Learning golf in one week

Posted by Lau

A new challenge.

Playing any kind of sport against W (or board games, or video games or any competition, actually) means that I have to resign myself to a sore defeat, day after day.
He is one of those people who are just great at everything they try, whilst I am not as gifted, especially when it comes to sports!

Imagine my reaction when he suggested we take part in the Learn Golf in One Week course, at Yas Links Academy!
I had played golf a bazillion years ago, when I was a little girl, and I can still hear my dear friend F (which is an amazing golfer, by the way) laughing in my face all the way to the green.
I was not sure the results this time could be much different, but you know what? Life is for the living, so I said yes!

Evening practice.

The course is organised over a week, starting on Sunday, and it is taught by Craeg Deery, a professional golfer from the UK.
It starts from the basics, such as ‘how to hit the ball’, and patiently moves forward, at a very reasonable pace.

Hitting the ball sounds easy enough, but it actually takes time to learn how to hold the club in the right way, how to do the swings without twisting a muscle or two, how to position the ball to make sure it is actually going to go somewhere and so on.

After the first two lessons, we had two days of ‘rest’, however we were allowed to use all the club’s facilities for free and we were very much encouraged to go back and keep practising.
The final stage of the course saw us learning the differences between clubs, working on precision as well as distance, and playing a short game on the 9 Hole Academy Course.

So, did we learn to play golf in a week?!

Well, i think W did. He did amazingly well and I think the instructor was very pleased with him.
About me, I can’t say I could play Tiger Wood tomorrow, however I feel confident that I now know the basics, I improved a lot since I first started, and I was quite happy with my scores in the final game. Next time my friend F comes to visit me, I hope she won’t laugh as much as in the past!

In conclusion, I think golf, as every other sport, needs a lot of practice and dedication, but this class certainly made me want to play more, and made me curious and confident enough to step on a golf course knowing at least my irons from my woods.
Being a total disaster at sports, I think this experience has been really positive, and I would certainly recommend this course to anyone who is willing to try something new and enjoy the beautiful weather on this side of the world.