Don’t laugh.

It’s a thing.

See?

And if you are wondering who Sam Snead is? He was kind of a big deal in golf. I’ve even eaten at a Sam Snead Tavern adjacent to a course in the Poconos. A quick Google search also showed me that it wasn’t the only golf pub named after him.

I have spent a lot of time in and around golf courses over the years.

While managing to completely avoid playing.

It started as simple disinterest.

Growing up, my family used to vacation each summer at a resort with a small five hole golf course.

All the other kids would be busy learning to play while me and my girlfriend sat on the course and chatted. Sometimes feigning interest, but mostly completely ignoring everything except the nice weather and whatever it was we were talking about.

Besides, I wasn’t a golfer. I was a competitive swimmer.

In my twenties a girlfriend suggested I might try to pick up golf for “networking” purposes.

By that stage I had determined I didn’t golf. And I had no intention of learning.

Networking? That’s what drinks are for.

Life rolled on and I met my husband.

Who golfed.

And we need to pause here, because he didn’t JUST golf.

He’s one of those annoying people who golfs really well without ever having taken a lesson.

And me? I’m competitive, but NOTHING athletic has ever come naturally to me.

Early in our relationship he managed to talk me into golfing once with his brother and his brother’s wife.

Because it would be “just for fun” and despite my protests and, to quote my husband, I couldn’t possibly be that bad.

I was.

Suffice to say I was lucky to HIT the ball.

And the other three clearly weren’t really playing “just for fun.”

It ranks as one of the most frustrating days I can remember.

I think I lasted five holes before giving up and walking the rest of the course.

No one encouraged me to continue and my husband never asked me to play with him again.

You may think I’d have felt defeated.

But I felt relieved.

And then I started volunteering with my alumni association.

Guess what any number of the main fundraisers and events are?

Yup.

You can appreciate that by this stage of life initial disinterest had turned into full on avoidance.

That lasted about five years, until finally last year I sucked it up and asked my husband to buy me golf lessons for my birthday.

I figured it was time to learn.

Only, by the time I got the gift certificate, golf season was over so it was SUPER easy to put it off.

I finally called about the lessons in June of this year.

And the place no longer offered them.

So I got my gift card re-funded and contacted the golf pro at my gym about lessons.

And never heard back.

By this stage, I started to wonder if it was a sign.

Perhaps I’m not meant to golf?

My husband assured me that, no, this was me simply not wanting to golf.

Okay.

So we went on holidays to Collingwood last week.

In case you don’t know, there’s a lot of golf out Blue Mountain way.

So I booked a private lesson with the golf pro.

Two days prior to the lesson my husband took me to the driving range for a bit of practice.

But it was closed.

So we went to the bar instead.

Then on my golf lesson day, they sent me out to the range in a golf cart by myself to wait for the pro.

Okay, so driving the cart was kind of fun…

I was told he’d be about 15 minutes late.

At 30 minutes I texted my husband that, really, maybe this was now a sign.

But no. Just “Beat the Pro” day running late.

So, while slightly delayed, I had my first golf lesson.

And it wasn’t awful.

I took one more before I left and went to a driving range earlier this week to practice again.

And tomorrow?

I’m in a best ball tournament for the university.

It won’t be pretty, but I figure this summer is the summer I am going to get over myself as far as golf is concerned.

Because like Sam Snead said, “Of all hazards, fear is the worst!”

Of course, based on the forecast , it might get rained out. If that happens, I’m TOTALLY taking that as a sign!

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This post is written for Finish the Sentence Friday, which is a lovely Blog Hop I sporadically contribute to when the topic grabs me.

Tonight’s prompt made me immediately think of my current summer project to finally learn how to play golf. So there you have it. Do check out the others linking up.