These days, everyone seems to have an opinion about everything, leading to some interesting and sometimes outrageous hot takes and controversial opinions about golf.
Therefore, if you clicked this page, you may wonder: what are the hottest takes and most controversial opinions about golf?
In this article, we will tell you some of the hottest takes and most controversial opinions in golf.
11 Hottest Takes In Golf – Most Controversial Golf Opinions
The golf world is full of people from all walks of life, each with different opinions and takes on golf. Naturally, some opinions and takes are more outlandish than others, which gives color and variety to our beautiful world.
Down below are some of the hottest takes and most controversial opinions about golf.
Note: These hot takes and controversial opinions in no way represent Sports Ruby. We are just mentioning the opinions of entities unaffiliated with Sports Ruby.
#1 It’s Not Your Equipment. It’s You.
Some people are always buying the newest, latest gear in an attempt to get better at golf. Some golfers will splurge thousands of dollars on new golf clubs before even breaking 100 once.
More experienced and wise golfers claim that it is not the equipment that makes you unable to break 100, it’s you.
You could have golden golf clubs that weigh as little as a feather, and still be unable to hit a good golf shot.
#2 Underperforming Balls Deserve To Be Dirty
This next take is hilarious. Some people claim that underperforming golf balls should not be washed, and deserve to be dirty. Certain intriguing folks will go as far as to say that they will not wash their balls until they land where they want them to land.
Similarly, other golfers will break their club after a terrible shot, punishing their equipment, which is a bit barbaric and wasteful. What are your thoughts on this hot take?
#3 99% Of People Do Not Score Themselves Properly
We all know how some golfers play more by the rules than others, who claim having fun is the most important thing in golf.
In golf, there are some people known as rule lawyers, random golfers who claim 99% of people do not score themselves properly, and that they should before comparing scores.
It makes sense how you need the same rules applied across the board if you want to be able to compare different scores fairly.
Some players decide to take relief during times where they are not allowed, or increase the relief distance. Some players calculate their handicap incorrectly. Some people use gimme putts instead of actually putting the ball as they theoretically should.
What are your thoughts on the importance of applying the scoring rules perfectly?
#4 Unsolicited Advice Should Result In A Penalty
Some people on golf courses that you do not even know sometimes love to give unsolicited golf advice. A lot of these improvised golf coaches cannot even break 110 or swing their club correctly.
Real golf coaches get paid to give golf lessons to people, but these weekend warrior unsolicited advisors can just afford to give advice away for free?
The disgruntled recipients of unsolicited advice often get annoyed and even believe that giving unsolicited advice should result in a stroke penalty! Do you think unsolicited advice should result in a penalty?
#5 Everyone Should Use The Crowd Rule
Some pace-loving golfers claim that everyone should use “The Crowd Rule”, which is an unofficially created pace-improving rule.
The Crowd Rule is used as if you had an entire crowd at your disposal dedicated to finding your golf ball that you lost somewhere not too deep into the rough.
Basically, if an entire crowd was looking for your ball in a small area that you saw it go into, you can just assume you found it and use a new ball to replace the “lost” ball where you think the ball is close to.
You can just place the new golf ball down in the same conditions as the original ball, without extra penalties.
The Crowd Rule is meant to help speed up the play because it can be annoying when an entire group knows roughly where the ball is, but cannot find it in the foliage. Instead of wasting many minutes searching, The Crowd Rule offers an instant resolution to the search.
Do you think this homemade rule should be used? Banned?
#6 Bad Golfers Should Not Score Themselves
This next hot take is quite controversial, and mostly held by mediocre golfers. These golfers claim that bad golfers should not score themselves at all because it hurts their self-esteem and ruins their enjoyment of playing golf.
Some people adverse to this philosophy is that these mediocre golfers are just lying to themselves instead of trying to improve, while others are proponents that your enjoyment should be the most important thing in golf, especially if you are not going pro.
Without scoring yourself, you can also focus more on making every single shot better than the last, which can do wonders for your concentration and performance in the end.
There are many accounts of professional athletes completely unaware of the match score until after it ends, as they are so focused on each single point on the board individually.
What do you think? Should bad golfers score themselves or not?
#7 People Pay For Expensive Golf Courses To Avoid The People On Affordable Courses
Some people claim that the golfers who pay for expensive golf courses do not pay to play on those courses, but rather to avoid the types of people on more affordable golf courses.
Without a good head on your shoulder, it is hard to become wealthy, unless you go down illegal or shameful routes.
For this reason, expensive golf courses tend to weed out a lot of irrational, unpleasant or mentally unstable people, although this is definitely a generalization, as there are crazy people everywhere.
What do you think? Do you think avoiding annoying people, like loud people blasting their music loudly, is the greatest benefit of more expensive golf courses? Or is it unreasonable to pay for expensive golf courses to avoid people?
#8 Using Gimme Putts In Golf Is Not About Speeding Up Pace, But About Saving You From Embarrassment
People love to use “gimme” putts, meaning picking up the ball and counting it as a successful putt when the ball is relatively close to the hole. However, the fact is that a lot of those people would miss one of those “guaranteed” short putts more often than they would like to admit.
These “gimme” putt lovers love to state the benefits of speeding up play that “gimme” putts offer, but is that really why they love “gimme” putts so much?
The more skeptical golfers instead think that “gimme” lovers are just afraid of missing short putts, so they save themselves the embarrassment of potential misses by picking up the ball.
They think this is especially true on short, straight putts on flat surfaces, which would be humiliating to miss for some people.
What do you think? Are “gimme” putts simply a coping mechanism to avoid embarrassing putter misses? Or are they actually used to speed up the pace of play?
#9 No One Should Stop Talking Right Before Someone Hits A Ball
One thing that incredibly annoys certain golfers is when someone is talking as they are about to swing, and that person abruptly stops talking right before the swing, as a show of respect.
These golfers claim that the sudden stoppage in speech throws them off more than the talking itself. They prefer the consistency of either talking or silence during their shot setup and swing.
Do you think it matters? Or are they being crybabies? Should people not talk at all most of the time on a golf hole?
#10 Golf Is The Worst Sport Produced On Television
Golf is the worst produced sport on television. This is what some golf fans are claiming. These fans state that watching an up close, zoomed in view of a golf ball flying in the air with no context is dull, uninteresting, unexciting, and will not even teach you to be a better golfer.
Basically, the only things you see are the player swing and where the ball lands in the end. Since you cannot really visualize the golf ball trajectory intuitively, you get a very binary view of the golf tournament.
You do not hear many of the thoughts going on in the heads of professional golfers, only the voices of the TV announcers always naming the clubs used by players.
These players who find watching golf broadcasts dull suggest that watching vlogs on YouTube produced by good golfers is a lot more interesting and useful.
In fact, in these vlogs on golf courses, great golfers can walk you through their mindset, their golf course management, their club selection, where they are aiming, and so much more during their entire golf round.
On TV broadcasts, you are constantly hopping around from player to player with no deeper view on the plays, but with vlogs made by one person, you can actually learn a thing or two by following the uninterrupted progression through all the holes.
What do you think? Should the PGA broadcasters follow players more? How could the golf broadcasting experience be improved?
#11 Golf Courses Should Let You Pay To Look For Balls Instead Of Playing Golf
One of the most interesting hot takes about golf is that some people want golf courses to offer the option to pay a flat fee of 10-20$ to not play golf! Instead, these people want to be allowed to roam the golf course to go hunting for lost golf balls!
Basically, these people miss Easter Egg Hunts a lot, and want to look for balls instead of colorful eggs.
These people love the anticipation and excitement of finding golf balls of all colors, from different brands, and different ages. They love the randomness of golf ball hunting.
Although this could maybe give golf courses some free revenue, it might impede on play or cause painful contact between the live ball and ball hunters. Furthermore, a ball hunter might find a ball that a golfer is actively using, which would lead to lots of conflict!
Do you think golf courses should let you pay to just go hunt for balls instead of playing golf?
Conclusion
There you go! After reading this article, you have discovered some of the craziest, hottest takes in golf, as well as some controversial opinions that are sure to leave you thinking something.
What is the worst take on this list? Which of these opinions is the most controversial? What are your hot takes about golf? Let us know in the comments down below!
