Any student athlete knows first hand on how difficult sports can really be. Football, basketball, volleyball, and a handful of other sports are always easier to watch than to play. But for the great game of golf, it can be a whole other animal.

Freshman Nicklaus Meade and freshman Nolan Smith both play golf for Fredericksburg High School and have experienced the troubles of playing a quality round. Getting a tiny white ball down the fairway and into a small hole 500 yards away is no easy task.

“I first began playing golf at 9 years old,” Meade said. “My dad is a club pro, so it was only right that I give golf a try.”

Meade has been playing golf for about 6 ½ years. Meade knows better than anyone at FHS why golf can be difficult.

“It seems like every week I have to work on something new,” Meade said. “There are just so many factors that are in play that you need to be mindful of.”

Although being on varsity, golf always comes with challenges. According to Meade, triumphs and trials are almost guaranteed in any sport, same goes for golf.

“I’d say the biggest challenge of golf is having to constantly adapt to new conditions and environments,” Meade said. “To put it into perspective, imagine playing football or soccer on a field where there are rocks, trees, hills, boulders, and sand pits. Golf is not like a basketball court or a football field where everything is the same every time. Every week you can find yourself on a completely new course with no clue how the next hole is going to look.”

Meade is not the only one that deals with the difficulties of golf. Smith can also attest to the fact.

“I first began playing golf in March of this year,” Smith said. “Originally, I just wanted to try it out, it seemed like a fun hobby.”

Smith was first inspired to pick up the club because a lot of his friends played the sport, and he wanted a piece of the action, but it wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies.

“If I had to give golf a ranking on difficulty on a scale from 1-10, I would give it a 9,” Smith said. “It’s the hardest sport I’ve ever played for sure. The only things I would put over it is boxing and maybe rugby.”

Smith said he had a rough time starting out, but he persevered and has practiced nearly every week since. Even after all that practice, the term “good golfer” is still not necessarily his for the taking.

“To qualify as a so-called ‘good’ golfer you need to have consistency,” Smith said. “It doesn’t even have to be a super far or high shot, if you can hit a half decent shot 9/10 times, I would consider you a good golfer.”