OPINION

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By Randolph Campbell

When looking at all sports and evaluating their difficulties, the game of golf immediately comes to mind as one of, if not the most, difficult sport. I am not the first one to argue the difficulty of a particular sport, as Jack Henry (‘22) wrote a Match article last year about why baseball is the toughest. Most sports require physical strength, athleticism, speed, and agility. However, golf does not. Golf demands the player to calculate the distance for every shot, while also demanding a very mechanically sound swing in order for the shot to be consistent. The difficulty of striking the ball consistently already makes the sport challenging; however, the mechanics that it demands and the mental toughness that is requires makes golf surpass all other sports in difficulty. 

When I asked Tyler Brand (‘23), who will be playing golf for Dartmouth College next year, about the most difficult aspect of golf, he stated: “The mental aspect, definitely. Doing the same thing consistently over and over again is pretty tough. Golf’s a sport where you have to have mental toughness, because you don’t have teammates to back you up.” I believe this is definitely true. As a person who plays golf as a hobby, I typically fall into a slump during my round when I get frustrated, which is almost every hole. 

Even for pros, golf fans have seen them lose their lead and eventually drop out of the leaderboard because of a poor performance on one hole. For example, in 2016 Jordan Speith, a young star at the time, fell apart on the 12th hole at The Masters, scoring an eight on a par three in the final round of the tournament. After Spieth had hit his ball into the water twice, he turned to his caddie, dismayed. Despite Speith’s generational talent, he gave up what was once a significant lead, costing him back-to-back titles at The Masters. At this point, everyone watching The Masters knew it was not an ability problem for Speith, because they had seen him dominate the course in the holes and rounds prior. However, he lost his mental stability and toughness, which allowed the course to completely turn around his play, leading him to eventually come in 2nd place, an ending nobody expected for him.  

Jordan Speith. Photo credit: Via Sportnet

Having mental toughness and a “next shot” mentality is not the only main difficulty. In other sports, there is more room for error, as athletes’ athletic abilities are sometimes able to make up for their mechanical flaws. However, in golf, there are all types of shots that may occur on the course, such as a drive, iron shot, chip, or putt. Most golfers, professional and amateur, agree that shots included in the “short game” require the most repetition and practice. When I asked Hudson Pace (‘23), a future member of the Lafayette College golf team, about what the best aspect of his game was, he responded: “My short game is consistent and is something I can rely on when my other parts of my game are struggling.” He stated that “I spend 75% of my practice time on this aspect of the game.” To have a consistent and reliable short game, Pace feels as if he always scores better when he is able to chip onto the green and putt the ball only once to finish the hole. 

When looking at other difficult shots in golf, many people such as myself struggle with the shot off the tee box, the drive. For many golfers, this shot is quite difficult for them, as they are not always able to drive the ball down the middle of the fairway. Personally, hitting a shank on my drives is common. However, this is due to a small but very significant factor, issues with the club face. When swinging down on the ball, if the club face opens, it will fade hard to the right. If the club face is closed, then the ball will hook to the left. Despite such simple descriptions of how the ball will react, it sometimes takes hundreds of reps to fix this slight issue in a golfer’s swing. 

Due to golf being a target sport, many people agree that golf is the hardest sport. According to a study done by Trine University, individual athletes are more likely to blame themselves and have a toxic relationship with losing than the athletes that are on team sports: “Research points to athletes who participate in a team sport feel less of the depression or anxiety that individual sport athletes experience.” Within team sports, athletes are able to rely on others to pick you up after a mistake. Individual sport athletes have to get over their mistakes by themselves, which many times leads to a feeling of guilt or a lack of confidence in the player. 

Even with my personal experiences of playing lacrosse and basketball all of my life, I still believe golf is the hardest sport to be successful at. Lacrosse and basketball are quite similar to each other; both require all players on the field or court to be connected and on the same page. Both sports have the same concepts offensively and defensively. Offensively, off-ball movement and an aggressive mindset to attack to the goal or rim are very important. Defensively, flying around the field or court while also staying disciplined are the main roots of a successful defensive team. Despite golf requiring none of these aspects, it still is the toughest sport. A mechanically consistent swing, combined with the difficulties of the short game, define what makes golf such a challenge.

Featured image credit: Wikimedia Commons user zhaofugang1234.