by Sylvester Pierpoint (aka John Jeffries)

Created on: April 09, 2009

LEARNING ABOUT GOLF It's a game you either love or hate or both, just not at the same time. No matter how bad you may be playing or how upset and angry you may be with your game, just one really good shot will wipe all the bad stuff away. You will remember that one good shot and bring the memory with you the next time you play.

There's an old joke about a foursome that met every week and one of the players was very bad tempered. He was having an unusually bad round and getting even angrier as the round progressed. When they finished the eighteenth hole, the bad tempered one grabbed his clubs and ran to the locker room. He threw the clubs into the locker, beat on the walls and shouted as loud as he could about how much he hated the game. He then reached into the locker and pulled out a razor and slashed his wrists. The other partners were just getting to the locker room and saw him do this. They grabbed him and took the razor away and called the paramedics. When the rescue squad attended to the wounds and was carrying him out on a stretcher, one of the players asked him if he wanted him to talk to his wife. "Sure!" he said. "Tell her what our tee-time is for next week. You know how forgetful I am."

When I retired I wanted to play as much golf as I could so I took a part-time job as a Course Ranger on a small Executive type course. It was just nine holes and par 31. As a staff member I had free golf privileges and took advantage of the free play as often as I could. As Course Ranger my job was to keep play moving as smooth and as fast as possible and to see that golf etiquette was reasonably being observed. It was necessary at times to ask slower players to let the faster ones play through. As purported, most golfers are in fact gentlemen and ladies on the course and seldom cause a problem. They usually voluntarily let faster players through.

A small Executive course like this is absolutely the best place to begin learning the game. It gives unskilled or slower players a better opportunity to learn and enjoy the game. Many regulation courses wouldn't even allow them to play at all. Some Executive courses even have on-site teaching professionals who offer both private and group lessons and often a summer camp for youngsters. Greens fees are generally minor and some courses offer both hand and electric cart rentals.

The course where I worked was owned by the County Parks and Recreation Service and sponsored golf tournaments several times a year for the youth of the

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>