I don't play in tournaments and don't bet for more than who buys a round with my golf buddies.

As such, I've got the freedom to enjoy the wonderful physical feeling of a pured forged iron shot rather than live with the feel of an ultra-forgiving GI iron, even if it means the results of my mis-hits are farther off target or shorter.

I'd rather challenge myself and work the ball high or low and left or right when appropriate even though I b**** it up a fair percentage of the time and would almost certainly score better if I kept it simpler and played within myself.

I'd much rather hit a long, beautiful, high arching draw with a 5 iron that winds up left of the green and get up and down for the par (or fail to get up and down and bogey, for that matter) than thin it, get lucky and have it wind up bouncing up close and sink the putt for a birdie.

That's why I play golf - the score's a mere detail. Anyone else?

No wonder nobody wants to play with you hahahahaha j/k

Hey! That's a gross overstatement!! Although I admit that almost nobody wants to play with me.

i feel the same way as you---kind of

i don't play in a lot of tournmanents and don't like betting...i also don't like grinding over 3 foot putts in every round i play. But i still use stuff that helps me shoot my best scores

let me tell you something- it's both.

Yeah, don't get me wrong. I chose the clubs I use carefully and hit them pretty well. I'm not nuts enough to be hitting tiny blades, for example.

But if I smoke a chip that by rights should wind up at the back of the green and it clangs off the flag stick & drops in I find myself muttering, whereas when I hit one perfectly that looks good all the way, crawls across the edge of the hole, doesn't fall and winds up six inches away, I'm happy as a clam.

Kind of - sort of. After years of playing with "the loop" at my home course, where there was always some kind of action going on, side bets, nassaus, skins, etc, I retired in May, and decided to spend most of the summer up at the lake cottage and build a garage. So I bought a season's pass at the little 9 hole course down the road, $375 for all the golf you can play. Since I'm trying to get in at least a few hours work most days on the garage, I go out early for golf, a few days a week, usually on the tee at 6:45 or so. Sometimes play alone, just me and the groundscrewman or two. Or the wildlife, wild turkeys, fox, hawks. Sometimes hook up with one of the other early birds.

If playing alone, I'll often play 2 balls. Match the Titleist vs the Callaway. Or hit two shots sometimes, off the tee, make the first one a high fade, next one a low running draw. Or hit two approach shots. say from 150 yds, first one a smooth 7, next one a hard 8. Find I really enjoy this kind of golf, miss the action and the characters that make up the loop somtimes, but I seem to enjoy golf more now. Plus, I'm back home to bang nails by 8:15. I've even gone around twice, played 18 and was still home by 9:30!!

While I prefer to hit pretty shots, I have also learned to relish in the fact that I know how to score ugly.

I think it was Chi Chi that said "golf is based on a scoring system, not a beauty contest" or at least something close to that. Makes sense to me.

I love beating guys that have beautiful, majestic shots that go all over the yard with my "ugly" little shots...but that's just me.

Does your dog bite?

I agree I like to try to work on shotmaking when I am alone onthe course. I am no tiger woods or whomever, but I like to try to think about what the best shot is to score well and try to execute.

If I am playing for some $ tho, I will play what the golf gods have given me that day. If it is a fade, draw, low, high I dont care just try to do the best I can with it.

I do find that I have learned to score better since I have worked on working the ball because rarely do I go a round where I dont have to hit a recovery shot that works around a tree etc so it has saved some strokes, but I can also get myself in trouble trying to work it.

All in all, I just try to enjoy what im doing, golf is fun for me now and I try not to take it too seriously (but just seriously enough ha)

The art of being able to score hacking it around a course is much more beautiful than a perfectly struck shot.

I'm sure there are others who share your view, but I'm not one of them. I don't play in tournaments, and my bets are $2 nassaus. I will enjoy myself whether I play well or poorly. But my #1 goal every time I step onto the tee is to shoot the lowest score possible. The challenge to become a better player, and by that I mean shooting lower scores, at this very difficult game is one of the best things about golf.

So for me, 'it's not how, it's how many'. Or 'there are no TV cameras out here'. Or as MikeC quoted ChiChi, 'golf is based on a scoring system, not a beauty contest'.

I feel the same. I really am not happy if I hit a bad shot that gets lucky and is good. Everyone I am playing with is like, what wrong? you hit that good. Sure, it might be down the middle of the fairway but I hit it like crap and it was ugly then I am upset. There are days I go out and hit the ball awesomely but lip out every putt and cannot get up and down to save my life but if i hit the ball well, hit good shots, and etc. I could care less what my score was.

For me golf is a way to escape work for a few hours, be it a round with friends or strangers. The time spent playing golf is much more important than the scoring.

Gimme the lowest round I can shoot period. At the end of the day, no one cares how you got there. It's all about the score. Sounds like someone with no goals.

see, those days piss me off to no end. i hate ruining an awesome ballstriking round with a poor day on the greens. i am much happier with a mediocre ballstriking round, but i drained putts and got up and down from everywhere. to me, that's *golf*--scoring when you ain't got it.

You are taking the easy way out.
Good golf is about consistent shot making and shooting low scores. Striking a great shot here and there does not make a person a good player. Shooting low scores makes a good player.

agreed, it's both. how can it not be, since golf is a game of misses. if you hit every shot the way you want it to deem a score as acceptable, you should be making a living on the tour.

You are crazy!

I don't care how the ball gets in the hole as long as it gets there is the least number of strokes possible.

It's true - I am crazy, although I'm not convinced that anything I wrote here is symptomatic.

I guess it comes down to a few things.

Ultimately, hitting the shots I intend to hit -- even if, say, I get a bad kick -- will result in low scores more often than relying on lucky accidents. Maybe my satisfaction in the former and dissatisfaction in the latter is indicitive of my desire to improve, play well, and score well.

There's an aesthetic component to golf that I enjoy greatly and that is lost on, for example, my father-in-law. We could be playing on the street in a slum on the lower east side and it would be all the same to him. And if he skulls one that winds up on the green he cackles and crows like he was Tiger Woods.

For me, golf is a bit like fly-fishing for trout -- my other passion. The totality of the experience matters more than how many fish I catch.

Of course, if we did have a bet going, I'd do my best to eat you alive by any means necessary.

i kinda hear where you are coming from. for a mid-handicapper a well struck shot is a thing of beauty and feels great...and doesn't happen all that often.

your post reminded me of a hole in one i made: it was a very ugly shot, but it ended up in the hole. technically it was a hole-in-one, but it just didn't feel like one...if you catch my meaning, i.e., you would think a shot like that requires perfect execution.

but, at the end of the day it is how many strokes it took to get the ball in the hole. golf doesn't care how it gets in the hole as long as it gets in the hole with the fewest possible strokes.

i've hit the ball well and scored poorly and hit the ball lousy and scored well. that's golf.

Responses on here are right down the Myers Briggs personality profile:

ESTJ vs INFP

http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html

To each his own.

People play golf for different reasons, some for competition, some for the gambling, some for comaraderie, some for the ball striking, some an exercise in self control, some for the exercise and nature, some because it is a maddening obsession, and some for more spiritual reasons, for me it is a little of everything. I will say I am driven to improve my score, I HATE not scoring well, I dislike losing money, and I do enjoy a well struck pitch that doesnt go in more than a poor shot that gets lucky. However at the end of the day it's the final score that counts and during a round of golf you get good breaks and bad breaks and in the end I like to look at the big picture, not obsess with the details.

I think I somewhat understand where the OP is coming from. In an attempt to get out of a rut, I've recently changed my playing goals. I'm no longer trying to shoot a low score, but I am trying to play a "perfect" round. I'm defining "perfect" not by the quality of my ballstriking, but by whether I hit the right shot for the right situation. I've yet to to do it for an entire 18, but felt I played a perfect 9 the other evening which resulted in an even par 36 with several missed birdie putts. I'm much less stressed on the course now, playing better, and I seem to all of a sudden be able to handle the "rub of the green" that used to make blow up some holes.

That's crazy, but I appreciate the honesty and I know a couple guys who are the same way. I asked one of them once if he'd rather scrape it around all day and shoot a 77, or hit it pure with a 87, without hesitation he would take the 87 because that way he could walk off the course knowing his swing was solid. With a scramling 77, he would still feel insecure about his swing. While I can understand that point of view it also means that he experiences a lot of emotional highs and lows on the course.

I tend to believe that hitting flush shots is a perk, it's a characteristic of good golf, not the ultimate goal. All good golfers catch at least a few solid strikes per round. it's not like a choice we all have to make between hitting it well and scoring well. I agree with frozen-rope, chasing solid is taking the easy way out, even though it is an elusive goal. It enables people to take on an inflated view of their own game.

coming from a baseball background, it is the feeling you have after hitting a cue shot down the right field line for an rbi single. you were obviously fooled by the offspeed pitch, but drove in a run and are standing on 1st base-you don't feel "good" about it, but it is a heck of alot better than hitting an infield flyball. the ultimate goal remains the same, how you get there really doesn't matter at the end of the day.

For me, golf has always been about the score. I do play alot of tournaments, but I almost never bet with my buddies on the course. I've just never been much of a gambler, other than the lottery when the jackpot gets up pretty high (I think it is over $300 million for this friday, so I'll be getting some tickets). I do thoroughly enjoy a pure shot, but at the end of the day, the score is what matters. If I skull an iron or chip, and it winds up close, I might be a bit put off at my inability to hit the shot I wanted, and I might vocalize my disgust for the shot, but I will be happy with the result, and usually come off with a "well, that was a good mis-hit" type of comment just to try to keep positive thoughts in my mind. Nothing chaps my hide like hitting my drives and approaches pure, 3 putting, and putting up a high 80something score.

The worst example for me is setting up to hit my driver straight, or with a slight fade, and flush a big draw into the trees (you know the kind, where you make the best possible contact, think in your mind for that split second that that was the money shot of the day, only to look up and see it heading for it's inevitable doom in the woods), making the best contact on a punch shot that I have made in a while, only to have it kick off of a tree further into the woods, punching out to the fairway, only to find that what felt like the perfect shot rolled through the fairway , and is sitting down in 4" of rough, hammering out a nice iron that stops 3 feet from the hole, and missing the putt for a 6 on a relatively easy par 4. I may have made great contact on every shot, but in the end, that double bogey pisses me off. On the other hand, if I hit a worm burner of a driver down the middle, skull an iron to the back of the green, and 2 putt for a par on the same hole, I might be a little bothered by my lack of ball-striking, but I'm perfectly content with the resulting par.

Maybe some of you guys will think I'm less nuts if I define "beautiful" shot. To me a beautiful shot is nothing more and nothing less than the one I intended to hit. If I need to hit a 150 yard low cut punch under a branch and run it up on the green and pull it off, that's a beautiful shot, notwithstanding that it didn't soar through the air.

Conversely, "...setting up to hit my driver straight, or with a slight fade, and flush a big draw into the trees" is not, even if the contact is good and I crush it. Nor is "...making the best contact on a punch shot that I have made in a while, only to have it kick off of a tree further into the woods", assuming I wasn't aiming at the tree

Bottom line is I walk off the course some days with an 81 (good score for me) but feeling I didn't play well, and other days I shoot an 85 and feel like I did. I'm fine in either case, I'm pleased to shoot the 81, but admit I'm likely to have more of a spring in my step after the 85. Obviously I'd feel differently about it if the club championship or a couple of hundred bucks was at stake.

I expected this to be a minority viewpoint, but am kind of surprised that virtually no one seems to relate. Maybe I am nuts.

Maybe you're just not that into chipping and putting?

I can relate a tiny bit, but I think you have to be careful, if your overall goal isn't to score as few strokes as possible....Taking your view to the extreme, why even carry a scorecard?

But sure -- at some level, a par with a poor drive, layup, a bladed pitch shot over the green, and a miracle holed chip from 50' is less satisfying than a decent drive, approach, and two putt.

I want to play with you!

I'm almost afraid to admit it, but sometimes I don't.

And thanks, Shanks!

well, you ARE inspector cloozoe. :-)

I too have a bag full of blank scorecards... my approach to golf changed several years ago once I had kids; since the time I had available to practice & my rounds rounds went way down, I failed to see the need to grind out a good round everytime, for what? ...another forgettable 75?? Since I barely collect enough rounds to establish a handicap these days, my time spent on the course now involves me telling my 13yr. old to "watch this!" ...or enjoying the challenge of having him call my next shot. *Golf has never been more satisfying!

You should pick up Gymnastics or Synchronized Swimming. They use scorecards and grade aesthetic values.

I have to play to shoot the lowest round possible.I have that need to keep improving. If I played the way you did I highly doubt I would even bother with the game.

If you enjoy playing that way then great. But personally it wouldn't be my cup of tea.

Dear Inspector,

Look deep in your heart. If your really didn't care about scoring, you'd be on the driving range where it is much more efficient to hit beautiful shots and not care what happens next.

I don't think you're crazy. I think you're hiding from the significant pain of failed up and downs.

I think you missed the point... it is all about taking the rote memory & performance out of one's game, no longer being satisfied with taking out the range finder and hitting the stock shot. I call it playing no fear, no lay-up golf... playing without regard to protecting one's hcp index.

I don't think Sawgrass missed the point at all.

By saying he would be just as happy banging balls at a driving range, instead of being on the course, yes...he did miss his point.

The OP's point was a very good one, what he meant is that he likes to play the game for the fun of it, to hit great shots, or to have a challenge, not for some number. I agree with this to a pretty large extent. I don't get hung up on my scores, I play for fun. I never, at any time in a round, know where I am score wise.

You reflect my sentiments.

The aesthetic. I will never play golf competitively. It is all about the vision of seeing my ball disappear high and far over the
trees as I cut off a dogleg.

The few times a round when I actually see the clubface hit the ball when it feels like the club is too steep and my head is
too far back but I end up on my front leg and the ball is just gone.

My score? Are you kidding? I just hit a 5i 200 yards with a 5 yard fade that dropped like a stone over a bunker and on the green.

If I can visualize 3 or 4 great shots as I am going to bed, it was a splendid investment of my time.

I guess it's just different perspectives. I can't speak for Sawgrass, but I didn't read what you read in Sawgrass's post. I didn't read that he was suggesting the OP would be just as happy banging balls at the driving range. The way I read his post was, the fact that the OP was playing golf and not just banging balls on the range was perhaps indication that he WAS interested in scoring but was maybe 'hiding from the significant pains of failed up and downs'.

I think most of use get the point of the OP's post. His perspective is nothing new, in fact it's the common cop out of a guy with no short game. The truth is it's relatively easy to strike impressive full swing shots. Driver's, 5-irons, towering 8-irons that cover the flag etc... There are thousands of players who can do just that, all day long.
The real challenge in golf is the green side touch shots, the scoring shots, the putts. The scoring shots. Those are the shots which separate the real players from the pretenders. The short game is what separates playing professionals from the club pros and amateurs.
The OP is out there enjoying a solid shot, which is fine, but it doesn't make a player. The true player's are identified by their scoring average.

You say that like everyone's goal is to be a "real" player and anything but an amateur.

Fine for you, but stop speaking for everyone who plays golf.

I'll say this. I was trying to be playful. And trying to be insightful. Another way of saying what I meant was that the beauty of a well struck shot is intertwined with the goal that is set for that shot. And I don't think you can really seperate the two.

I'll also say that I'm enjoying all of your writings.

Maybe some of us do our *scoring* in the real world. Some of us enjoyed high levels of athletic competition in other
sports and see no point to pining away over hitting a 4 foot putt that is ultimately meaningless.

And use our spare time to enjoy the great outdoors, hit some balls, drink some scotch and enjoy good company.

The players from the pretenders? Good one.

I agree 101% Your philosophy is exactly the same as mine. To me a great round of golf is pure contact with all the shots. I played yesterday and shot 69 and played today and shot 77. I enjoyed both rounds differently . The first round was a score ugly round with a whole bunch of lucky shots while working on a new swing idea. Today the contact was great but the putting wasn't that hot. Shot a 41+36 and the second nine was the nine with the great contact. To duck hook your tee shot and then follow it up with a pulled thinned 7 iron that goes across the green hot and then the finale of a chip shot that hits the flag stick is not that great a hole. I ended up with a 4 foot putt for a very ugly par. Not as satisfying to me as a 3 wood that draws around the corner of a dogleg followed up by a high lazy 8 iron that seeks the flag but is 1/2 club too long followed by a 20 footer and a 2 footer for par is my idea of a great par.

I choose to use the sticks that help me score the best. They also give me the greatest enjoyment when contact is pure with those forged blades.

I can enjoy a competitive round now and then but don't seek them out. I've had competitive experiences in other sports enough to satisfy that need.

Everyone is different and plays their chosen sport for different reasons. My way isn't for everyone and everyone's way isn't for me.

I think I'd rather catch 2 big fish on the fly rod than 20 smaller ones. Although a 100 fish day can still be fun.

Play well and fish well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!