January 2, 2011 First Day ever on a GolfCourse

Somewhere in the USA there is snow on the ground, ice on the barren winter trees and/or blustery winds that can make your facial appendages turn as bright red as the nose on Rudolph. However, here in Mckinney, Texas the sky is blue.  The sun is very bright.  The wind is very gentle.  It is 45 degrees and a beautiful winter day. 

According to my husband....TODAY is the perfect day to begin. 

Today is the day I will attempt to play my first nine holes of golf.  I hesistantly agree and off we go to our local golfcourse for my first lesson in driving a golf cart and tee box etiquette.  Since I have no clubs of my own just yet, we borrow a woman's set from the pro.  We begin by putting a few balls on the practice green to get loosened up.   I find myself adapting a lighter touch to my putting swings...it is a challenge to lighten my touch. 

We're off to the tee box.   It was my turn to tee off.  As an avid reader of "Golf for Dummies", I knew I had to relax, sit deep, keep my stance, stay on the balls of my feet, keep my eye on the ball and most importantly....breathe...at the same time.   Geesh, I think I'm already exhausted.  I took a new "pink" Christmas ball from my pocket and the borrowed driver and approached the tee box for the first time.  OK, My first drive.....WOW....it actually went straight.  Very straight...about one foot from the ground straight...a line drive of about 100 yards.  I guess my softball years had surfaced.  What to do.  hmmmmm.   Well I thought, "let's see what happens when I use this nine iron".  I never used a nine iron before.  Little did I know...it was nothing like a driver.   Whoooosh.  Nothing.   I completely missed the ball.  Ok, focus, hit the blade of grass to practice (like my husband kindly instructed on the tee box).  Breathe...swing...ping...WOW another straight shot in the middle of the fairway.  It didn't get more than two inches off the ground again, but it did go a fair distance.  And so I was now officially playing my first hole of golf. 

My goal today was to keep the balls on the fairway and not loose any of the three new pink Christmas balls I had in my pocket.  For some reason, my husband thought this was a very humorous goal.  We proceeded to complete three holes and I still had all three balls and kept within the rough of the fairway.  I was amazed and so was my husband.  Shocked was likely more like it, but he was a complete gentleman and told me I was doing great. 

Hole six was a par five that had a small pond to clear from the tee box.  Oh no.  Knowing my goal to keep all my new pink balls, my husband kindly presented one of his older balls to contribute to the drink on my first tee off over the pond.  What a wise man.  Swing...Slice...Plunk...in the drink.   He smiled, I smiled.  Determined...I teed up a pink ball, set my stance, swung a practice shot, focused on keeping my stance and approached my target with the passion of a new rookie.  Swing...PING....WOW...that ball rose, cleared the pond, went straight up the fairway past the 150 yard market and rolled another 20 yards.  My best shot of the day :).
As my husband stood with his mouth agape.....that said it all.  I was now on the path of no return.   

We finished nine holes.  I did actually loose a ball somewhere; not sure where.  I only had two left in my pocket.  Overall, I was shocked at how well I actually played my first game.  I learned much today about my swing.  I learned that I was breaking my stance and standing up in the middle of my swing causing the ball to fly less than one foot from the ground because I was hitting it too tall.  Once I corrected this, I was able to get lift.  Thanks to this informative tidbit from my husband, I was able to make that drive of 170 yards over the pond.   It was a lovely first day.  I am now hooked.  

I guess it is time to investigate a purchase of some clubs of my own and perhaps a my first new pair of ladies shoes.  What color will they be?   Hmmmmm.