Appreciating how others play.

[Thomas Dai]

As golfers we can be pretty self centred about ‘our’ game and not necessarily appreciate how others, especially ladies, older folks and lessors players play the game.
What can the collective ‘we’, whether enthusiasts/nerds/anoraks or those ‘in the business’ do to better appreciate the play of others?
Would appreciation increase if -
- right handlers sometimes played a few holes with left-handed clubs (and vice versa) thus experiencing the difficulty faced by some others (not experience playing from the other side, experience difficulty of effectively ‘beginning the game’ again)
- long hitters played all their shots on the course occasionally with short distance or range balls
- more proficient players sometimes hit approach shots and shots around greens with surlyn covered or ‘rock’ balls instead of their usual high spec, high spin ball.
Another question arises though, how would lessor players and shorter hitters experience and thus appreciate what it’s like to be a highly proficient long hitter?
Atb

[Joe Hancock]

Playing with fewer clubs helps. It forces you to swing easier sometimes, helping you relate to the slower swing speed golfers. And then you have to swing harder, relating more to the higher swing speed golfer...


Intentional fades to compensate for over-clubbing, etc....anyway, there’s a lot of ways to relate, but one has to want to sacrifice their precious score and handicap to do it.


For me, I think I have become a better thinker, golfer and designer because of the past 5 years of only using 7 clubs. Almost every other golfer looks at me like I’m a lunatic though....

[Carl Rogers]

Having spent the vast majority of my modest golfing life in the singles line, this is one thread I can relate to.
Also, I am of the opinion that courses cannot be properly be evaluated (rated) without observing a range of players over a range of weather conditions.

[Peter Pallotta]

I don't think it takes too many rounds with too many other people to realize that what's *outside* the defined/proscribed 'field of play' has at least as much impact on the interest and varieties of challenges & recoveries that a golf hole offers as does what's inside/within that 'boundary line'.
And for my tastes, if there is very little or no difference at all between the experience of being 'inside' vs 'outside', it's not a very good or interesting golf hole; and if there is too much of a difference between the two, that's not very good either.
But every once in a while, me and my playing partner will find one of us way off course and the other in the middle of the fairway, and *what happens next* proves surprising and delightful and satisfying (or frustrating, depending on the quality of the respective shots), and then I know the golf hole is a good one.
P     

[John Kavanaugh]

I started playing 51 years ago and wasn't all that good before puberty, now I'm 60 and learning new skills to remain proficient. So, play longer and get better and you will eventually experience how everyone else plays.