No person or thing can cause you to lose focus unless you allow them to. On other days, we could hear a butterfly land three fairways over and it would put us off. Also, we must realize that this kind of thinking spreads like a virus through the group. Once one player starts griping, chances are it won't be long before everyone else is, too. It becomes a whirlwind of anger.
Equipment is one easy scapegoat.
Most look at the equipment the pros play and that becomes the gold standard. That's not much of an excuse anymore, either. If you live in a metropolitan area, you can find excellent teachers. In fact, if you picked up the February issue of GOLF Magazine, you would have found the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses of 400 of the top teachers in the nation, broken down by region. Chances are, one is within driving distance.