I am likely preaching to the choir when I say golf can be a frustrating and confounding game. Up is down, down is up, left is right, right is left and swing easier if you want to hit if further.
Is it any wonder the inventors of this game were drinking alcohol when they concocted this past time which can make us laugh and cry during the same round? Geez, even on the same hole!
So the question is could there be anything else we can add to sweeten this big melting pot of confusion? Well, I’m glad you asked because there is and many golfers experience this extra ingredient which drives us closer to the brink around the same time each year.
It doesn’t really have an official name but we can call it ‘Fall Golf Syndrome’ or FGS for short.
The symptoms vary from player to player but the common thread is the fact golfers start to play better as the curtain slowly comes down on another season.
Tell me you haven’t experienced this condition in any if not all of your years of golf and I would argue you aren’t paying attention to what you are doing on the course.
Whereas you couldn’t put the ball in the ocean if you were standing on the pier in June and July, you are now placing the ball down the centre of most fairways on a regular basis in the fall.
Some will claim the putter is working like a magic wand and the line to the hole is like something out of ‘Bagger Vance.’
Others will wander into the clubhouse and tell anyone who will listen about how pure their iron shots are into the green and any wayward missiles are easily bumped closer to the hole because chipping and pitching is simply superb.
Nobody has been able to explain FGS although a few have tried by stating it’s because you have practiced all year or played dozens of rounds so you are naturally going to get better.
Well, that could be part of it but this happens to people who don’t practice or play many rounds so there goes that theory.
I would suggest we just let sleeping dogs lie and enjoy the sweet feeling of being in control of a very uncontrollable game because we all know that FGS fades with the winter snow and doesn’t make a return until the fall – kind of like the flu.
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