This Peoria resident details her life’s moments—the good and the bad—each month through humor and personal experiences. With spring in full swing, she has golf on the brain and explains how she got grooving on the golf course.
Recently I overheard a woman telling a friend about her daughter’s recent move to another city and her friend immediately began detailing the great shopping there. I, on the other hand, immediately thought of the great golf course there. That’s where I’m at—I’m thinking, golf. I think of golf as an acronym for Good Old Ladies Fun, not Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden, as a male friend once told me.
My first experience with the game was at the age of 19 in a college physical education class. Following weeks of skills practice, we ventured to the golf course to play nine holes and to keep score. I remember having a difficult time connecting with the ball and my score kept escalating. Keep in mind the average score for an experienced golfer could be 40 to 45 and range as high as 75 to 80 for a beginner. I have no idea what the 120 I had would be called—maybe beginner in training? After that, I took a break from the stresses of the game and the next time I played was the summer before I got married. My fiancé and I bought beginner sets of clubs and set off on a lifetime quest to learn the sport. Of course, because of my previous college class I thought I had the upper hand in experience and skill…
Every summer we would play golf a couple times a week at a nine-hole course. With my doctor’s blessing, I even played when I was expecting my first child. My doctor didn’t tell me when I should quit, but I decided that on my own. Ten days before my son was born we were playing golf and you can picture how that looked. As I leaned over to set my ball on the tee on the last hole, I heard a defining rip. Yes, it was the back seam of my shorts. So I walked in front of my husband while he completed the last hole. My perseverance on the golf course paid off as my son has turned out to be an excellent golfer and I am taking the credit for “grooving” his swing.
What is it about golf that has such an attraction to people of all ages and all skill levels? Simply the challenge—it is a game of you, pregnant or not, against the course. tpw
