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An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

theatlantic.com

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Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#31

Post by [deleted] »

Multiplayer wrote: post #30
SamReidHughes wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, a 2 handicap is far from being a master. The gap from 2 to +2 is bigger than that from 12 to 2. And a +2 is quite good. But if you're a +2, how do you get yourself to be a +3? Pray to the golf gods? The gulf there is vast. And even then, you're far, far from PGA Tour level. Those guys are good. The way I'd put it is, this guy made himself be a competent golfer. He could average 2 over the course rating on t…

You misread that. It's 326,000 PER pga tour spot.

[deleted]

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#33

Post by PhasmaFelis »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #29
yakult wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need access to expertise, equipment, grounds, peer competition. These all require money and/or connections.

Golf is cheap. You could spend $1000 on equipment, get a yearly pass for $2300 right outside Google HQ. Spend $50 or is it $100 to join the men's club -- they'd love for you to join -- and get your NCGA handicap. Done. Read the greatest kung fu manual ever written, "Five Lessons" by Ben Hogan, or use some other book. I met one kid that modeled his swing off of YouTube videos and with that got himself to a scratch han…

> Golf is cheap. You could spend $1000 on equipment, get a yearly pass for $2300 right outside Google HQ.

$3300 is not in any way "cheap" for the majority of Americans.

I like HN, but it's disheartening how many of my peers in tech seem to think that a West Coast programmer's salary is normal.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#34

Post by SamReidHughes »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #33
SamReidHughes wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Golf is cheap. You could spend $1000 on equipment, get a yearly pass for $2300 right outside Google HQ. Spend $50 or is it $100 to join the men's club -- they'd love for you to join -- and get your NCGA handicap. Done. Read the greatest kung fu manual ever written, "Five Lessons" by Ben Hogan, or use some other book. I met one kid that modeled his swing off of YouTube videos and with that got himself to a scratch han…

> Golf is cheap. You could spend $1000 on equipment, get a yearly pass for $2300 right outside Google HQ. $3300 is not in any way "cheap" for the majority of Americans. I like HN, but it's disheartening how many of my peers in tech seem to think that a West Coast programmer's salary is normal.

It's cheaper than smoking. Edit: Well, depends on the accounting. The median U.S. income is $51K so by all means it's affordable. The main cost is time.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#35

Post by maxxxxx »

I sort of did a similar experiment from 15-35 with boxing. Trained a lot and became pretty competent. But to get to the top hard work is not enough. You also need talent. There are people in the gym that had speed and strength without any training that I couldn't reach with daily hard training.

But I think doing this was probably still the best thing I did in my life. Doing something that seems out of reach and then becoming competent is great. Even without having success in the sense of winning.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#36

Post by randomdata »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #34
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Golf is cheap. You could spend $1000 on equipment, get a yearly pass for $2300 right outside Google HQ. $3300 is not in any way "cheap" for the majority of Americans. I like HN, but it's disheartening how many of my peers in tech seem to think that a West Coast programmer's salary is normal.

It's cheaper than smoking. Edit: Well, depends on the accounting. The median U.S. income is $51K so by all means it's affordable. The main cost is time.

Median household income is $50k. Median individual income is $30k, leaving the aforementioned year of golf taking about 10% of ones (median) income. That is a fairly large expense.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#37

Post by hkmurakami »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #26
nemo44x wrote: post #10

Going pro shouldn't be the mark of success on this endeavor. There are a very limited number of seats and very likely pros have committed well more time. The fact he got to a 2 handicap is evidence you can become a master. Especially since he suffered a physical limitation after about 6k hours. Talent matters. Age matters. The ability to "get it" faster matters. Access makes you get it faster. But to go from no game…

You know, a 2 handicap is far from being a master. The gap from 2 to +2 is bigger than that from 12 to 2. And a +2 is quite good. But if you're a +2, how do you get yourself to be a +3? Pray to the golf gods? The gulf there is vast. And even then, you're far, far from PGA Tour level. Those guys are good. The way I'd put it is, this guy made himself be a competent golfer. He could average 2 over the course rating on t…

2 handicap felt like "expert" but nowhere near master.

As a junior golfer I peaked at 2.4 (probably put in around 10,000 hours, though I obviously didn't keep track), and I agree that being scratch felt much much harder than going from 12 to 2, and +2 seemed impossibly far away.

Not to mention tour conditions for green speed, rough thickness, and length are much tougher than your average very good golf course. My home course at the time was a PGA Tour venue but theyd always close the course for a week to toughen things for the tour event.

For what it's worth, at a 2 handicap I believe you pass the bar to become a PGA of America professional (teaching pros and club pros), pending qualification exams and iirc 2 rounds of play test.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#38

Post by SamReidHughes »

randomdata wrote: post #36
SamReidHughes wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's cheaper than smoking. Edit: Well, depends on the accounting. The median U.S. income is $51K so by all means it's affordable. The main cost is time.

Median household income is $50k. Median individual income is $30k, leaving the aforementioned year of golf taking about 10% of ones (median) income. That is a fairly large expense.

If you're trying to go pro, 10% of income is nothing compared to the time investment. Like, it's an amount. But plenty of people get by on $27K.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#39

Post by akvadrako »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #33
SamReidHughes wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Golf is cheap. You could spend $1000 on equipment, get a yearly pass for $2300 right outside Google HQ. Spend $50 or is it $100 to join the men's club -- they'd love for you to join -- and get your NCGA handicap. Done. Read the greatest kung fu manual ever written, "Five Lessons" by Ben Hogan, or use some other book. I met one kid that modeled his swing off of YouTube videos and with that got himself to a scratch han…

> Golf is cheap. You could spend $1000 on equipment, get a yearly pass for $2300 right outside Google HQ. $3300 is not in any way "cheap" for the majority of Americans. I like HN, but it's disheartening how many of my peers in tech seem to think that a West Coast programmer's salary is normal.

It's cheap compared to 6000 hours, unless you make under 10 dollars per day.

Re: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be a Professional Golfer

#40

Post by SeanDav »

Absolutely true story: A friend of mine could make a golf ball do just about anything and was a wonder to watch. He was a scratch player or better (I don't recall his exact handicap). On paper, he was professional standard. He could sink 10 foot putts all day long (my hyperbole), but what he could not do was sink a 10-foot putt, when it counted. By his own admission, he just did not have the match temperament to perform when the pressure was really on.

Golf at professional level is not just about skill, but also mental preparedness, fitness and probably a lot of other factors.

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