Monday, February 24, 2014

Encourage girls to play by being supportive.

Over the course of my early years playing golf, I had many great experiences.  Some of which I have shared with you already.  There will be many more to come in later posts, but for now I want to say it wasn't all plain sailing. 

Being one of the few junior girls playing at my club  I played in a lot of ladies competitions.  My game was improving quickly and this didn't go unnoticed by the lady members.  It was a case of handicap plateaus being broken. I would play to my handicap for a few months or so then all of sudden drop 5-10 off it in a couple of weeks.  This essentially meant quite a few 44 points in stablefords and net scores of  65 or better.  

This happened one lady captains day competition.  I can't remember the exact score but I remember clearly when the scores were posted on the board I had won the 1st place prize. 
Imagine my excitement when I realized the prize was a book signed by Tom Watson.  Sounds like a good ending right...

The prize giving was held after tea, normally sandwiches, cake and a cup of tea.  The 1st place prize was awarded last,  I expected my name to be called out.  Except it wasn't my name being called, but another Lady.  My first though was to wonder what I had done wrong.  Did I make a mistake on my score card? or maybe I looked at the score board wrong.  Neither was the case. 

Apparently the lady captain decided to award a different prize... a junior prize...one that wasn't even on display.  The Lady captain said that she would give it to me the following day.  Imagine how disappointed I was when I received a small duffel bag with the word sport written on the side.

 The Tom Watson book would have remained on my bookcase today.  I didn't use the sport bag.  To this day I can only wonder what her thought process was when she decided I wasn't old enough to win the book.  

One other incident sticks out in my mind as a bit of low point during my formative playing years. This is more shocking to me now than it was at the time however I do remember being fairly distressed at the incident.

One day the professional at the club caught me in the pro shop and asked to have a quick chat.  Sure I thought thinking it was about my swing or an upcoming junior match.  He started by saying, some of the ladies don't want to play with you as you are too competitive.  He suggested I try to be not quite so "competitive" 

How was I supposed to take it.  I felt like I was being told off for trying to play well.  After all isn't that the goal of playing.  I was 14 and still trying to get over my shyness.  I guess I must have conformed somewhat but it wasn't long before I joined another club closer to my home where I could be as competitive as I wanted.

This blog post is to try to get people to encourage the girls at your club to continue to be competitive and win club events.  As they will remember and they may end up going to college to play or play professionally.  No matter what, the goal is to grow the game and to make life long fans of golf.  Not turn them away by shortsighted comments. 

Apologies for the somewhat negative post,  but I think its good to give the whole story not just the brilliant stuff.  I am pretty hard headed and didn't let these two things get in the way of my love of the game....thankfully.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Lessons Learned

After my fortuitous meeting on the big practice ground at Princes, with the Kent county ladies golf association captain, I immediately joined as a junior member.  This made me eligible for training and competitions.

Joan Piper, the county captain, suggested I go to Wrotham Heath golf club where they were holding the junior girls championship.  I didn't have a handicap yet, nor did I have a full set of clubs, but she did say, even thought I couldn't play in the competition they were holding a beginners 9 hole event in the afternoon where a lady member would walk round with each group and make sure we learned what playing in a competition was going to be like.

 They would help by teaching us etiquette and some basic rules and make sure we were keeping the score cards correctly. This sounded like a good idea to my father as it meant his rebellious daughter would actually pay attention as to how to behave on the course. This information was better coming from someone who was not my dad as I would rarely listen to him.  That is until I went to college.....a story for a later blog. 

The day of the Kent Girls Championship arrived, Dad and I made the drive to Wrotham Heath.  It was about an hour and half away, not far but my dad made it an occasion. It was in the days before McDonalds and Starbucks so we stopped at a motorway service station for a cup of tea and bacon sandwich.  It doesn't sound like much but back then, to me, it was special.  We were always on a budget so eating out was never an option.  That bacon sandwich and cup of tea felt like a lottery win.

We arrived at the course and the weather was typically British,  wet and chilly, both dad and I hopped it would improve as my tee time approached. 

 I had barely started  playing the game and so was lacking a vital piece of equipment, waterproof bottoms.  I had a jacket and an umbrella and my golf shoes were somewhat water resistant but I knew I was going to get wet.

Unperturbed I headed out with my group and Lady member.  Lady Jenny Benn was her name and it was the first time I had ever met anyone with a title. She was lovely, friendly and very efficient. To this day we remain friends.  She knew her golf and didn't hesitate in helping us out. She volunteered her time in the pouring down rain to put some beginner girls on the right path.  

Not only did she put me on the right path but she put my father on track too.  Being my first time in a competition my dad was both curious and nervous for me so he came out to watch. He hid behind trees and bushes trying to be invisible but failing miserably as not only did I see him, Lady Benn saw him.

She swiftly went over to him and very firmly suggested he leave me alone to play as it probably made me more nervous and besides the clubhouse was a nicer place to be in the rain.  My father took her advice and from that point on he would travel with me to events even sometimes caddied but normally he would pass on watching in favor of being social with the members of the club I was playing.  This isn't shocking as most people who know me would say the apple didn't fall far from the tree. I know my father made many friends this way and it had to be more fun than watching me grind my way round golf courses. Sometimes playing well. sometimes playing terribly. 

For my part that first competition taught me who had the honor on the tee. how to mark a ball, how to tend the flags, repair pitch marks and replace divots. The not so fun parts of learning was the out of bounds rules, lost ball rules were also included. All this while getting drenched and playing those 9 holes in about 3 hours! We were beginners after all and it takes time to hit it as often as we did...

But the lessons learnt on the course were not the only ones.  I didn't win a prize but knew I wanted to.  The Girl who won became the Kent girls champion.  I wanted to be that. I wanted to hold that trophy, and yes I even wanted to make the speech. Right there and then I found my first goal.  I wanted to be the Kent Girls Champion.