For the past two months, while rehabbing from my knee surgery, I unfortunately have spent way too much time on social media. When it comes to golf, the social media world is ruthless, and many times about the littlest things that people post. After seeing so many different things it led me to that question...
Are Golfers Untrusting or Do Too Many Golfers Lie? (poll at bottom)
I think it may be a bit of both, but honestly, I think there are more untrusting golfers than there are who lie. Yes, there are many golfers who claim they can hit the ball further than they probably do, however, I think that is more an honest mistake than a lie. What I have personally seen comes down to math mistakes most of the time. Some golfers will measure their distance off the tee based on how far they have left to the pin. That pin could be 10 yards closer than the center of the green. The tee may have been moved up that day by 10 yards. If the yardage on the card is measured from a specific tee box to the center of the green then that golfers just gave themselves an extra 20 yards to their tee shot based on that scenario.
The other thing is the handicap issue. Surprisingly many golfers still do not actually understand how the handicap works. This misunderstanding leads to golfers to believe they should be shooting a lower score than their average. A handicap is based on a golfer's potential and not their average score. A 10 handicap for example should not shoot 10 over par except 2 out of every 10 rounds. and their average score would be closer to 85. However, this is a thing golfers actually do lie about, also known as sandbagging, to inflate their handicap for tournament purposes.
In both cases above I have seen social media posts where the comments are accusing the golfer posting of lying. These are also in groups with members around the world and where no one knows anyone personally. For example, a guy in France posted about a good drive where he drove a par 335-yard Par 4. Even stating the course was dry the wind was in his favor, and it was one of the best drives he had ever hit. The first comment I read was from a guy in Arizona who said "No way you hit that ball that far. You can't play the forward tees and claim the extra distance". Many of the comments I read on that post didn't believe the guy. Was he lying or were the comments the untrusting golfers?
Some posts are minor things like a golfer posting a picture of their score with the caption "just broke 80 for the first time". Many of the comments might congratulate the poster but there are far more that will criticize the person who posted it. Some will make a comment asking "How many mulligans?" or "How many gimmies?". Others will go as far as to say "Anyone can write numbers on a scorecard and post it online."
Have that many golfers lied about what their ability is that no one believes them? Or do golfers just not trust what others say about their ability? Is there a reason this happens?
Perhaps some of the bitterness is out of jealousy that someone posted about doing something better than them. Perhaps there are that many golfers lying about what they post on social media. In either case, golfers should either be more encouraging or just say nothing at all. Perhaps social media itself is to blame as even for things not golf-related there are many people who just like to post negative comments on everything.
Let us know what you think in this poll.
What Do You Think Is More Likely?
More Golfers Lie
More Golfes are Untrusting
Both Are True
It's Only on Social Media