Is golf the hardest sport to play ? [ Facts you must know]

This post contains affiliate links, which means we’ll receive a commission if you purchase through our links, at no extra cost to you.Read the Disclosure here.

Is golf difficult to play in light of all of this? Golf is a difficult sport to master on a consistent basis. 

Examine the argument over whether golf is indeed the most difficult sport to perform. Golf takes a special set of abilities and mental concentration, from perfecting accurate shots to negotiating difficult courses. But is it actually the most difficult sport to play in comparison to others?

We examine both arguments, looking at the challenges and benefits of golfing. Is golf a sport that demands a lot of patience and years of practise, or is it just another physical and mental obstacle, similar to those found in other sports?

Continue reading to learn the solution and the reasons why golf continues to fascinate players throughout the world.

The golf swing is a series of motions that must be coordinated frequently and precisely timed with a little margin for mistake. Golf also involves a variety of mental hurdles and takes a significant amount of time and money to perfect.

Depending on your definition of minimal competency, you may need hundreds of hours of practise to be able to enjoy golf.

As the saying goes  “Success in this game depends less on strength of body than strength of mind and character.” -Arnold Palmer

Golf is hard to play also it can be tiring, Frustrating and sometimes boring. It needs more of mental strength than the physical power.

Taken as an absurd recreational activity where you travel around a landscaped park hitting a little ball around, golf is playable and fun.

Golf… is the infallible test. The man who can go into a patch of rough alone, with the knowledge that only God is watching him, and play his ball where it lies, is the man who will serve you faithfully and well.” -P.G. Wodehouse

Therefore the measurement of a good golfer, if golf is a recreational activity, is how good a golfer is at having fun.

Although. Every once in a while, by luck, a golfer hits a shot that seems, well, impossible. As if the golfer possesses some weird magic that causes the ball to roll or fly amazingly.

And like hitting a little jackpot on a slot machine, the golfer becomes addicted to seeing if another amazing shot will happen.

Some people will practice with their friends and that becomes their fun. The famous champion Ben Hogan once said, “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” It’s true.

Did you know, Only a tiny percentage of golfers can actually play golf well?

The rest are the deluded, the hopers, the questers, the jokesters, the competitors, the disciples, the gamblers, the partiers (there are a lot of them), the socialites . . . they all play, and they all suck at it.

Because golf is indeed hard. Or, as I remind myself when I’m struggling: “If golf was easy, it would be boring”.

Did you know Golf courses are designed to be challenging?

When a course designer sets out to design a golf course, one of the most important considerations is course difficulty. 

Every hole and green is intended to present a challenge that the golfer must overcome. It could be the length of the hole, narrow fairways, thick rough, water hazards, sand hazards, or fast sloping greens. 

In some cases, all of these elements will be combined into a single hole.

Golf: Is golf really the hardest sport to play?

Well, The truth is Golf is not a casual game, and mastering the basic sub-games within golf requires dedication and commitment.

The long drive – A proficient golfer must be able to control club speeds at least 70 miles per hour to hit the green proficiently (1 stroke on a par-3, two strokes on a par-4, and three strokes on a par-5), and most male golfers strive to achieve a 100+ MPH swing, a club speed that can translate into a 300-yard drive (the length of three football fields). 

The short game – It is incredibly challenging to pitch a high wedge shot to drop and stick near the cup at 50 yards, and it requires the same trajectory skills of a cannon artillery officer. 

You must be able to mentally calculate the height and distance of a long pitch, and then command your muscles to replicate your desired swing.

Putting – Putting is a whole game unto itself, and proficiency in putting required incredible skill. 

Proficient putters must learn to read the breaks, understand the grain of the grass, and learn too? read? the speed of the putting surface.

So, How difficult is it to play golf?

Hitting a few solid shots is simple; playing golf well for a few holes is more challenging, and playing golf well for the entire round is hard for a newbie or to even a reasabily experienced golfer

You’ve been playing for a long time, took a lot of lessons, and read a lot of books and magazine articles written by a bunch of instructors who all promise to reveal why their secret will unlock the mystery of the golf swing  But then try bringing that excellent swing over to the first tee, which is usually no more than a few yards away.

Adults will find it nearly very hard to learn to play golf well.

This is something I know from my own experience as a successful athlete in a variety of sports like cricket and Football I began golfing at the age of 25 (I’m now 35), and there’s no chance I’ll ever be able to beat a 9 handicap index.

Essentially all good golfers learnt to play when they were youngsters.

 

The golf swing is very complicated, requiring perfect control of at least six different body parts, with the loss of any one of them frequently resulting in a terrible shot.

 I would say that to get the ball into the hole is not complex, that’s right.

With that thought any sport is complex: In basketball, you have to put the ball in the ring, in running you have to run, in football (or soccer) you have to score a goal, etc.

It is the same thing for every sport, maybe is not hard to play, what is hard is dominate what you are doing.

Every sport played at a level you know what you are doing is complex. The things that make golf so, so much complex are:

Golf courses: They are all different, that means different design, length, topography, wind, trees or no trees, flat and humpy, etc.

Even the same course plays differently every day due to weather conditions.

Technique: The golf swing is a very complex movement of the body, which involves almost every part of it.

It is easy to give advice as amateurs do like: keep your head down, turn your shoulders, look at the ball, etc.

But the real thing is that the golf swing is like a machine with lots of movable parts. 

If you think the swing is a simple thing try to read and understand the book:

The golfing Machine from Homer Kelley. That book is a description of the movements of the body that are involved in the swing from the point of an instructor for instructors.

But the truth is when you go to take a lesson, the instructor has to make the point and translate all his knowledge into simple words and tips.

That is the difference between a good instructor and a person who knows a lot about technique. It has to be easy to understand, that is another complex thing.

Situations: Golf is about making the right decisions indeterminate situations. Every lie is different, every shot is not the same although is the same distance.

Execution: Once you evaluated the situation and you make the decision of what club you will use and what type of shot you are going to make, you have to execute it.

If you do not have the right amount of practice, your shot maybe will not go where you want. Here is where the technique comes into play.

In competition apart from the technique, comes to play the muscle between your ears.

How well can you manage pressure and take the right decision under pressure? Then you have to execute the shot under pressure, which is so much different than executing in a practice round.

Golf is one sport and championship golf is another sport.

What attracts people to Golf and keeps them in the game

Golf attracts many , both men and women of all ages because of its many advantages.

Golf is beneficial to one’s health.

Golfing is a fantastic cardiovascular exercise that has numerous physical and mental health benefits, as well as being enjoyable.

Swinging a golf club builds muscle and strengthens your core, and if you pull or carry your golf bag instead of using a buggy, you’ll be getting an even better workout than normal.

All of this walking raises your heart rate, which lowers your risk of heart disease and lowers your cholesterol. It may also help to prevent chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and cancer by decreasing your risk factors.

The Lower Course at any Golf Clubs, with a distance of 3.7 miles, will add approximately 7400 steps to your daily total, burning up to 300 calories.

You can expect to walk a total of 6.6 miles and burn more than 500 calories if you play the Upper Course as well.

Golf  reduces stress levels.

Golf is well-known for being a stress-relieving sport and recreational activity. With the help of the fresh air and beautiful scenery that are inherent to this magnificent sport, we are able to release endorphins and experience feelings of happiness, relaxation, and stress-relief.

When you factor in the social interaction and jam-packed events calendar that members of any Golf Club get to enjoy, you’ll wonder why you ever had anything to be stressed about.

Mostly Golfers have longer lives than the general population.

Golf is good for both our bodies and our minds, so it’s not surprising that it can help us gain a few years on our chronological age. It’s true – golf can actually help you live longer by increasing your longevity!

According to some major research conducted in 2016, golf can increase your life expectancy by up to five years on average.

The Four Most Important Reasons Golf Is Difficult to Play

Golfers generally agree that it is a difficult sport to master.

And Four of the primary reasons behind this are:

Golf players face a number of difficult mental challenges.

The complexity of the golf swing itself

Time and money required to make significant improvements.

Golf is the most difficult on the mind.

Golf is said to be the most difficult sport for players to mentally prepare for.

As previously stated, the scoring system and attentiveness required present significant mental obstacles to golfers during their round.

But consider this as well.

Sometimes one shot counts as one plus another as a penalty, so your following shot is actually your third.

So, even if you don’t do anything more after hitting a shot, you can be penalised again.

The Physical Factors That Make Golf Difficult

As we have discussed, the physical requirements of the golf swing make it a difficult thing to execute consistently successfully.

Golf is also difficult because to the limited margins for mistake within this intricate action, as well as the fact that there is no one model swing that players can simply duplicate.

Each golf swing is distinct, and very varied ones might be equally effective.

Few Quick Tips  to Make Golf Less Difficult to Play:

As the saying goes -Golf is difficult, but it is not impossible.

Every golfer has played a terrific shot at some point, and the desire to replicate that accomplishment and the associated sensation is what drives many golfers to play for years and years while having a lot of fun along the way.

It’s also crucial to note that there are several ways to make the game easier, and here are a couple to think about.

Play easier game variants — One of the great things about golf is the variety of different sorts, or formats, of the game that can be played on the same course. 

Strokeplay, in which golfers must hole out in order to receive a valid score, is the most difficult game to master. Others, on the other hand, make the game easier and do not require golfers to complete every hole in order to participate and compete.

Take advantage of new and latest developments in golf equipment — enormous technological advances in the manufacture of golf equipment have occurred over the last 30 years in particular. 

Many of these have made the game easier to play, and golfers should take use of them whenever practicable and affordably.

For example, ‘cavity back irons’ and ‘hybrid clubs’ are deliberately designed to be more forgiving and thus easier to hit shots with. So choose golf clubs and golf balls that will make your golfing life as easy as possible.

Play from tees that are appropriate for your ability – This means that a player will play a course that was designed to be played by golfers of their calibre, which reduces the likelihood of them spending hours looking for balls in the rough and becoming increasingly frustrated with ever-increasing scores. There is also compelling evidence that when golfers play from tees that are appropriate for their skill level, they have a more enjoyable.

Final Thoughts

To summarise, golf will always be a game with obstacles to admission, but for those willing to persevere through the humbling trials of mastery, it is without a doubt the finest sport on the planet.

Golf is popular because it is a self-satisfying sport in which you compete against yourself and the course. It tests your decision-making skills as you consider which club to utilise for which purpose.

It forces you to consider the result before acting, necessitating the use of your entire mind and reputation. In most circumstances, you have no one but yourself to blame for your poor choices

Golf humbles a person because you don’t always get what you want, therefore it teaches you that life isn’t just a bouquet of red roses; you have to work hard to acquire what you want.

Thinking alone won’t get you where you want to go. Instead, you need to know when and how to do a certain action to get there.