Have you ever had a golf dream? Or, to be more precise about it, a golf nightmare?
The strange thing is that so many golfers have these dreams – and that they are so alike in tone, nature and content.
Two very common ones go like this.
In the first a golfer finds him or herself incapable of hitting their next shot.
It might be that there is a tree right behind the ball or it might be a tee shot and the advertising board is not behind the tee, but right behind the golfer.
The weird thing is that this dream feels like something a handicap golfer might suffer from, but surely not the stars?
But they do. The 1996 Open champion Tom Lehman has had it.
In his version the over-hanging branch of a pine tree prevents him from making a backswing.
What about European legend Nick Faldo? Yes, he’s had it too. So has five-time Open champion Tom Watson. “I’m boxed in and don’t have room to swing,” he reported. “Something vague is crowding me – the gallery maybe, or ropes, or something I can’t pinpoint.”
There’s more. The Aussie Stuart Appleby even had the dream while he was contending for the Masters. “The guys are saying: ‘C’mon, hit it’,” he said. “And I keep saying, ‘I can’t, I can’t.’”
WATCH: Even the pros have nightmares about golf, as @BazLane, @brand_jnr and Carl Suneson tell us pic.twitter.com/wPOmENWD0j
— Legends Tour (@euLegendsTour) September 12, 2017
The man who revitalized the Ryder Cup, Tony Jacklin, would dream that he was playing down the narrow corridor of a hotel in a “must find the fairway situation”, lacking the space to swing, with the walls out of bounds.
The other common dream is one Watson suffered from a lot – he was putting on what was essentially a cone-shaped green so any missed putt would slide off the green and far away.
In this video posted a few years ago by the Legends Tour, Gordon Brand, Carl Suneson, and Barry Lane discuss their own dreams.
Brand’s actually combines both dreams: he first suffers from the restriction and then faces a green that is made of marble so impossible to hold.
Suneson chuckles away because he’s been there too.
But Lane is a little dumbfounded – he never remembers his dreams.
Unfortunately, since the video was made the two European Ryder Cup stars have died, but this video is a lovely reminder of the fun nature of Brand and Lane – and why the golf world still misses them.
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