[Flatlytaize]

Can you continue your swing if a plane flys overhead. How bout a car driving by? Someone in your peripheral vision. An insect fluttering nearby? Low talking?

Keeping in mind that there's a difference between distractions and wind direction, what kind of distraction(s) will force you to begin your preshot routine over again?

[WenPyclenoWex]

That is odd for me and hard to pin down to a specific act. At times, a bomb going off in the next fairway wouldn't even make me flinch. But, I can also be distracted by something as small as a leaf raising up in my peripheral vision. My ability to concentrate is so affected by a lot of factors outside my immediate surroundings that it causes huge swings in my concentration level.

[VtLe67WR]

Once I start my down swing, WW III could break out and I'll still finish the swing.

[Suvuseh]

I have rabbit ears and have lost more golf balls, by dropping one and hitting it at a car that just drove by and blew the horn, then I care to admit. I get distracted by loud talking, dogs barking, chainsaws, yelling, people directly behind me, shall I go on? lol I wish I could block all that stuff out but unless I've made contact tension comes up when I'm distracted in anyway.

[ArrichMer]

A sudden noise will distract me, but a constant one won't. A bee will always distract me. I usually have a hat on and my hair is short, but if I don't and it blows in my eyes - that bothers me too.

[Yb4bulVR]

Can you continue your swing if a plane flys overhead. How bout a car driving by? Someone in your peripheral vision. An insect fluttering nearby? Low talking?

Keeping in mind that there's a difference between distractions and wind direction, what kind of distraction(s) will force you to begin your preshot routine over again?

Very little will cause me to restart. The group behind us driving all the way up to the tee as I'm addressing the ball will make me step away.... I find that to be terrible cart etiquette.

Cars, planes, people in my range of vision, even if they are talking quietly in the background.... none of that bothers me. When I'm focused on my game, not much penetrates my consciousness during my swing routine... when my focus is off, then it doesn't make any difference anyway.

[esconsise]

Noise, movement etc. does not distract me, the only thing that will if there is a golf tee on the ground around or near were I can see it during my address and swing. For what ever reason I will focus in on the tee and not the ball.

[Muhabsssa]

I really don't like people standing in my field of vision, but because no one seems to know where to stand for a left-handed golfer, I've had to learn to live with it. People moving in my field of vision makes me start over.

[standaman]

I really don't like people standing in my field of vision, but because no one seems to know where to stand for a left-handed golfer, I've had to learn to live with it. People moving in my field of vision makes me start over.

17 years of marriage and my Wife still parks the cart in the wrong place for a left hander.

I don't like when people are not aware of where their shadow falls on the putting green. I do not like shadows, especially moving shadows. Noise doesn't really bother me.

Kevin

[Audi_z]

Bugs will stop me. Also someone down the fairway who walks into my field of vision that I did not know was there will get my attention.

Golf balls at horn honkers. I can understand it, but it can cause a load of problems. A golfer did that on I-40 in Kingman AZ. The ball hit someone's windshield, contributed/caused a multi car pile up. The golfer stayed on the course. He was in a group in front of us when we saw the wreck, but did not know how it happened. About 30 minutes later the AHP drove on to the course, and arrested the culprit. He hit a car, but it was semi truck rig that honk his horn in the middle of his swing. The semi never stopped or probably ever knew what happened.

[trilochana.nejman]

Here's a distraction that I'll bet no one has ever had (I still laugh about it to this day):


Bethpage State Park is of course more than just golf courses. There are walking and riding trails, picnic areas, ball fields - and a polo field. The polo field was used regularly (I have no idea who actually plays polo anymore) but when the field isn't being used for polo, it's sometimes used for other equestrian events. The 13th tee of the Blue Course is adjacent to the polo field and is separated from it by about 75 yards of wooded area. This provides a visual block, but sounds from the polo field can be heard quite clearly.

One day, I'm in a foursome waiting to tee off on the 13th and over at the polo field, they're having some kind of horse show. Apparently what was taking place at the time was some sort of "dancing horse" event and the musical accompaniment for this event just happened to be "The Liberty Bell March".

Now for those of you who don't know the Liberty Bell March, it is a very bouncy tune written by John Phillip Sousa, but most people who've heard it know it as the theme music for Monty Python's Flying Circus. Anyone who knows Monty Python knows that this tune - this theme - ends with a giant cartoon foot stomping down on something, accompanied by a rather flatulent "Pllllllt" sound.

We begin to tee off, but this song isn't over yet and now I've got it in my head and knowing that it basically ends on a fart, there is no way that I'm going to be able to tee off until it's over. The three guys in my group all tee off and now they're waiting for me. The song in the background has at least another thirty or forty seconds left to it and although I know that they're not going to end it on a "fart" at the horse show, it's going to end that way in my mind.

Have you ever tried to waste forty seconds on a tee?

It's not easy. I think I checked to see if my shoe was tied, pretended not to have a tee, made five or ten practice swings and didn't step up to the ball until I knew that there was less than ten seconds left to the song and I stood there, staring at my golf ball until my mind got to the "fart" at its end and then I just smiled to myself, relaxed, and hit my tee shot.


You can't make this stuff up.



-JP

[Spisivavona]

Noise or movement around me really doesnt distract me. Once I start my preshot routine, as long as my mind is focused on and committed to the shot, Im in my own little world. The world could fall down around me and I probably wouldnt even notice.

[markkisil]

As long as the noise isn't unusally loud. The range that I go to has a lot of passing cars that seem to like blowing their horn as they pass. I guess they get some sort of entertainment out of it. I think they have helped me tune things like that out. Now, that's not to say I might not blame some distraction for some of the shots that I make.

[Suvuseh]

Bugs will stop me. Also someone down the fairway who walks into my field of vision that I did not know was there will get my attention.

Golf balls at horn honkers. I can understand it, but it can cause a load of problems. A golfer did that on I-40 in Kingman AZ. The ball hit someone's windshield, contributed/caused a multi car pile up. The golfer stayed on the course. He was in a group in front of us when we saw the wreck, but did not know how it happened. About 30 minutes later the AHP drove on to the course, and arrested the culprit. He hit a car, but it was semi truck rig that honk his horn in the middle of his swing. The semi never stopped or probably ever knew what happened.

Damn that guy is lucky huh? lol My home course has 4 holes that play along a rural road but people speed through there and yell or blow their horn everyday. We get used to it but when they yell at us I sometimes ride up to the stop light and threaten their life if we are lucky enough for them to have to stop. It's a pretty adventure filled day with me in your group. lol

[erubresen]

Nothing bothers me where I would stop. Several courses have cars whizzing by, 1 has jumbo jets flying directly over the course as the airport is in it's backyard.

[hLabXZlK]

Can you continue your swing if a plane flys overhead. How bout a car driving by? Someone in your peripheral vision. An insect fluttering nearby? Low talking?

Keeping in mind that there's a difference between distractions and wind direction, what kind of distraction(s) will force you to begin your preshot routine over again?

Gusting Wind
Talking
Insects
Shadows
People Standing too close to me

[erubresen]

Gusting Wind
Talking
Insects
Shadows
People Standing too close to me

Really, all of those?

[hLabXZlK]

Really, all of those?

For me the worst is probably talking. During my pre-shot routine my mind is not at all thinking about the shot. I constantly think of things around me. Usually when people are in my peripherals I have a fear I am going to hit them with the club even though they are not even close to me.

The other day in a tournament I was teeing off and a lady was on another hole 25 yards away from me. There was no way I was going to hit her, but the whole time I was about to swing I kept thinking of hitting her accidentally. Sure enough, I worm burn it along the ground and the ball comes to rest right near her.

Even as I was swinging she was a major distraction.

[Yb4bulVR]

For me the worst is probably talking. During my pre-shot routine my mind is not at all thinking about the shot. I constantly think of things around me. Usually when people are in my peripherals I have a fear I am going to hit them with the club even though they are not even close to me.

The other day in a tournament I was teeing off and a lady was on another hole 25 yards away from me. There was no way I was going to hit her, but the whole time I was about to swing I kept thinking of hitting her accidentally. Sure enough, I worm burn it along the ground and the ball comes to rest right near her.

Even as I was swinging she was a major distraction.

How did you ever get to be a 7 cap if it's that easy to distract you? You sure as heck better never try to play at most of the places or in most of the groups I do. You will likely never get to swing at all, and not because anyone is doing anything on purpose, but because there is always something happening when the course is busy that would fall into your list.

What I see here is that some of these people need to learn how to get into their game and ignore what's going on around them. Sharp, sudden sounds can be a distraction, but background white noise should never be an issue.

The other day when I was playing, an idiot actually stopped on the road and waited until I was ready to swing to blow his horn. I saw him, so I pretended to set up to the ball, took the club back, he hit the horn and drove off, then I addressed the ball and played my shot. Did he somehow think that he had an original thought???? What a doink...

[Franchise]

Stuff like cars honking, airplanes, shouts from across the fairway (stuff that fourputt define as background white noise) don't bother me at all. But stuff close by, like an insect landing on my ball, someone's shadow moving over my ball or whispering on the tee box that I can hear are distracting enough to bother me.