how a professional golfer would fare at your local public course? I always have, and much to my enjoyment a writer for the Washington Post had the same question. Luckily for us the writer also had the resources to arrange everything.
Tee for Two
What makes this article even more exciting is the course the pro plays with the writer is a course I have played numerous times, East Potomac in DC. The article was written 4 years ago, but the pro, Steve Marino, is still playing very well on the PGA tour (64th in the world rankings).
I assumed that a professional would absolutely tear up a public course. I was thinking they would probably shoot in the mid-50's. However, this wasn't the case, Marino only shot 4 under par! I have golfed with amateurs who played better than that. In addition, Marino was full of excuses: the greens are too slow, the grass is too high, the tee boxes aren't level. Cry me a river; now you know what it's like for the rest of us!
As the article states: great golfers get great scores at great courses, but I was amazed to see how they can't adjust their game to take advantage of an easy course that may not be in great condition. This all makes me feel so good about my golf game: now I can just blame my triple bogeys on poor course conditions!
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2 comments:
I think this goes for most walks of life. I had a soccer game this past season on grass for the first time in 3 years (after always playing on perfect field turf) and I couldn't weight a pass or trap to save my life. You see this with pros too when they play on shitty fields. Plus, with pro golfers they usually show up to a course a week early and player dozens of practice rounds so they know the course.
The one exception - musicians. Give an awesome guitar player a shitty guitar and he'll make it sound like a $3000 Les Paul.
Ian beat me to the punch! A good soccer field always makes you a better player.
I'll bet Marino was driving a few greens on the muni course though!
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