All Beginnings 5: The Taster Course

The keyword "golf license" has come up several times now. Conversations with golf-playing colleagues always boiled down to this because, "without a golf license, the game is very limited."

Yes, I had now understood that. And yet: I didn't want to take the third step before the second. And so I asked in the circle of friends and of course my girlfriend at that time, if there would be interest in a taster course.

This course, which is available at almost every golf club and on almost every golf course, is a one-day event with a golf professional, i.e. a trainer, who wants to introduce the participants to the fascination of the game of golf.

Chaff and wheat

This is where the wheat can be separated from the chaff, i.e. the question can be answered: Do I actually enjoy chasing a small white ball? Do I enjoy humiliating myself with a golf club, in front of myself and my fellow players, because the shot I have practiced so often still does not want to succeed? In short: am I masochist enough to want to play golf?

On the one hand, of course, all this is totally exaggerated. For many, golf is a hobby that is primarily meant to be fun, the club life brings sociability, the way across the course brings relaxation. However, there is a grain of truth in the fact that picking up a club is always a fight against oneself.

The game of golf is a transition between pleasure and agony, and sometimes one side outweighs the other. But all this contributes to the fascination, as well as the self-conquest to try it again after various failures, as the competition with the teammate, but also the movement in the open air is part of it for many.

With more or less ambition

Six of us then started the trial course, of which I have few memories after ten years. We were three couples who started with more or less ambition. One of the couples made it clear right away that it was all about fun and passing the time that day. A career on the course was not to follow.

Of course, this is also ok, although I didn't understand the decision already made before the course: what if it was really fun? On site, we were joined by other participants. We were lent clubs and free balls and could let off steam. A pro provided assistance, showed us the basics, and had many a light-hearted quip at the ready. It was supposed to be fun and it was fun.

A continuation should follow absolutely, if then also only to four. Anyway, today two of the six participants are still actively playing golf. And - to be honest - after two relatively active beginner years and a subsequent five-year break, they have only been playing again for three years, but now with the intention of staying with it.

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