Monday I golfed 18 holes with my co-workers Suzanne, Kim, and Janet. I’ve never golfed before and, if I’ve ever had a golf club in my hands, it was in a summer high school gym class. So, it’s been a while.
Over the weekend Daniel was a patient teacher/coach and showed me how to hold the club, get in a stance and swing the club. All of the tips Daniel gave me helped both in skill level and in confidence. At least I felt a tad more prepared for Monday after a few practice swings.
I have to say Monday was a lot more fun than I expected. I thought I’d get hot and tired and crabby and I didn’t. I especially thought I’d get frustrated with hitting bad hits. That happened in practice over the weekend but it never crept in on the course on Monday. There’s a lot of time waiting for others to hit their balls and going from shot to shot so it wasn’t as physically taxing as I thought it was going to be. And, I had a lot of really good hits. Additionally, it was a scramble so only one ball of the four counted every time. All of those things helped keep me from getting frustrated.
We were by far the worst golfers there. There were seven foursomes, so it wasn’t a big group in the first place. The second worst team beat us by more than twenty strokes. Our score was 101 and the worst of the other six groups was in the high 70’s … maybe 77 or something. So, we clearly were last place.
When the club hits the ball in just the right spot, it’s just a pretty shot. It’s just like hitting the sweet spot on a baseball bat. And I managed to do that a few times. I don’t have a good sense of distance or depth perception and I’m not sure how far I can hit it. One measurement, though, was on a hole that was 125 yards long. The tee was up on a small hill and the hole down a bit. I smacked it and it just took off, up in the air and landed pin high. So, at least off a small rise, I can get the ball, on a good hit, 125 yards.
One other thing Daniel mentioned to me after all of the practice was “Oh, and make them let you drive the cart”. So, I just hopped up in the driver’s seat right off the bat and he was right. It was fun to drive the cart.
If I got invited to go to a Scramble again, I might go … only if it were for fun. It wouldn’t be my first choice and if I never golfed again, I wouldn’t miss it. It takes a long time, it’s expensive, and, judging from other peoples’ comments, it’s hard to get really good.
I think what was really good for me was to have a good time, without expecting perfect hits and without getting frustrated with the outcome. Those are just the things I’ve been wanting to do. I felt good about all that.