Friday the 13th: golf superstitions

December 9, 2019 — by Kevin Sze

I have many golf superstitions


 

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll notice that I’m wearing the exact same outfit in all of my golf photos. 

A light blue shirt with three gray stripes on the left shoulder, a white Adidas belt, gray shorts and a white Titleist hat. 

Before you judge me, there’s a good reason for this. 

Every picture that’s on my Instagram feed is after the final round of a golf tournament. This past summer, I’ve worn the exact same outfit in the final round of tournaments for good luck. 

To start the summer, I qualified for the 72nd United States Junior Amateur tournament — often regarded as the most prestigious event in junior golf — in that outfit. Shortly after, I won my first American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Open tournament in that outfit. 

It became clear to me that that specific outfit was the obvious reason for my success. Sure, I spent hundreds of hours practicing, but it seemed that the outfit carried some good mojo, so I decided to stick with it for every final round for the rest of the summer. 

I started playing competitive golf at age 8, and have developed some strange superstitions since. 

When I get out of bed in the morning before a round, I always make sure my right foot touches the ground before my left foot. My theory is that I always need to start on the “right” foot.

Furthermore, I play the Titleist ProV1x golf ball. Each dozen balls are marked one to four, with three of each number. Usually, I’ll play balls marked with a one in competitive rounds because I want to finish number one, but over the years, I’ve won tournaments with balls marked otherwise, so I’ve been a little more lenient with that superstition. 

In addition, I’ll mark every ball with my initials in red Sharpie between the Titleist logo and the number. The Sharpie has to be red, because under par scores are always marked in red on scoreboards.

Lastly, right before I tee off, I’ll give my mom a hug and my dad a fist bump. I’m a big believer in karma, so I figure if I show my parents some love, then maybe I’ll be a little luckier on the golf course that day. 

Throughout the years, I’ve switched out lucky outfits as I’ve either outgrown them or they seemed to lose their luck, which brings me back to my light blue shirt, white Adidas belt, gray shorts and white Titleist hat combination. I think it’s time for a change. 

In my last event of the summer, I wore my good luck outfit for the final round. I ended up playing horribly and finished tied for fourth. 

It’s obvious to me that I don’t need to practice any harder. I just need to find that new lucky outfit, and victory will be inevitable. 

By the way, I’m taking suggestions. Shoot me a DM on Instagram: @kevinszeee.

 

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