Golf Pro

(source)

My dad is an avid golfer.  Belongs to a league.  Plays at least once a week.  He has been a golfer my whole life.  Probably most of his life.  He's quite good.  When I was little, he used to take me out with him.  I had my own set of clubs.  And I took lessons.  I was pretty good, too!  But then I got interested in other things and golf took a back seat.  In fact, golf took a different car altogether.  Until 4 years ago, I hadn't touched a golf club in probably 15 years.

Matt is a golfer.  He played for our high school team.  [I once cut the golf team's picture out of the paper and put it on my wall, just because he was in it]  He plays as much as he can now.  4 years ago, he and his brothers started an annual golf tournament.  Matt knew that I took lessons as a kid and so he kept encouraging me to play.  I kept saying I would but never have.  I have a set of clubs that I bought 4 years ago.  I've probably used them a dozen times.  I just haven't had the time to get to the range and get some practice in.  Finally, this summer, it looks like I'll be able to really get in some time at the range, and hopefully play some real courses.

Much to my dad's dismay, I will never be as good as Annika

My dad came down today and we decided we'd go hit balls.  Matt has tried giving me pointers in the past, but somehow there's nothing like getting tips from my dad.  It's the way it's always been - I swing, he critiques, I swing again, it's better.  And I did pretty well.  Fundamentally, I have a good swing.  I have the basics down, and can hit a pretty decent ball.  My problem is that I don't keep my head down, which means that I pull up and chunk at the top of the ball.  Which means the ball goes about 10 yards.  But when I do keep my head down, I can hit an iron a good 60-100 yards (depending on the iron).  I'm really hoping to get out to the range a few more times so that I can finally get a feel for how far I hit each of my irons.  That will give me the ability to get a good read on which club I should use when out on the course.  And hopefully, by the time August rolls around, I'll feel comfortable enough to get out there and play with the boys in their tournament!