Although one guy I play with occasionally takes about 20 practice swings when chipping and putting, drives me nuts, in the end I just had to look away and think of something else.

Another thing that seemed to infere with my concentration is the "cheating" of somone I play with regularly, he seems loathed to card anything over a triple and seems to have acute amnesia about the one he skulled over the green or the 3 putt from close in. Say I scrambled like mad and got great bogie 5, he would have sliced OB off the tee, not rehit, found ball, put it on the rough, hit bunker, skulled shot over the green, chipped on to 2 feet, putt it to 10 feet, and then just miss with his 10 footer. "Ugh, put me down for a 6". I'd be thinking "whaaaaaaaat? a six? 1 more than my beautifully scrambled bogie, ignoring the fact that you didn't take stroke and distance and you didn't even drop the ball 2 club lengths from the OB stakes (correct procedure is to rehit from tee, but if he is not going to do this he could at least drop in the correct manner), then you convieniently forget about the 3 putt???.....you sir scored (at the very least) a 9!!!".

Then he would invariably have a few good legitamate holes and score better than me for 18 by 2-3 shots. I would know what the real score was and I am sure he knows (deep down), but i'd let it get to me instead of focusing on my game. I challenged him about it once and he got really mad accusing me of cheating so now I just ignore it, it's his green fee, he can put whatever score he likes on his card. I keep track of an unofficial RCGA handicap so I play by all the rules so as to track my progress correctly, he doesn't do this and in a a way is only cheating himself.

The best part is that now I am beating his "fudged" scores with my legitamate score and I can see that it is affecting him because he is not only getting a higher score than me but deep down he knows that the gap was even bigger, I do wonder though if he knows that I know that he is taking a free drop when he is behind a tree etc etc.

__________________
Personal bests:
18 holes - 92 (+21 02/08/06), 92 (+20 24/06/07)
9 holes - 43 (+7 02/08/06), 41 (+7 24/06/07)
Putts (18) - 30 (04/09/07)
Putts (9) - 12 (02/08/06)
Fairways - 11/14 ((02/08/06, 24/06/07, 01/08/08), 10/13 (09/06/07)
GIR - 5/18 (01/08/08)
Pars in one round - 7 (24/06/07)

Lifetime birdie count - 8 Latest - 03/09/08 - 7th hole Kingsway 318 yard par 4
Lifetime eagle count - 1 Latest - 15/06/08 - 4th hole Canadian G&CC 9 hole 481 yard par 5

I would agree that slow play in the group in front effects my play more, it is just so hard to stay loose and focused when you end up waiting a long time between shots.

I think you might be playing golf with my brother in law.
Whenever I play with him because I cant find anybody else I just ignore whatever he says he scored. I used to make an arse out of myself and bust him out but its not worth it. He plays at a good pace so I can deal with him.

For some reason people in front of me dont bother me as much as someone standing at the teebox waiting on my group. Even if the course is clogged up I still hate people on my arse.

Hi Still mate,

It is such a mind game this golf as not only do you have to concentrate on hitting your ball correctly but you have to put up with people in your group who can just say or do somthing and your rythem goes to pot. What I have started doing now whihc I find is a great mind winner is the following. Everytime its my shot or just before I have a sip of water / juice and focus on the flag or if I can't see it a point where I want to go. This takes seconds once I have done this a take my club and dont speak to anyone, do my pre routine set up and hit my shot. Once I see it land then I start chatting to the other players. It is working for me and I start to play my own game, not thiers.

However I have fallin in laughter by one of my mates one time when he told a joke which you don't mind if your playing for fun.

Hope it helps
Cheers
Mark
p.s If someone is slow playing then you should allow them to loose one hole's progress before firing your drive into them, just to give them a wake up call. If they don't let you through keep doing this and they soon will let you through.

NEVER EVER DO THIS!! Even if they are holding up 4 groups. This only lead to fights and in the case of injury, a lawsuit. There was a case in the USA only last year where someone fired a warning shot, if you will (hit a drive) and it hit someone in the head giving them brain damage. Criminal charges were laid and a large settlement in the end was paid to the victim.

I know you were only joking, but a golf ball can do a lot of damage.

take a sniper rifle instead

only being serious

speaking of lawsuits. I was on vacation in the states playing at a Trent Jones Jr. course out of Reno, NV with a couple of local lawyers. We had some jerks hit into us three times, the last time while we were putting on the green. One of the lawyers calmly knocked the ball off to the fringe, pulled out his 3 wood, hit a low flyer right back at them. Hit one in the ankle, dropped him like a sack of potatos. Minor altercation at the next tee box, as you can imagine. As the threats increased, one of the lawyers threw his business card into the face of one of the other players. I have never seen a fight settle so quickly...

__________________
SumoSid
"Moments of Greatness followed by Moments of horror."