As a teenager, my weekend job was as a caddie. It was great, even better when Americans came over to play the best courses in southeast Kent.
That’s because they tipped very well, and they were also good fun. They spoke to you, shared a joke and played golf without a care in the world.
There’d be the odd mulligan, a breakfast ball, and they weren’t that inclined to finish playing every hole. I never thought anything of it, nor cared as long as my wallet was full come the evening, but the difference in culture compared to my upbringing in the game wasn’t lost on me.
There is definitely a divide across the Atlantic, from the somewhat stone-hearted, serious UK golfer to the flamboyant, carefree hacker of the United States, and this was never made clearer than when US golf reporter Dan Rapaport directly compared UK and US golfers, having been on a golf tour to Ireland ahead of The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush.
@danongolfshow “If you’re an American with a handicap, don’t play against an Irishman with a handicap.” #fyp #golf #handicap #golfhandicap #ireland #golftiktok ♬ original sound – Dan on Golf
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“A 3-handicap in the UK is a scratch in the US, and it’s always been a thing. But man, don’t play against the UK,” he said on his Dan on Golf show. “If you’re an American with a handicap, don’t play against a Brit with a handicap, or an Irishman with a handicap, just don’t do it.
“What I realised is there’s two reasons why the handicaps are so different. The first one is, at these clubs, they play medal competitions all the time. These gimmes just aren’t a thing – You have seven feet for bogey, you’re putting it – we played ball in hole the whole trip.
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“They don’t do this gimme stuff. They lose a ball, they go back and hit another one – The courses are just not rated hard enough, or they’re rated too hard in the US. We played one off the back every time, around 6,700/6,800 yards, and they were all rated like 72, 125.
“These courses where I’m getting my teeth kicked in are rated a shot and a half easier than my home course. I see it with my eyes, this is 20 times harder.
“You will realise that those three-and-a-half footers that no one putts in the US, you’re going to miss a lot of those. The differences in handicap I found to be totally insane.”
Also on the show, Rapaport asked his co-host to tell him the last time he played a stroke play competition, and he couldn’t say. I love the honesty, and it is absolutely intriguing.
Maybe none of this matters, and it is harmless, but what we are essentially being told is that many US golfers don’t play by the rules of golf, and as a result, it skews their handicaps. If I picked up every three-footer, my handicap would be two or three shots lower, undoubtedly.
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This is where I reach the Internet Invitational, the $1 million YouTube golf event for the most popular vloggers in the sport, which has taken said internet by storm, primarily because of alleged rules infringements.
Social media star Paige Spiranac, a former college player and pro, was accused of improving her teammate’s lie in long rough, and when the accusation was put to her, she incredibly said she thought that was allowed. And guess who spotted her and reported her for improving the lie: Peter Finch, of the UK.
At the same event, Spiranac was somewhat taken aback when, under match play conditions, her team was made to finish a short putt. “That just shows you’ve never played competitive golf”, she snapped.
Also, at one stage during the marathon event that started with 48 golfers, Paige went around a group of the competitors, all American, and asked what their handicaps were. These were the responses:
“Three” (while shaking his hand like a scale)
“Four, four-and-a-half”
“Six, five, seven”
“Zero, one”
“Five”
“I’ll say like seven”
Need I say more? It is all representative of this lax attitude. And before you say that it’s YouTube golf and it doesn’t matter, you might be right, but all of these things mirror the divide between US and UK golf culture. They are distinctly different approaches to the game and, in a short space of time, we have seen prime examples of it.
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