Traveling again for work, I stay in a very nice hotel next to a fancy golf course and my window overlooks the driving range, so whenever I am on the balcony for some fresh air, I watch the local players hitting balls and you can constantly hear the thwacking sounds of clubs hitting the balls and see them flying out, some in curves, trying to reach the targets on the range.So earlier this week one afternoon, getting back from "work" early, I leave the room and venture across to see this up close, and I thought I might inquire about renting some gear and hit a few balls myself. I walked into the clubhouse, and obviously out of my place and standing out from the crowd, being a European I suppose, I explain my quest to a friendly receptionist who suggest I take some lessons and I ended up to book a session with the club pro for Saturday morning at 10:00. With the Euro to the local Malaysian Ringgits exchanging at about 5:1, I spend about 100 Ringgits(<€20) for a pro coach for one hour, some clubs and 100 balls to hit away, and believe me, that's hard work.(Have a blister on my hand to prove it)
It started out slow at first, and very hard to focus on all the new things I had to do, keep my left foot flat on the ground when swinging back, keeping the angles right when swinging back, pull trough with the left hand and swing through, use the momentum and not your power, swing all the way through, and o yes, keep your eye on the ball till it hits. And when you can pull all of that off don't lose your balance. Initially I asked myself what I got into and wanted to walk away, because this is really hard and what am I doing here trying to learn to play golf at almost 42. After the first hour I started having fun as I managed to get about one in three balls with a clean hit, and you don't even have to look, the sound of the thwack says it all. Suddenly all the theory gets together and I am able to get a couple of balls well over the 100m range with a 5 iron, one or two of them pretty close to the 150m mark.
Maybe hanging on till 42 was not such a bad idea to try my hand at golfing again, my focus is now totally different from the last time I tried this at about 18. Back then I expected to be a pro from just observing and I wanted to be able to manage the game immediately, now it's just the small victories that counts, every shot counts, when one fails, there's always a next one to try and get all the theories right.
I actually enjoyed myself and there's an immense satisfaction every time I manage to apply all the theories and the ball flies straight and hit the distance mark you aimed to achieve.
We should break out of our moulds more ofter in life and venture out into new terrains and experiment with new experiences, there might be really fun things out there that we might just thorougly enjoy.
