![\"Golfers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PXL_20230327_152331316_v9wbjn.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\tGolf is meant to be fun. You might struggle to believe that if you spend any time at all watching the dour-faced players who compete on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.<\/p>\n
\tTyrrell Hatton may be one of the most naturally gifted players on the planet, but would you want him as your regular playing partner? Matthew Fitzpatrick is a former US Open champion and the current DP World Tour Championship winner but can you remember the last time you saw him smile? They are not alone. Jon Rahm, Keegan Bradley, Shane Lowry, Robert MacIntyre, Cameron Smith. The list goes on and on.<\/p>\n
\tThese men ply their trade in glorious weather on the finest courses on the planet and are handsomely rewarded for their efforts. Perhaps therein lies the problem – they are playing for too much money and have forgotten how to embrace the sheer joy of playing our wonderful sport.<\/p>\n
\tOf course, there have always been bad-tempered golfers – Tom Weiskopf springs to mind. But the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer played with smiles on their faces. You never got the feeling that it was all a matter of life and death.<\/p>\n
\tAnd it\u2019s not just men\u2019s golf either. Many of the best players on the LPGA Tour appear to be completely emotionless. It doesn\u2019t take much to acknowledge the galleries with a smile when you have hit a good shot. So why do so many of them find it so difficult to do precisely that?<\/p>\n
\tThe Golf Playing Partners You Want to Have<\/p>\n
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\tIt got me thinking about what I would consider to be my favourite kind of people to play golf with, along with those I want to steer clear of<\/a>.<\/p>\n \tOne of the unique aspects of our sport is the spirit it is played in at club level.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tWe pride ourselves on our honesty. Cheating is frowned upon. Over the years I have played with a couple of serial cheats. You know them – they always find their golf ball in thick rough, their golf balls always seem to be sitting in perfect lies in the rough, they struggle to accurately count the number of shots they have taken.<\/p>\n \tAs captain of a golf club in Suffolk I was drawn to play with a fellow member who was a known cheat in a club match. The problem was that he was terrific company. Before we teed off, I took him to one side, reminded him he was representing our club and that if I caught him cheating I would call him out. He was as good as gold that day.<\/p>\n \tAnyway, I digress. What am I looking for in a regular playing partner<\/a>?<\/p>\n \tFirst and foremost, you want to be out there with somebody who has similar interests. The top professionals might want to play their golf in silence but I certainly don\u2019t. I want to talk.<\/p>\n \tWe all have awful rounds from time to time. Yes, even me.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tI want my playing partners to know what to say and when to say it when I am having a shocker. And if he spots something I am doing wrong then I definitely want him to tell me. We can all get into bad habits and people we play with on a regular basis will often see something that we can\u2019t. It might be tempo, it might be alignment.<\/p>\n