Your Golf Bud
by Bud Key, Mid-Atlantic Director, TeeTime Golf Pass
For many golfers, approaching the first tee is an experience that can be truly terrifying, even paralyzing. The dread is so intense it feels worthy of deep analysis — a case for Sigmund Freud, a couch, and perhaps a friendly therapist.
The process is deceptively simple: You walk to the tee, unseal an expensive sleeve of golf balls, adjust your glove, and take your stance. A couple of easy practice swings, a confident address of the ball, and then… panic.
Suddenly, the swing you’ve rehearsed thousands of times on the driving range and countless times in your mind evaporates. A torrent of doubts rushes in: Am I too close to the ball? Too far? Am I aligned correctly? These fundamental questions are joined by existential ones — Does Bigfoot exist? Is my fly open?
By the time the club starts back, you might as well grab a provisional ball. That initial shot is destined for disaster — the woods, a water hazard, the cart barn, the parking lot, or, worst of all, a complete whiff. Unlike baseball, in golf, one strike and you’re done.
Missing a shot in front of your regular foursome is fine; they already know your game isn’t perfect. It’s the long queue of golf carts — a dozen deep — waiting behind you that truly shreds the nerves. The silent prayer becomes a desperate plea: “Please, God, just let me get off this first tee with a shred of dignity.”
Despite playing golf regularly for 40 years, I still carry this first tee anxiety with me to every course. If there’s a place no one should hit a ball — a pond, a bunker, a utility shed, an adjacent backyard, or even a cemetery (true fact) — I will find it. If you pour a cup of water on the cart path, I will land in it.
Contracting this anxiety is effortless; eradicating it from the mind is almost impossible. Even when playing alone on a quiet course, the cold sweat still breaks out before the first tee shot. The irony is that I’m one of the best “pre-round” players not currently on a professional tour. It’s common for people on the practice range to stop and watch me hit majestic drives far past the 250-yard marker.
“Make sure you take that game with you out to the course,” a well-meaning spectator will invariably say. To me, that feels like a two-stroke penalty before I’ve even started.
While a complete cure for first tee anxiety remains undiscovered, I have found a temporary antidote — one that ensures players like me keep booking the next round. It’s called the Mulligan.
Bud Key is TeeTime Golf Pass’s Mid-Atlantic Director and a former magazine editor with decades of golf writing experience. Your Golf Bud is his ongoing column on the game, the people who play it, and everything in between.
