[JohnV]

To me it is the number of 6-10 foot putts they make.  Some of the numbers that get quoted where a player only missed one or two putts inside 10 feet all week are amazing to me.

[Lou_Duran]

JVB,

You're right.  The pros are fantastic putters.  And they can not only do it for four rounds, but week-to-week on courses with completely different green designs and grasses.

However, from time to time, like at the Dixie Cup last year, I can have a decent putting round making all my short ones.  You can give me a large bucket of balls, and I could not hit one high long-iron into TP-S #18 like Tiger did on Saturday, or a wet-flop like he did on #10 on Sunday.    

[Craig Sweet]

I don't think the average golfer has any idea how consistent a tour pro swings a club...at their level they have shaved the margin for error down to a gnats ass, and they do it over and over again...

[Darren deMaille]

The Pros understand their capability and expectations.   Everyone else has expectations that their talent level will never see.  

[Michael Dugger]

Nobody seems to really be addressing George's question as phrased in the title.

Being in awe of something is not the same as not being able to relate to it.

So, contrary to popular opinion, there is little I cannot relate to in the pro's game.  

The only thing super foreign to me is the feeling of controlling ball spin.  For starters, I don't ever really "pull one back" like we see these guys do.  Thus I have no idea what it's like to try and decrease spin and impart a sort of knuckle ball that hits and stops.  

Especially with the wedges.  I'd say most of us amatuers are on an never ending quest to get more spin, learn to stop 'em quicker, etc....

But here these guys are having problems for exactly THE OPPOSITE reason, they get too much.

I can't relate to that.  I WISH I had that problem.

[Darren deMaille]

I do agree that short game is very important, but if you look statistically the money leaders also lead in greens in regulation.  There are tons of great putters, just set up a booth in your local mall.  

[Peter Nomm]

Played with Jerry Kelly this fall - the guy never missed a fairway and wasn't happy with his driver all day.  

I played the Chechessee Creek Pro-Member in December and warmed up next to David Eger.  Every iron was the same thing - trajectory, shot shape, and direction.  

I am a scratch player, and I was amazed at their ability to get that ball to begin exactly where they intend.  I work on this with the students I teach, and I focus on this in my own game.  Yet I feel so loose and sloppy compared to what it looks like they do.  That consistent ball flight is GREAT.

[Mark Smolens]

The distance they carry the ball with the driver.  My 260 yard drives fly 230 and roll the rest (at least in Az, not here in the spring).  They consistently fly the ball past my Sunday best.  

[Matt_Cohn]

The shot from 30 yards that bounces twice, checks, and stops dead.

That shot has nothing to do with clubhead speed, but I've never done it or seen it done in person.

[CJ Carder]

The integrity of the shots... I remember someone said something similar about Tiger once too.  If you listen to a PGA Tour Pro hit a golf ball, the integrity and consistency of the strike is mind boggling.   It really appears as though there's not even a ball there.  Tiger really is on a different level too.

[Jason McNamara]

The shot from 30 yards that bounces twice, checks, and stops dead.

And never gets more than 5 feet off the ground.  Yup, that one.

[Darren deMaille]

Mark you should play with Zack Johnson,  he hits it the same distance as you and he is a master champ.

Matt good players control their distance with trajectory and not with a shot the  stops dead after the second bounce.  

[Mike Tanner]

So far, we've covered the gamut: Long drives, controlled irons, impeccable short games, amazing bunker play, great lag putting, even free gear. But some earlier posters hit on what I think is the key difference; their ability to get the ball in the hole and score. Here's what I mean. I think everyone would agree that the seventh hole on Sunday at the 2004 Open at Shinnecock was a ridiculously brutal test. Yet, I think fewer than half a dozen players scored worse than a bogey. (I don't have the stats at hand, maybe someone else does.) That just blew me away. I know I would have walked away from the hole BIP, with an "X" on my card.

[Darren deMaille]

Mike you get it, lowest score wins. Not prettiest.  

[J_ Crisham]

It simply sounds different -from the swish of the club to the explosion of the driver .Tour pros will comment that Tiger's shots make a completely different sound from theirs-hint:its not the equipment!

[Wayne_Freedman]

in addition to all the above:

1.) The ice in their veins

2.) Ability to adjust to different courses and conditions, week after week.

[Bruce Katona]

IF we all worked at our golf games 8 hours a day (like we do at our respective jobs) 5-6 days a week for years, we would have some idea of where the typical PGA touring pro's game was at.  If you consider all of the exempt players on the PGA Tour, the Eupopean Tour, the Asian Tour and the Nationwide Tour, you would have perhaps 1000 players at best, which is as many players as move up and down in a given year in Major League Baseball.  How many of us in our younger days were good/great ballplayers and played in high school/college?  Of these, who actually got signed to a contract and played minor league ball?  Of those, who got to the big leagues?

Comparing the PGA Touring pros to our games  would be like comparing our baseball skills at out best to the top Major League players of our day.  

Personally, I played the outfield in college and could not even feel lucky enough to hold the door open for Jim Rice, Dave Winfield, Lou Pinella or the other top outfielders of the day....In HS, we had a player on our team that actually was drafted and played in the big leagues fo several seasons.....the difference in skill was so obvious I decided that it was a good idea to work on my studies in college as big league baseball wasn't going to be a good career move.

[George Pazin]

Personally, I played the outfield in college and could not even feel lucky enough to hold the door open for Jim Rice, Dave Winfield, Lou Pinella or the other top outfielders of the day....In HS, we had a player on our team that actually was drafted and played in the big leagues fo several seasons.....the difference in skill was so obvious I decided that it was a good idea to work on my studies in college as big league baseball wasn't going to be a good career move.

Your story reminds me of a time I was done New Orleans about 15 years ago. My friends and I were killing time, so we stopped at a driving range/batting cage place we happened across. We were in the batting cages and there was a young guy in the fastest cage, ripping line drive after line drive. We were amazed, so we asked him after he got out if he played somewhere. He said he was the backup 3rd baseman at LSU. He didn't miss a ball and he wasn't even the starter. That kind of thing puts athletic ability in perspective.

Mike Dugger -

I think your post is closest to what I was getting at. That's also why I highlighted Jamie's different skills with different wedges - I can't relate to that, either.

[John Kavanaugh]

I don't get why four 6 handicaps playing scramble can beat a +6 handicap tour pro playing his own ball.

[Brad Tufts]

Even as a "close-to-zero".....

For me it's strength required to hit serviceable shots from the rough, and also to hit the ball great distance with control.  I once saw Tom Kite hit a regular wedge out of bent-grass rough where I could barely see the ball.  Perfect contact, the shot looked normal, and he was a senior tour guy...It makes you realize even more how deep some of that US Open rough is to make these guys chip out.  

From 190+, I'm hoping just to hit the fairway or hit the green.  I'm not firing at pins with any real skill until I get down to an 8-iron or below.

Also, its the mentality that putts from 10-25 feet are going in.  10 feet is the longest I would be really hoping to make a putt and up to 25 I'm hoping for a good line/roll/stroke (this is their 10 feet).  I'm also trying to lag pretty much everything else, and they are always trying to make it.

I can understand the spin, the length (optimization of traj. helps), the contact, the high irons, the bunker-play, the ball working, etc...

[TEPaul]

I believe what most normal golfers can't relate to about the pro game is how they think, and how different the way they think is in relation to their games compared to how most normal golfers "think" in relation to their own games.

What I mean by that is if most normal golfers could understand how to think consevatively (risk/reward consequences) in relation to their own games compared to the way pros think conservatively in relation to their games, most all amateurs would be completely shocked in what it could save them in strokes!

[Tom Huckaby]

TEP:

I really believe most golfers do know how to think as you describe it (more or less) - they just actively do NOT do it!  Pros have to do it as their livlihood is at stake; most weekend warriors surely can course manage quite well - it's just not what they're out there to do.  "I didn't pay $100 and leave the kids to lay up" is just as viable as thinking like a pro.

What I also believe though is this:  only very very few weekend warriors have the mental discipline to put pro-type thinking into place even when they really do care about minimizing their score at all cost.

So we may be saying the same thing, from different angles.  I really don't believe there's any rocket science in golf course management; what I do believe is FOLLOWING the right course for such and ACTING on it takes one hell of an amount of discipline - and this is what the pros have and us weekend warriors do not.  They can check their egoes and make the right play way better than we can.

But then again, they necessarily have to do this or they won't be pros for long.

TH

[Phil Benedict]

I believe what most normal golfers can't relate to about the pro game is how they think, and how different the way they think is in relation to their games compared to how most normal golfers "think" in relation to their own games.

What I mean by that is if most normal golfers could understand how to think consevatively (risk/reward consequences) in relation to their own games compared to the way pros think conservatively in relation to their games, most all amateurs would be completely shocked in what it could save them in strokes!

I'm sure what you say is true (although Patrick may disagree just to spite you) but occasionally I've come upon a high handicapper whose thinking was the best thing about his game.  A couple of years ago I played this kid (about 20-years old) in a club 4-ball event to whom I was giving something like 30 shots.  Every full shot was this ugly banana ball, but he really knew how to think and capitalize on his strokes.  He avoided bunkers (which he had no chance of recovering from) and managed to stay in most of the holes.  To cap it all off, he made a 15-footer from the fringe on the 17th hole for a natural par to finish us off.  It felt like he stabbed me in the heart, but I have a real admiration for the way he worked his way around the course mostly on his wits.

[Tom Huckaby]

Phil:

I think you're right also that high handicappers who manage their games as well the pros (or very well anyway) do exist.  My Dad is one.  The man can't hit a driver, so he doesn't.  He can hit his trusty 4iron about 140 yards and consistently solidly, so that's his tee shot choice damn near every hole.  Since he's great with running shots, and not so great going over things, he's never met a hazard he couldn't go around.  I swear to you he is a marvel of course management and discipline, one who could teach the pros a thing or to.  He has 50 handicap ability and a +4 handicap mind, and that translates to scores around 110 on most courses.

He's not perfect though, especially around sons who know how to goad him.

 

[TEPaul]

"TEP:
I really believe most golfers do know how to think as you describe it (more or less) - they just actively do NOT do it!"


TomH:

That could certainly be so but if it is one does need to ask why they don't do it more?

The reasons probably are pretty simple----ie they just don't care because the consequences of not thinking well---the results----just don't mean as much to them as others who are more involved in and understand competition better.

I've always said if almost anyone gets their game to a certain level and they want to take it to a new level just go play a bunch of competitive tournaments. I think most anyone will be just amazed what that does to their course management abilities that results in scoring so much better.  

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