For a while now, my wonderful boyfriend has hinted that he would love to play golf with me — if only someone would show him how. The only time he has ever played was years ago, and since it was with the dad of an ex-girlfriend, I think both of us try to minimize that experience when discussing golf with each other…
I’ve interpreted his suggestion as “Please teach me how to play golf!” And this is a challenge I welcome with great excitement. We all have dreams, and one of mine is to mix golf and world travels into some really kick-ass vacations. Because this is a serious, cohabitating relationship, I of course picture the two of us enjoying these world-class courses in exotic destinations together. More importantly, I want these vacations to happen before retirement…So this means that he will have to learn the great game. Now that I have a little teaching experience, it is expected that I show him how.
When it comes to couples golfing together, it is typically the man teaching the woman how to play. Thus, Google searches are not really helping me out — although it is providing a very high eye roll-to-chuckle ratio, but that is probably worth a whole separate post altogether.
Therefore, this experience is probably going to be an epic test of our relationship. This is a game that takes lots of time to learn and gain confidence in, and I hope that he can understand and not give up too quickly. It will also be interesting to see how this dynamic of girlfriend-teaching-boyfriend a “manly” sport plays out. I feel like he’s a quick learner and really wants to do it, so hopefully that will help.
The only worthwhile tip I’ve found so far today was in an article about teaching a child to play, and despite the child-centered aspect of this article, it’s a nice reminder of the psychological side of learning golf at any age:
“There is no such thing as criticism
Criticism is not fun. It implies the child did something wrong, as opposed to merely doing something incorrrectly. In golf as in life, the path forward is paved with praise. If they hit a good shot, you say, “Good shot.” If they hit a bad shot, you say, “Good swing.” When you detect a flaw, you challenge them to make the correct move without verbally identifying the bad one.”
Golf is something I really would love for us to share, so let the Boyfriend Golf Project begin! Does anyone have any tips to get me started?
