10 Second Trigger

[ARL67]

I was golfing today with ManFromMoffat at Lora Bay, consuming my Underpar voucher before the course closes next week. We were paired up with couple nice guys, and enjoyed the round with them on a beautiful day on Georgian Bay.

However one of the guys, once he set himself over the ball, would be frozen in time for 10 full seconds, then he thawed, and began pulling the trigger and commencing his swing. This happened on every tee shot, every fairway shot, and maybe the irons might have been 8-9 seconds. Despite that, I found it not that bothersome. Except the eerie silence while the 3 of us stood still and quiet, listening to crickets chirp, the rustling of the leaves, etc. Needless to say, most of his shots were quite poor. Talk about paralysis, and the tension that must have been there. They were nice guys, and we had an enjoyable round, but I wanted to say the guy after we walked off 18 -> " Dude, no good can come over standing over the ball for so long "

[Weirfan]

Working at a golf course , i see a wide variety of pre shot routines every shift. Some guys take 3/4/5 practice swings, some guys set up , pause, walk away, align, the. Set up again ( jim furyk like) others have a longg pause over the ball such as you mention others will have many, many waggles and knee bends.

A while back, Somebody here posted a video of their buddy taking over 30 seconds over the ball for each shot.

One of our buds in Arizona, takes 10-15 secs over the ball on each shot , bending, waggling, etc I used to find myself starting and stoping , now if hes in our group I dont watch . Other than that he moves very fast between shots

everybody is different.

[ace in the hazard]

i catch myself spending 4 or 5 seconds standing over iron shots sometimes and the results are generally worse than when i walk up, take my stance, check my alignment and fire.

[ManFromMoffat]

I was golfing today with ManFromMoffat at Lora Bay, consuming my Underpar voucher before the course closes next week. We were paired up with couple nice guys, and enjoyed the round with them on a beautiful day on Georgian Bay.

However one of the guys, once he set himself over the ball, would be frozen in time for 10 full seconds, then he thawed, and began pulling the trigger and commencing his swing. This happened on every tee shot, every fairway shot, and maybe the irons might have been 8-9 seconds. Despite that, I found it not that bothersome. Except the eerie silence while the 3 of us stood still and quiet, listening to crickets chirp, the rustling of the leaves, etc. Needless to say, most of his shots were quite poor. Talk about paralysis, and the tension that must have been there. They were nice guys, and we had an enjoyable round, but I wanted to say the guy after we walked off 18 -> " Dude, no good can come over standing over the ball for so long "

At first it was startling, and then just fascinating. Glad I didn't have to take my shoes off to count. Then I began to meditate and I'm now an even calmer person than I was before.

[4wedges]

It would be frustrating at first to watch that. I can't imagine what is going through anyone's mind while they stand over the ball for so long.

[Ignatius Reilly]

I have a friend who does that. Drives me nuts. I get tense just watching him, knowing we need to keep moving and then..... he's frozen for what feels like a long time. And that's after taking 4 practice swings, with divots. As with the guy ARL watched, it does him no good.

So how do you get them to break that habit?

I don't want to piss him off, or make him even more tense. I'm thinking of getting him to practice on the range with no "freezing", but when I think about it he doesn't do that on the range.

[4wedges]

I have a friend who does that. Drives me nuts. I get tense just watching him, knowing we need to keep moving and then..... he's frozen for what feels like a long time. And that's after taking 4 practice swings, with divots. As with the guy ARL watched, it does him no good.

So how do you get them to break that habit?

I don't want to piss him off, or make him even more tense. I'm thinking of getting him to practice on the range with no "freezing", but when I think about it he doesn't do that on the range.

Maybe you can ask him what he thinks about when standing over the ball. Since he doesn't do that on the range, does he hit it better there? If so, you could mention that to him.

[Pimento Cheese]

Either he's got a million swing thoughts that he works through each time, or he's a bundle of nerves who needs to work to relax himself before his swing. Either way, it's a tougher game when you put too much brain into your swing.

[Ignatius Reilly]

Maybe you can ask him what he thinks about when standing over the ball. Since he doesn't do that on the range, does he hit it better there? If so, you could mention that to him.

It's a good question. He may not even be aware of how long he's stuck before he swings.

His range and round play is about the same: Very inconsistent. He hits outstanding shots 25% of the time, absolutely terrible 25% of the time and the rest are somewhere in-between. I have the same problems, not quite so severe and I don't waste time pulling the trigger.

Thinking a little more, he loves the game but has no time to practice, at all. So other than the occasional pre-game 20 minutes at the range, most of the time is spent playing. I think the lack of practice probably makes him fear what might go wrong with the shot so he tries to get everything perfect before the backswing. As we all know, that's not a good plan....

[golfingtime]

But how long did the round take?

[Richd]

But how long did the round take?

probably added about 10 to 15 minutes to the round would be my guess

[ChasingPar]

It happens. I once got paired up with a couple. The man would take 30 seconds on every shot to do a kind of shimmy with the ball at his feet. A few times he embellished his little "dance" by practicing some exaggerated hip thrusts. The woman would take about 6 seconds to reach one quarter of her backswing. She would pause at that point for another 6 seconds, then finish the backswing in yet another 6 seconds. Thankfully, the downswing only took a second. Same routine for chip shots, three foot putt, etc.

[Benz]

I have a friend who does that. Drives me nuts. I get tense just watching him, knowing we need to keep moving and then..... he's frozen for what feels like a long time. And that's after taking 4 practice swings, with divots. As with the guy ARL watched, it does him no good.

So how do you get them to break that habit?

I don't want to piss him off, or make him even more tense. I'm thinking of getting him to practice on the range with no "freezing", but when I think about it he doesn't do that on the range.

A regular playing partner of mine sometimes takes a little longer than usual addressing the ball. When he does so, he almost always makes a poor shot. The long pause doesn't help, and IMO it's an indication of significant indecision.

As for the practice swings with divots, I would not put up with that for more than one hole. No one should be allowed to rip up a course in that manner. If even one practice swing takes a divot, then you have to question why they're doing it.

[Benz]

Maybe you can ask him what he thinks about when standing over the ball. Since he doesn't do that on the range, does he hit it better there? If so, you could mention that to him.

Another buddy of mine was freezing over every shot.
I told him that he was probably falling into 'paralysis by analysis'.

Think about doing up your shoelaces. If you had to think about every step individually, you almost couldn't do it.