Hooked on golf
The spring weather has me thinking about golf, a sport I never thought I’d give the time of day, let alone actually enjoy playing. But last year forced me to try new activities, and golf was one of them.
We live on a local golf course and my husband wanted to improve his game for men’s league. He asked if I’d be interested in taking lessons with him. I said yes.
Then I think, “What am I getting myself into?” There are so many clubs to choose from. What’s the difference between an iron and a wood? I don’t even want to admit this, but what the heck is a birdie? All I know is that golf is a complicated game with different sayings and phrases and etiquette. I know that I’m likely to be late to my tee time, will hold people up, and will forget to replace my divots. This is going to be interesting.
We showed up for our first lesson. Bill, who is known as Izzy, coached a few of our friends in high school and we knew him from growing up. He slow cruises up in his golf course with his dog riding in the passenger seat and asks us, “What’s the most important thing in golf, distance or direction?”
“Umm….. direction?”
“Wrong. It’s a trick question. The answer is both. The right direction is no good without proper distance and distance doesn’t matter if you don’t have direction.”
Duh.
We walk over to the putting green. Izzy asks us to grip our club, which we quickly learn is one of his fundamentals in teaching the game. We spend a great deal of time making sure we had our grips in the right spot. I later learned from one of my high school girl friends that he used to draw smiley faces on their hands and would ask the team, “Can you see your smiley face?” If yes, their grip was good.
Izzy’s approach is to work backwards, starting on the putting green and slowly working back to the tee.
Izzy uses a lot of sports comparisons, which helped Jose and I tremendously. For example, Izzy would say, “Is that how you’d stand if you were guarding in basketball?” I’d shake my head. “Exactly,” he’d say. “Now get in an athletic stance.” There were many tennis comparisons as well.
The lessons were fantastic. It was like our date night with Izzy. Rush home with the kids, greet the sitter, head out and stop for a burger, and finally gear up for our lesson.
Golf became a family activity for us. We love our local golf course. They are very flexible about having the kids tag along on the cart, run along the course, and take turns putting on the green. We try to go during quieter times so we can go at our own pace.
My advice when golfing with kids (we can make it about 9 holes) is to pack lots of snacks and some entertainment. Mia is there to sprint her little heart out. She loves to run. And drive the golf cart. Andre enjoys hitting the ball and carries his club with him everywhere. I am curious to see what their passions become, and whether golf will be one of them.
Golf is a different kind of fun for me. It is the joy of being outside and the ability to compete. Golf is such a mental, physical, strategic, and patience game. It takes a ton of focus and concentration and I like being consumed in the competition against myself.
Jose and I don’t talk a lot when we golf together. Our biggest conversations are cussing out loud for a terrible shot then yelling at each other for overreacting (which happens often). It’s a great test for a marriage! But it is also a time where we get to celebrate the little wins like a great drive, chip, or put. It’s very exciting when one of us achieves a new personal best score.
I’m happy that I learned how to play. I still have a long way to go. But I improved quite a bit for my first summer. I sort of think I know what I am doing now.
If golf is something you’ve thought about trying, I say go for it. I am not kidding when I say I didn’t know the rules, differences between clubs, or the lingo. Take a few lessons and get out on a course. I’ll be out there too.
