- 11/06/2025
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!
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
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
01:39on the course. Now the next problem on our list refers to putting on temporary greens like this one
01:53or holotime greens. Now I'm of course aware that temporary greens are important to maintain the
01:58integrity of the actual playing surfaces in wintry conditions but it is a frustrating problem you see
02:04the the pins in the fairways 20 yards short the green you get that instant deflation knowing that
02:08you're going to be playing on some pretty substandard surfaces let's be honest yeah the surfaces are a
02:14lot bobbly they're a lot longer and it really is difficult to judge the consistency of the roll and
02:18hole out from short range and the level of ice and frost that thaws during the round is really
02:23difficult to judge when you're pitching and chipping onto those greens sometimes you get a really firm
02:27bounce that shoots 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 equalize 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
02:57see a puck bubble back online as you are offline hopefully they kind of even itself out during the
03:02course of a round you know 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 usgea 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 area
03:40now it's called it's got red stakes how are they different to yellow stakes you start dropping it from
03:45shoulder height and then you realize you've got to change the knee height there's an awful lot to
03:49remember and obviously you're playing an outdoor sport and you got 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 problem
04:03that golfers have they'll end up calling the pro shop asking for advice shuffling through the pages of
04:08their rule book maybe going on the app which is really good by the way but still can be difficult to
04:12find the ruling that you want so my advice to you would be try and learn kind of the basic ones the
04:17simple one that you're going to be experiencing most out on the golf course the golf month youtube channel has
04:22some great rules videos that you should definitely check out to swat up on your knowledge and if you
04:26do that hopefully you won't face these problems and you'll become the john paramour of your four ball
04:36right so the next problem on our list relates to lessons which will usually take place on a driving
04:42range as you can see here and the big problem golfers often have with lessons is the fact that often
04:47they make you play worse before you play better now i'm not for one second advocating the idea that
04:54golfers shouldn't have lessons lessons are really important to improve your golf and they're definitely
04:58the fastest way of improving your golf over things like club changes or other methods but the problem
05:04with lessons is you have that phase of unfamiliarity with a swing change so maybe you change your grip or
05:10your posture or your swing plane and there is that inevitable kind of transition period where you're
05:15going from your old swing to your new swing where everything feels alien it feels strange and on
05:21the golf course you feel like you're not even going to make contact with the golf ball let alone hit a
05:25good shot and often golfers fall into the trap of going back to their old ways just because it feels
05:31comfortable for them obviously my bit of advice for you around lessons would be to really stick with it
05:36have a plan and really accept the fact that maybe your results out on the golf course aren't going to
05:42improve straight away there is that period of bedding them in getting them ingrained so that they feel
05:46more natural and if you do that hopefully those changes will then produce better more consistent
05:52results also think about when you have lessons so maybe peak height of summer isn't the best time to
05:58do it because that's when all the competitions and you can be playing a lot more golf so think about
06:02having lessons during the off season and don't space them too close together give yourself a few weeks
06:08apart so you can really work on it and embed it in time for your next lesson if you do that hopefully
06:14you won't experience the problem of lessons making you worse before you get better
06:23right so the next problem that golfers often face relates to leaving stuff behind without you
06:28realizing there's a lot of things that can potentially fall off for example your rangefinder if
06:32you haven't zipped it properly might fall out of its holder you might you drop your towel a head cover might
06:37fall off or the most common one is you've taken a wedge up with your putter to do a chip by the
06:42green here your hole out you walk off without realizing you've left your wedge by the side of
06:48the green you might only realize that you've done it say four or five holes later when you come to use
06:53that wedge for your next shot and obviously there's two problems there the first problem is you haven't
06:57got that wedge that you really like to use for that next shot and therefore you have to use a different
07:01one you're unfamiliar with and the performance and the results could suffer as a result but then you've got
07:06the other problem the fact that you're worrying about where that club is who's got it whether
07:11they're going to hand it in the pro shop whether they're going to try and give it to you during the
07:14round and that can affect your concentration and affect the quality of your shots after that obviously
07:20the problem is compounded even more by the fact that product is often worth quite a lot of money
07:24and you're kind of worrying about whether you're even going to get it back at all but hopefully
07:28you know you will rely on the the good nature of your fellow members they would try and give it to
07:33you or hand it back into the pro shop afterwards often golfers will get into a bit of a flap and
07:38a panic and start waving at people frantically or two fairways across in some sort of unwritten
07:43awful golfing code as to have you got my club or towel or whatever it is you've dropped and it all can
07:49get a bit embarrassing but you know the problem that golfers face it is annoying but i guess the moral
07:53of the story is try and keep track of all your bit of kit and hopefully your playing partners will spot it
07:58if you have dropped something behind right so the next problem relates to winter mats now i know they
08:09are there to preserve the integrity of the actual tees and they are in use during the winter months but
08:16there's a lot of problems i have with winter mats the first is that they generally get a lot of wear
08:20and tear and they can become quite muddy and therefore quite slippy which is not what you want when you're
08:25trying to hit a drive but my main issue with winter mats is how it can be very difficult to get the
08:30correct tee height for the club that you're using now obviously a lot of golfers have different tricks
08:35on this and there are a lot of different heights of tea you can use so for example i use this pink
08:41castle tee for my driver it's the perfect height for it so if you can get it in the ground fully
08:46then that's uh problem solved but if you're hitting so for example this hole is a risk reward
08:51par four here at burleigh park the fourth hole i like to hit a three wood so i need to get the ball
08:55teed up ever so slightly but it can be quite difficult to do it especially if the mats are
09:00quite firm as they are at the moment you can get these very small castle tees which are ideal but
09:06they only work if you can actually get the tee physically in the mat which can be very difficult
09:10my advice to you would be trying to use holes that have been previously used and don't go forward
09:16with the shot if the ball isn't teed up to the correct height because you'll only end up
09:20either roofing the shot and putting a a horrible mark on the top of your club if you've got it teed
09:25up too high and if you give up all together and use the off the mat especially on a par three and
09:30you like to use a tee with the orions and you give up and don't use a tee then you probably end up
09:34thinning it or hitting a pretty bad shot so persevere with it invest in some very small green castle
09:40tees like i've got here and hopefully this won't be a problem for you
09:44right so the next problem golfer's face is a pain so excruciating i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemies
09:55it is the dreaded ankle bash where you knock your putter head against the little bone that sticks out
10:02on the side of your ankle i would liken the pain to standing on an upturn plug or a piece of lego in
10:08barefoot it's that bad and really something you want to try and avoid because it can leave you
10:12hobbling around the side of the green it often happens also if you're in the bunker maybe you've
10:17played your bunker shot and you're tapping the sole of your shoe to get the sand out of your cleats
10:21and suddenly you miss your shoe and the club strikes that part of your ankle so
10:26my only advice to you 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
Recommended
9:56
|
Up next
9:56
10:54
0:15
0:15
24:59
2:48