What Hurt the Golf Games of 133 Former College Golfers
Chapter 6 of The College Golf Report
“Big swing changes in my first year with the head coach was tough for me to get through, I could never get used to the feels and positions that were required to play for the team. The swing never felt the same after.”
“During college, what’s something specific that hurt your game?”
133 in-depth answers.
1. Coaching Issues
Wrong technical advice:
“My head coach telling me to swing slower with my driver. It made me passive and scared of the tee and I started to only focus on the trouble and where not to hit it. That was the beginning of my tee yips.”
“Golf coach wasn’t a good teacher, insisted we only work with him. Also, whatever the best player was struggling with, that’s what we did in practice.”
“Using the team coach for advice was a mistake and a waste of time.”
“I don’t think that during my time my coaches were as helpful as they could have been with the mental game or course management. I think there were times where their advice was hurtful or created additional challenges I had to overcome.”
“During my time the head coach would constantly penalize and remind us for on course management mistakes.”
“College coach was different than recruited and had very different teaching style.”
Lack of accountability or presence:
“Having a head coach who didn’t show up for practice or hold lazy players accountable.”
“I think being left at home and not having a coach who picks you up and helps you get back to your best was difficult for me. The culture of college sports is different to what I expected and if you’re not performing you’re not a priority and it’s up to you to pick yourself up again.”
Forced swing changes:
“Big swing changes in my first year with the head coach was tough for me to get through, I could never get used to the feels and positions that were required to play for the team. The swing never felt the same after.”
“Changing instructor and majorly changing my technique to fit a mold that didn’t have anything to do with me anatomically or what skills I possessed up until that point.”
“Changed swing to something that wasn’t natural.”
Coach actively undermining:
“Coach actively pushed me to transfer which shook me and affected my game.”
“I’m afraid my coach didn’t really help the situation. My ball-striking wasn’t good when I arrived and it didn’t get much better. Never found a ‘fix’ to my problem, and the team coach took away some of the joy I had for the game.”
2. Injuries
“Kept playing even though I was injured.”
“Injuries, two knee surgeries and a bad wrist. No golf for first semester junior year.”
“I got a bad injury that they managed to make worse, that created issues between me and my coach which hurt my chances of making the team even after recovering.”
“I focused on the wrong things in the gym, which lead to multiple injuries.”
“Seeing multiple coaches, back injury from over training in gym.”
“I trained very hard, especially with speed training, which unfortunately led to an injury.”
“Making a swing adjustment to prevent injury in the future during covid. Staying at home prevented me from consistent practice or even any practice.”
“Changing my swing after a back injury & using a push cart to help manage endurance.”
Injuries derailed seasons and careers. Poor strength training or playing through pain made things worse.
3. Reactive Swing Changes
“I was a tinkerer. Always changing and looking for ways to hit it better instead of leaning on what I did best.”
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Coach at Vika Golf Club in Oslo. Former NCAA Division I coach at Texas Tech, Baylor and SFA, and former Baylor golfer.
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First published on the MikkelGolf newsletter on Substack.