by Gregory Pivarunas

Created on: June 17, 2009

Sporting events usually attempt to gain a maximum number of points. In baseball, football, basketball, and soccer, the most points win the game. In bowling, the better you do, the more chances you have to get higher scores; the 11th and 12th frames are only for people who make a strike or spare on the tenth. However, golf is totally unlike these games.

What makes golf different? In the first place, the scoring celebrates lower, not higher, efforts. Below par is better than above par. In a way, the less time a person spends actually playing golf, the better they are. Golf, too, is extremely challenging. Very few people break 100, and fewer still 90. Why is this target so elusive?

The first problem is due to a lack of consistency. One bad hole easily messes up a full golf game. Whether the golfer hits the ball out of bounds, thus losing two strokes due to their error, or hits it into a hazard, this causes their whole game to be turned upside down. A score of 7 or 8 on a hole forces the golfer to shoot two or three holes above-average, merely to make up for that mistake. (And by above-average, I mean shooting lower!) To break 90, a golfer needs to average 5 strokes per hole, with one hole being a 4, making 89 strokes total. So, 3 holes above-average mean 3 more holes at 4, not 5, strokes. One hole can put undue pressure on the golfer to take better shots on the next few holes, or to use a lower-angle iron or wood for greater distance. However, this can only escalate the damage, since most people's longer clubs are less accurate and more prone to failure.

Another difficulty is the golfer's short game, within 100 yards of the green. At this point, most people can no longer take a full swing with their pitching wedge, and must resort either to a partial swing with an iron, or to employ a shorter club, often numbered by degrees: 56, 60, or 64 degree wedge. This club has an uncanny tendency to play unlike other irons, due to its extremely high loft. A half swing with this club might take the ball only a quarter of the distance that a full swing would. Playing "fancy" golf with this club sometimes leads to several more shots around the green than normal. It would be much easier to hit a pitching wedge past the hole, than to take another shot only a few yards past the original spot where one hit with a shorter "degree" wedge. Putting is also a difficult part of breaking 90. Often golfers face a downhill putt, and "baby" the ball towards the

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