Superstitions in golf

I consider myself a very non-superstitious golfer with very few habits that I believe may improve my game based on no evidence whatsoever. Or so I thought. After chatting to some fellow golfers it seems I still have a few superstitions and so do many other golfers, Tiger Woods included.

Tiger Woods’ red shirt on the final day of a tournament is probably the most obvious superstition in professional golf. If you think about it for longer than 10 seconds, you realise it is completely ridiculous. Tiger could have won each of his 14 majors in a tiger costume if he wanted to but it has become a brand now. I’m not immune myself to wearing a red shirt on an important golf day. It hasn’t helped one bit mind you.

As a junior I had a semi-conscious superstition of playing odd numbered irons out of the rough. I realise it is ludicrous, so don’t ask questions but it may have been as a result of having a starter set with only even numbered clubs which become my favourites. It still doesn’t make sense. Only a few weeks ago I realised that I have a small belief that dropping my marker in my pocket rather than replacing it into its magnetic holder improves my putting. My putting did improve but anything would be better than the week before.

Ball markers are a constant source of superstition in professional golfers with Jesper Parnevik only marking his ball with tails up and Jack Nicklaus always playing with three coins in his pocket. There are many more instances of this sort of stupidity in professional golf but the big question is: can it help in any way?

One may argue that it’s a routine and we know how important that is in golf. The problem is that it is a routine not needed. With no basis whatsoever it clouds the mind and creates thoughts with no relevance to the shot at hand. My marker thing is going the way my odd iron routine did. In fact, I may even confine the red shirt to days at the beach and pull out the tiger costume for the important tournaments.

5 thoughts on “Superstitions in golf

  • I have an odd thing where I always snap hook a drive off the first tee, but I guess this is a curse not a superstition.. herb

    Reply
  • Yes, we’ve all gone through a stage of superstitious belief in various sports, but what about the golfer who on a whole where you have to carry water off the tee puts his good ball back in the bag and grabs the oldest ball he can find!

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  • My superstition is a typically male heterosexual one – before a round I look at some photos of Gulbis, Wie, Creamer etc…for a few minutes.

    This gets me fired up for the round ahead 🙂

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  • I always put my tee in the back of my hat (usually where the strap is).

    I seem to have bad rounds when I am either:

    a. Not wearing a hat
    b. Wearing a cap that doesn’t have said space for tee.

    Is a lot more confusing these days as I have a different tee for my driver and irons, and I always put my driving tee on the right hand side.

    Bloody weird actually.

    Reply

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