The National Golf Foundation just released some unsettling numbers about growing the game of golf. From 2020 through 2025 over 19 million Americans tried on-course golf for the first time. Yet only one in four of the folks who tried golf became committed golfers.
Many of those who chose not to pursue golf as a pastime said they felt uncomfortable around regular golfers. The truth of the matter, however, is those who sampled golf found golf too hard. So, I did a deep dive as to why golf is too hard.
At the top of the list is the golf swing itself, which is technically difficult because it requires an unnatural, highly coordinated sequence of movements, often conflicting with natural body dominance – for right-handers the swing is controlled by the left side. This makes the golf swing counter-intuitive to master.
Try writing with your non-dominant hand. The swing is made more difficult because it requires a precise sequence of rotation between your shoulders, torso and hips, which must be powerful and perfectly timed.
The golf club itself is inherently difficult to use because it is engineered to impart spin and launch, rather than perfectly straight. What’s more, the clubhead’s center of gravity is not aligned with the center of the shaft, creating the natural tendency to rotate the clubhead too far.
For beginners a hit in the center of the clubface, the “sweet spot,” is almost happenstance. Missing this spot, even by a fraction of an inch, results in a significant loss of distance and accuracy.
Years ago, Winston Churchill said, “Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for that purpose.”
Golf is a hard game for everybody, but it is especially hard for beginners, partly due to the fact that there is so much to learn: mechanics, rules, etiquette, equipment, driving, irons, short game, putting, golf course layout and more. And it’s even more challenging for golfers over 60 due to normal physical decline in flexibility, strength, balance and endurance. These changes directly impact the ability to generate club head speed, achieve proper ball contact and make necessary adjustments.
Another feature of golf is that you never play the same exact course twice. Your shots go in different directions, the flags are placed differently, and conditions are variable, like wind, temperature and grass conditions, all of which contribute to golf’s complexity.
Then there is the reality of the mental aspect to the game that is unlike any other sport mostly because you’re taking your stance and looking at a stationary ball. It’s hard to train an over-thinking mind. Often intrusive thoughts take over; you go through a lengthy checklist leading to more tension, and frustration and failure leave you an emotional wreck. The mental game is ridiculously complicated, and the better the player, the more complicated it becomes.
The constant necessity of practicing correctly, both to continue learning the game and to maintain one’s level of skill, is certainly a challenge. Any avid golfer will tell you that taking a few months off, due to injury, winter weather or other reason, usually requires a lot of work to return to your old form.
When you choose to make any type of swing change, the “500 ball rule” kicks in. My partner in Performance Golf Schools, the late and beloved Herb Wimberly, advised golfers that they would need to hit at least 500 practice balls to establish any change in their golf swing.
The reality of golf is that a lot of practice is required to make an already hard game less hard. Lastly, golf is made harder for most recreational golfers because they avoid instruction from a PGA pro teacher.
