- 24/05/2025
Joel Tadman runs through the 10 biggest problems only golfers can relate to. Whether it's temporary greens or leaving a club behind on the previous hole, we know how frustrating certain things can be to a golfer and we highlight them all here. Hopefully you haven't had to deal with too many yourself!
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00:00Hello everyone, Joel Tabman here from Golf Monthly and in this video we are counting
00:03down the 10 biggest problems that all golfers can relate to. Now at this point I need to
00:09remind you to click the subscribe button to the Golf Monthly YouTube channel so you don't
00:12miss any of our videos. Make sure you click the like button if you like what you're watching
00:16and also comment on the video, tell me if there's any problems that we've missed in
00:20this video I'd love to hear from you. But for now let's head on to the golf course here
00:25at Burley Park Golf Club in Stamford, Lincolnshire and count down the 10 biggest problems that
00:30golfers have to deal with, starting with playing partners offering advice.
00:40We've all got that one person in our four-boy who watches one instructional video on YouTube
00:44and suddenly he thinks he's Butch Harmon. And while I'm sure they mean well I do have two
00:49main issues with this problem. The first is that this person is almost certainly no
00:55better qualified than any other Tom, Dick or Harry to dish out swing advice and therefore
00:59I would advise you to take it with a pretty heavy pinch of salt. And the second issue I
01:04have is that people really shouldn't be giving advice during the round. Fair enough if they
01:08want to offer some sort of tip or a bit of feedback after the round because if you do it
01:13during the round that can really play havoc with your mind you start to think about it during
01:18your swing and it can have an adverse effect on the shots that you hit afterwards. So my advice to
01:22you would be that if you are thinking about giving advice really think about whether it's necessary
01:28and if you're on the receiving end of some advice maybe just politely ask them to wait until after
01:33the round to give you that advice and hopefully you won't have to experience this problem that much
01:39out on the course.
01:47Now the next problem on our list refers to putting on temporary greens like this one or holotime greens.
01:55Now I'm of course aware that temporary greens are important to maintain the integrity of the actual
01:59playing surfaces in wintry conditions but it is a frustrating problem. You see the pins in the
02:05fairways 20 yards short of the green you get that instant deflation knowing that you're going to be
02:09playing on some pretty substandard surfaces let's be honest. The surfaces are a lot bobbly they're
02:14a lot longer and it really is difficult to judge the consistency of the roll and hole out from
02:19short range and the level of ice and frost that thaws during the round is really difficult to judge
02:24when you're pitching and chipping onto those greens. Sometimes you get a really firm bounce that
02:28shoots over the green and sometimes it digs into a soft patch it's impossible to judge.
02:32And the other problem I have with temporary greens especially is that it really does equalise the
02:36kind of handicap so the high handicappers have much more of an advantage because the course is a lot
02:41shorter and the skill that is required for chipping and putting is taken out of it from the lower
02:46handicappers. It is more luck based so really high handicappers do have a much bigger advantage when
02:51playing on temporary greens. Similar for holotime greens to be fair although you are as likely to see
02:57a putt bubble back online as you are offline hopefully they kind of even itself out during the
03:02course of a round. That's just another problem that golfers have to deal with unfortunately out on the course.
03:13So the next problem golfers have to face relates to the rules of the game and I would say golf compared
03:18to pretty much every other sport out there has one of the most complicated sets of rules and USGA and
03:24the RNA have made some changes for this year attempting to make them simpler but even then
03:29the players edition of the rule book has 24 different categories over 120 pages so it's going
03:34to be impossible for golfers to know every single rule. For example I've hit my ball in this penalty
03:40area now it's called it's got red stakes how are they different to yellow stakes you start dropping it
03:45from shoulder height and then you realise you've got to change to knee height there's an awful lot to
03:49remember and obviously you're playing an outdoor sport and your ball can get in a whole host of
03:53different scenarios and there's been situations where I've been asking my playing partners for
03:58advice and none of them know what the actual rule is so you know it's an incredibly frustrating
04:03problem that golfers have they'll end up calling the pro shop asking for advice shuffling through the
04:07pages of their rule book maybe going on the app which is really good by the way but still can be
04:11difficult to find the ruling that you want so my advice to you would be try and learn kind of the basic
04:16ones the simple one that you're going to be experiencing most out on the golf course the
04:20golf month youtube channel has some great rules videos that you should definitely check out to
04:25swat up on your knowledge and if you do that hopefully you won't face these problems and you'll
04:29become the john paramour of your four ball right so the next problem on our list relates to lessons
04:40which will usually take place on a driving range as you can see here and the big problem golfers often
04:45have with lessons is the fact that often they make you play worse before you play better now i'm not
04:51for one second advocating the idea that golfers shouldn't have lessons lessons are really important
04:56to improve your golf and they're definitely the fastest way of improving your golf over things like
05:01club changes or other methods but the problem with lessons is you have that phase of unfamiliarity
05:07with a swing change so maybe you change your grip or your posture or your swing plane and there is
05:12that inevitable kind of transition period where you're going from your old swing to your new swing
05:17where everything feels alien it feels strange and on the golf course you feel like you're not even going
05:23to make contact with the golf ball let alone hit a good shot and often golfers fall into the trap of
05:28going back to their old ways just because it feels comfortable for them obviously my bit of advice for
05:34you around lessons would be to really stick with it have a plan and really accept the fact that maybe your
05:40results out on the golf course aren't going to improve straight away there is that period of
05:44bedding them in getting them ingrained so that they feel more natural and if you do that hopefully
05:49those changes will then produce better more consistent results also think about when you have lessons so
05:56maybe peak height of summer isn't the best time to do it because that's when all the competitions and
06:00you can be playing a lot more golf so think about having lessons during the off season and don't space
06:05them too close together give yourself a few weeks apart so you can really work on it and embed it
06:10in time for your next lesson if you do that hopefully you won't experience the problem of
06:15lessons making you worse before you get better
06:23right so the next problem that golfers often face relates to leaving stuff behind without you realizing
06:29there's a lot of things that can potentially fall off for example your range finder if you haven't zipped
06:33that probably might fall out of its holder you might you drop your towel a head cover might fall off
06:38or the most common one is you've taken a wedge up with your putter to do a chip by the green here
06:44your hole out you walk off without realizing you've left your wedge by the side of the green you might
06:49only realize that you've done it say four or five holes later when you come to use that wedge for your
06:53next shot and obviously there's two problems there the first problem is you haven't got that wedge that
06:58you really like to use for that next shot and therefore you have to use a different one you're unfamiliar with
07:02and the performance and the results could suffer as a result but then you've got the other problem
07:07the fact that you're worrying about where that club is who's got it whether they're going to hand it in
07:12the pro shot whether they're going to try and give it to you during the round and that can affect your
07:16concentration and affect the quality of your shots after that obviously the problem is compounded even
07:21more by the fact that product is often worth quite a lot of money and you're kind of worrying about
07:26whether you're even going to get it back at all but hopefully you know you will rely on the the good
07:30nature of your fellow members they would try and give it to you or hand it back into the pro shop
07:35afterwards often golfers will get into a bit of a flap and a panic and start waving at people
07:39frantically or two fairways across in some sort of unwritten awful golfing code as to have you got my
07:46club or towel or whatever it is you've dropped and it all can get a bit embarrassing but you know
07:50the problem that golfers face it is annoying but i guess the moral of the story is try and keep track of
07:55all your bit of kit and hopefully your playing partners will spot it if you have dropped something
07:59behind right so the next problem relates to winter mats now i know they are there to preserve the
08:10integrity of the actual tees and they are in use during the winter months but there's a lot of
08:16problems i have with winter mats the first is that they generally get a lot of wear and tear and they
08:20can become quite muddy and therefore quite slippy which is not what you want when you're trying to
08:25hit a drive but my main issue with winter mats is how it can be very difficult to get the correct t
08:31height for the club that you're using now obviously a lot of golfers have different tricks on this and
08:36there are a lot of different heights of tea you can use so for example i use this pink castle tea for
08:42my driver it's the perfect height for it so if you can get it in the ground fully then that's problem
08:47solved but if you're hitting so for example this hole is a risk reward par four here at burley park
08:52the fourth hole i like to hit a three wood so i need to get the ball teed up ever so slightly but
08:56it can be quite difficult to do it especially if the mats are quite firm as they are at the moment
09:02you can get these very small castle teas which are ideal but they only work if you can actually get
09:07the tee physically in the mat which can be very difficult my advice to you would be try and use holes
09:12that have been previously used and don't go forward with the shot if the ball isn't teed up to the
09:18correct height because you'll only end up either roofing the shot and putting a horrible mark on
09:23the top of your club if you've got it teed up too high and if you give up all together and use the
09:27off the mat especially on a par three and you like to use a tee with the orions and you give up and don't
09:32use a tee then you probably end up thinning it or hitting a pretty bad shot so persevere with it
09:37invest in some very small green castle tees like i've got here and hopefully this won't be a problem
09:43for you right so the next problem golfer's face is a pain so excruciating i wouldn't wish it on my
09:54worst enemies it is the dreaded ankle bash where you knock your putter head against the little bone
10:01that sticks out on the side of your ankle i would liken the pain to standing on an upturn plug or a piece
10:07of lego in barefoot it's that bad and really something you want to try and avoid because it
10:12can leave you hobbling around the side of the green it often happens also if you're in the bunker maybe
10:17you've played your bunker shot and you're tapping the sole of your shoe to get the sand out of your
10:21cleats and suddenly you miss your shoe and the club strikes that part of your ankle so my only advice
10:26you would be to be very careful where you swing your wedge or your putter
10:41right the next problem that golfers face comes in the bunker and specifically if you're playing
10:45on a dry windy day often the sand when you're hitting a bunker shot will pop up and if you're
10:51hitting into the wind it will then fly back right into your face and that can be a really uncomfortable
10:57situation you get sand in your eyes it's incredibly painful but also the sand can get down your top
11:03and it gets very very itchy in all sorts of different places and it's very very uncomfortable
11:07and difficult to shake off you find yourself walking funnily after in the next few holes trying to shake
11:12it out and get it all out of the areas where it feels uncomfortable i guess my only advice to overcome
11:18that problem is to turn away as quickly as you can so you hit the shot you know the sound's gonna be
11:23blowing into your face obviously don't turn away too soon you need to hit the shot properly but then
11:27just kind of turn away hopefully the sand won't get into those places where you don't want it to
11:32but that's the best advice i can do i'm afraid it's a problem golfers have to experience sometimes
11:38unfortunately out on the course
11:39now the next problem that golfers have to deal with relates to these premium golf balls now we
11:50all know if you want the best performing golf ball you have to pay a premium price for example this
11:55pro v1x golf ball that i play comes in around about 50 pounds per dozen which equates to just over four
12:01pounds a golf ball which in the grand scheme of things is quite a lot of money when you consider
12:06how long these balls potentially last we've all done it we've pegged up a brand new pro v1x
12:11on the first tee that brilliant white finish is gleaming back at you and then you hit a raging snap
12:17hook into the cabbage or the out of bounds never to be seen again and that four pound golf ball has
12:21lasted literally 10 seconds of course titleists have less expensive offerings that might well be worth
12:27considering but if you don't want to go down that route the chances are at some point you will lose
12:31a brand new premium ball and unless you're on tour that's a pretty painful experience
12:36but unfortunately it's just a problem golfers have to deal with
12:45all right the next problem on our list relates to pockets now pockets are really important for
12:50a golfer because golfers have to store a lot of different items during a round whether it's tees
12:54markers pitch mark repairs pencils that sort of thing and often those sorts of things can be left in
12:59your pocket for longer than you might like so for example maybe you're out shopping and then you
13:04suddenly realize you've got left your glove in your back pocket and you obviously feel incredibly
13:09embarrassed about it and another problem that golfers have to deal with when it comes to pockets is
13:13perhaps leaving your scorecard in your pocket when you put your trousers through the wash taking your
13:18trousers out for its next outing having put it through the wash and then finding that you've left
13:24your scorecard in the pocket and it's turned to that horrible papery mush material that's almost impossible
13:30to get fully out of your pocket and you spend the next few days really trying to brush everything
13:33out of there it's a horrible feeling hopefully you haven't done that after your competitive round but
13:37after your social round you might have left your scorecard in there so that's one of the big
13:41problems golfers leaving things in their pockets for too long right so that concludes the 10 problems
13:47that all golfers can relate to hopefully you really enjoyed this video and if you did make sure you
13:52give us a thumbs up by clicking the like button and comment down below i'd love to hear from you how many of these
13:57problems have you had to deal with and have we missed any out so make sure you let us know but
14:03for now from burley park golf club here in stanford it's goodbye from me we'll see you next time
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