A Field Guide to Every Golfer in Your Saturday Group

Every Saturday morning group has the same people in it. The names change. The handicaps vary. The courses rotate. But the characters — the characters are universal. If you have played public golf for any amount of time you have met every single one of these people. You may in fact be one of them. No judgment. We love all of you.

Here is your official field guide.

The Swing Doctor

The Swing Doctor has been Playing golf for eleven years and has had seventeen different swings in that time. Each one was going to be the one that finally unlocked the game. Each one was sourced from a different YouTube channel, a different podcast, a different tip from a guy at the range who said he used to teach.

The Swing Doctor arrives at the first tee with news. There has been a breakthrough. A discovery. A fundamental shift in the approach that changes everything. The group nods politely. They have heard this before.

By the third hole the new swing has produced two snap hooks and a thin seven iron that somehow ended up on the right green just forty yards short. The Swing Doctor is already recalibrating. There is a new theory forming in real time.

The beautiful thing about the Swing Doctor is the optimism. Completely unbreakable. Genuinely inspiring. Every round is the beginning of something new and honestly we could all learn something from that.

The Bogey Boy

The Bogey Boy is the heart of every group. He does not stripe it. He does not drain long putts with any regularity. His short game is a work in progress that has been in progress for quite some time.

But here is the thing about the Bogey Boy. He is always there. First one to the course. Last one to leave. Knows every cart path, every break on every green, every hole where the wind picks up off the water in the afternoon. He has played this course more times than anyone and he has made bogey on most of those rounds and he could not love it more.

The Bogey Boy is the one who keeps the energy up when the round goes sideways. He is the one who calls for the extra mulligan on nine because it is a beautiful day and there is no reason to be precious about it. He is the one everyone is trying to beat but also the one everyone is most happy to see on the tee sheet.

Bogey is not failure. Bogey is character. The Bogey Boy knows this better than anyone.

The Shankmeister

The Shankmeister is a force of nature. Completely unpredictable. Capable on any given shot of producing something that defies both physics and geography. The ball goes places that were not on the original plan. It goes places that were not on any plan. It goes places that raise genuine questions about the nature of the golf swing itself.

And yet the Shankmeister keeps swinging. That is the thing. There is no crisis. There is no meltdown. There is just the next shot addressed with the same confidence as the first one regardless of where the last seventeen ended up.

The Shankmeister also produces the best stories. Every single round. Without fail. Something happens that nobody saw coming and the group is talking about it for weeks. The cart path ricochet. The tree that gave it right back. The shank so pure it almost came around and found the green from the other direction.

Certified. Unashamed. Still out here. That is the Shankmeister and we would not have it any other way.

The Rules Guy

Every group has one. The Rules Guy knows the rulebook. All of it. The obscure sections. The edge cases. The situations that have never once come up in recreational golf but are available for discussion at any moment.

The Rules Guy is not malicious. He genuinely loves the rules. He finds them interesting. He sees them as part of what makes golf golf and he is not entirely wrong about that. But there is a time and a place and that time is not when someone is trying to decide whether to drop from a lateral hazard on a Tuesday morning with nothing on the line except the back nine Nassau.

The Rules Guy and the Bogey Boy have an understanding. It is not spoken. It is simply known. The mulligan happens. The foot wedge gets used when nobody is looking. The score is recorded with whatever number feels right in the moment. The Rules Guy sighs. Life goes on. The group has a great time.

The Natural

The Natural does not practice. The Natural shows up maybe once a month, sometimes less. The Natural plays in jeans on occasion. The Natural hits it long, straight, and pure with a swing that looks like it was installed at the factory.

Nobody in the group understands the Natural. The Natural also does not understand themselves. They cannot explain it. They cannot teach it. They just show up, swing, and somehow make it look like the easiest thing in the world while everyone else is on their fourth adjustment of the day.

The Natural is simultaneously the most admired and most envied person in the group. They are also genuinely fun to watch. Even when it is annoying. Especially when it is annoying.

The One Who Is Definitely About to Quit Golf

This person has quit golf three times in the last two years. After that round at Torrey Pines where everything went wrong on the back nine they were done. Finished. The clubs were going in the garage.

The clubs did not go in the garage. Two weeks later they were back. New grip on the driver. Fresh attitude. Completely over whatever happened at Torrey.

The thing about this person is they love golf more than anyone in the group. The frustration is proportional to the passion. You do not threaten to quit something you do not deeply care about. They will be on the tee sheet next Saturday. And the Saturday after that. And every Saturday for the foreseeable future.

They just need to embrace the mulligan. We all do.

The One Who Actually Reads the Green

Quiet. Methodical. Takes their time on the putting surface in a way that is occasionally maddening but ultimately respectable. Reads the break from three angles. Checks the grain. Crouches down. Stands back up. Crouches down again.

And then drains it. Every time. From everywhere. Putts that have no business going in find the center of the cup with a confidence that borders on supernatural.

Nobody knows how this person learned to putt like this. They cannot explain it either. But when you are two down with three to play and you need someone to make a putt you look at this person and you feel okay about everything.

So there you have it. The Saturday group in full. Seven characters, one cart path, eighteen holes, and the best game ever invented.

Which one are you? Be honest. We already know.

GRIPIT GOLF - built for all of you. Every single type. Every single Saturday.

Grip it. Join the club. Embrace the mulligan.

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