Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong

FORE!

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m pretty much athletically challenged. Maybe it’s because I’m Jewish (look up “Great Jews in Sports History” and you’ll see a small pamphlet). Maybe it’s because I have musical ability and, when I was a kid, my parents steered me towards piano and flute. I’m forever grateful for that since I have a great love for music and still play my flute, as most of you already know. But growing up, sports, physical fitness, athletics were not my forte. I learned to ski before I turned 30, a personal goal of mine. I’m not very good and I enjoy it but I also haven’t done it in almost 5 years thanks to being pregnant and subsequent child. One of the things I’ve always wanted to do was learn to play tennis or golf. So today, I took my first golf lesson.

Backstory. G is a good, avid golfer. He plays as often as possible. I go on scrapbooking weekends. He goes on golf weekends. Okay, he goes once a year to play for 4 days and I go away a few weekends a year but we pretty much balance out on our total of play days. Anyway, he’s tried to teach me here and there but it’s been in weird circumstances so it really wasn’t conducive to trying to learn anything. Back in August, before we left for Las Vegas, he took me out to the driving range. Showed me how to hold the club, position, basically what to do and I started to whack away at the ball. I didn’t do great but one of the few times I hit the ball correctly, it was fun. I really enjoyed it!

We went to the golf store just to see how much clubs cost and what’s out there for women since obviously G would have no idea about that. I played around with putters and found one that I liked. We came home and researched clubs online and G found a nice set for me. So I have my own set of clubs (pink!) and he got me the putter as well. Don’t know anything about why I like this one but hey, I could hit the ball easily in the store with it. Others weren’t as easy so that was my criteria. In fact, the day my clubs arrived, we had gone out to the driving range that morning. (I was using G’s clubs) We went again that night so I could try mine.

So we get busy with work, bla bla bla and finally we have time to go back to the driving range last week. I was doing ok. I hit plenty of grounders. Okay, I know it’s a baseball term but give me a break. I’m a beginner. I’ll get that nomenclature down eventually. In fact, on my last swing, one of the other instructors just happened to be watching me and he said that he’s taught plenty of women who don’t have as nice a swing. Obviously, he could tell that I was a beginner (I would hope so anyway) but that was very nice to hear especially when I haven’t had a formal lesson yet.

So dissolve to this morning. We get there a little early so I’m hitting a few practice balls before my lesson. I meet my instructor, Chris. She’s a nice lady, former LPGA tour pro. She asked me to show her how I grip the club and swing. G had given me some good basics. My right hand grip was “perfect” and only a very slight adjustment to my left hand and I was good. My stance was pretty good too. Right away she showed me something about my swing (that’s why she’s the instructor and the pro) and almost immediately my swing got better. I was really pleased with myself. I know it’ll take a million more balls at the driving range before I’m ready for step two but I was really excited about today. I signed up for a series of 6 lessons and I’d like to keep up with it. It’s been really fun so far.

These pictures are from August. No shots from today which is perfectly ok. And anyone out there who actually plays will probably be laughing their asses off at my "fine form". Hey, I'm learning. If I take some pictures at the end of these six lessons, let's see if I look any better. Hey, let's hope so is all I can say.

Labels: flute, golf, lessons, putter

posted by Juls @ 12:33 AM