I never in a million years thought I would be saying this but I have started having Golf lessons – yes you heard, GOLF – I thought it was rude not to as modern day golf originated in 15th Century Scotland (bet you didn’t know that)
The definition of golf is “A game played on a large outdoor course with a series of 9 or 18 holes spaced far apart, the object being to propel a small, hard ball with the use of various clubs into each hole with as few strokes as possible.” Sounds easy but let me tell you its way harder than it looks.
A few months ago a friend who loves golf and is a member of a very prestigious club were trying to encourage more women into the sport (apparently our numbers of declined over the past few years) and managed to get a very good deal on lessons. For me it was an opportunity to learn a new skill and do something with others. I love my running (that will always come first) but I tend to spend 99% of my time training and running on my own so when this opportunity presented itself I leapt at the chance – plus you can get pink golf clubs, tees and balls! (very important!)
Five of us arrived at Rye for our first lesson with Nick. Firstly we had to learn how to hold the club correctly and having mastered that the next step was how to stand properly for Teeing off. Way too complicated for me, Nick made it look way too easy. Thankfully we were given a large basket of balls and after a few times of completely missing the ball and feeling rather stupid (with a quick check round to make sure that no-one had spotted the error, I finally managed to hit the ball into the air and in the right direction – RESULT!
Lesson No. 2 was a bit more of what we had practices in the first lesson then we moved onto putting (I know, you are all on the edge of your seats with anticipation!) The art of putting (in my opinion) is learning how hard to hit the ball and looking at the green so see where all the lumps and bumps are. I did actually jump up and down for joy when I managed to get the ball into the hole! (I’m sure you’re not allowed to behave in such a way on smart golf courses!
Now this I was actually quite good at (Phew) so went home feeling much more like a golfer. Lesson 3 we moved onto getting the ball over objects like bunkers (there is a name for it but I can’t remember) this was slightly more complicated. Not being a competitive sort of person I found it extremely frustrating watching the others getting their balls up and over while mine skimmed the ground and went straight into the object I was trying to avoid.
Unfortunately I missed out on two lessons while I was taking part in the Spartathlon in Greece but turned up today slightly nervous with our final lesson of the 6 playing 5 holes on the Jubilee Course (GULP) proper golf.
