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Women in Golf

© Russell G. Bell

When I first met my future wife I told her that my next wife would have to play golf as I wanted someone to share my sports passion. She started taking lessons soon after and spent many hours on the driving range. What she did was, in my opinion, above and beyond the call of duty because I would have married her regardless. As it is she has become my playing partner and we have spent countless hours on the local courses enjoying the game and each other's company.

We watch the LPGA and the PGA on television and follow both tours because of the fine golf played by the professionals. We volunteered this year to assist at an amateur ladies tournament and were impressed with the talent of the youth waiting in the wings.

However, I must admit to being frustrated by those women who have swapped the coffee klatsch for the golf course. My observations have been that they are there more to socialize than to keep up the pace of the game. It would also appear their grasp of the rules of etiquette are lacking and quite often they are offended if asked to allow a faster player to play through.

Years ago I took an afternoon off from work and went to my local course and asked if there was a tee time available. I was told by the lady in the pro shop that it was "Ladies" day and I could not play at all. I promptly inquired as to which day of the week was dedicated for the men. She became flustered and admitted they had no such day. I calmly said the equal opportunity office in town would find this bias interesting and could possibly shut down the course. She conferred with the club management and I was allowed to have a tee time.

I assumed it would be a long slow afternoon on the course when upon arriving at the first tee there was a foursome that appeared to be beginners. Everyone has to start sometime so I decided not to push them but to just relax and enjoy the fact I was not at work and the day was warm and sunny.

Hole number two comes back along side number one and I noticed the hole was open for play. I quickly went to that hole and played around the foursome and then continued on vowing to come back and play the hole I had missed. I didn't run into other players until the ninth hole, I played around this threesome and continued on. All in all I skipped four holes which I went back and played after the fact. I was driving a cart because of my heel spurs (that's my story and I am sticking to it) so going back to play the skipped holes was not a problem.