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Comment by creaghpatr | Hacker News Reader

I loved this. Having recently transitioned from running ultramarathons to trying to break 100 on the course, I figured I already had the discipline to brute force effort my way by hitting balls 4-5 days per week. It wasn't until I worked with a coach and rebuilt my swing from scratch that I began to see any improvement and I actually got worse in the beginning for weeks.

One thing the two sports have in common is that good decision-making has much more leverage than in short distance sports like swimming and shorter road races (and presumably rowing, I wouldn't know). Most of my score improvement in golf so far has been due to making better shot decisions on the course rather than improved shot execution. Feels like a life metaphor in there somewhere but im sensitive about becoming one of those ppl who compare everything in life to golf.

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Decision making is really important for people that can play golf well. I've played with a buddy a couple times and every time it's eye opening to see how he is practically playing a different game than me. I'm just trying to get the ball in the hole, get par if I'm lucky. On the other hand, he knows, most of the time, that he can get par quite easily. Instead, the game becomes about positioning, club selection, and approach; if I'm being honest, though, those concepts aren't even part of my game. I'm just trying to finish, to play the course, while he's trying to beat the course.

You can get in the weeds with complex decision making even when you suck. Say you hit your 3 wood 200 yards and you are 200 yards away from the hole. Course management would tell you that you hit your 9 iron well x% more often than three wood so maybe try and hit it twice laying up instead of the hero shot. Then there is the true reality unbound by theory like course management is, where if you thin the hell out of that 3 wood it is still going to skip forward at least 130 yards making it a safer shot than the 9 iron with a risk free attempt at the green coupled in.

Taking a moment to consider the green before you chip on is also a simple concept that would benefit golfers of all handicaps. Setting yourself up for easier putts or the chance to roll the ball in off the chip just takes awareness rather than skill and repetition.

Golf is one of the more interesting sport just from a standpoint of how many considerations you are making and how lies aside from the teeshot are often so unique.

>Then there is the true reality unbound by theory like course management is, where if you thin the hell out of that 3 wood it is still going to skip forward at least 130 yards making it a safer shot than the 9 iron with a risk free attempt at the green coupled in.

Yes, I improved when I accepted that the objectively correct decision based on a perfect shot execution was not necessarily the right decision for me. Subtle but crucial distinction I didn't have at the beginning and had to develop with experience.

If you go to a golf coach to "learn golf", they will teach you how to hit the ball. A crucial step, no doubt, but that's well short of "playing golf".

Golf is first understanding what to do, then executing it. It's a risk/reward balance. Yes, execution will fail sometimes (ok, often), but at least trying the right thing is better than successfully expecting the wrong thing.

In so many ways, it's just like software development.

> It wasn't until I worked with a coach and rebuilt my swing from scratch that I began to see any improvement and I actually got worse in the beginning for weeks.

How does one get into golf? How do you start? Buy a beginner set (?) of clubs from online reviews? Is there a way to find a good coach (accreditations?)?

Good decision-making is critical to golf. If you're interested in furthering your development, I highly recommend Decade[1]. Great resource.

[1] https://decade.golf

Planning to play your 25th percentile shot, instead of trying to execute a 90th percentile shot saves like 10 strokes a round easy. Golf skill is narrowing the distribution, not improving the max.

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