As we come to the end of the fifth week of the Up To Scratch Beginners Golf Challenge, I chat to Laura, from Harewood, Leeds, about how she’s finding her first steps into the world of golf…

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Why did you sign up for the Up To Scratch Challenge?

My husband signed me up initially, but when I got the email to say that I’d got a place I just thought it sounded too good to turn down. I realised I’d never get a chance like this to play golf in such an intense way over such a short space of time again. Plus golf lessons are so expensive, so to get them for free is brilliant!

I’ve been thinking of learning for a while because my husband plays and lots of people at my work play. We have a lot of corporate golf days so it would be nice to get out of the office for a day with the others.

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Why didn’t you start learning before?

I’m not very patient so I didn’t think I’d be very good. I guess part of me didn’t want to pay a load of money for lessons and then end up hating it. I always just thought that it would be something that I’d get round to doing one day.

My husband goes on golf weekends all the time with his friends and they love it. It’s also a nice thing to have that in common with people. Even today at work I ended up having a long chat about my lessons with one of my colleagues who absolutely loves golf.

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Is golf what you expected?

Golf is not how I expected it to be at all! I had no idea that there would be so many different things involved. I didn’t think about all the different types of grip and swing we would have to learn either. I’d never even heard of half the different terminologies before we started.

We’re over half way through now and I still feel like there’s so much to learn. I’m absolutely petrified of missing a lesson because I think I’ll miss out on something!

Golf is a lot harder than I thought it would be but it’s also more fun. When you get it right it’s really enjoyable it just doesn’t happen often enough! Everyone on the challenge is really nice, and a lot younger than I thought they would be.

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Will you carry on playing after the challenge is over?

I hope so, my concern is that this will finish in September and then I won’t play until next year and by that time I’ll have forgotten everything I’ve learnt. But I definitely want to carry on with it. I’m already thinking about getting the gear!

What would you say to another woman who was thinking of trying golf?

I’d say get involved but definitely get lessons. My husband has tried to correct a few things I’m doing and I just keep saying I’m going to leave it to the experts to teach me. You can imagine that loads of people just learn from someone they know and it’s not the correct technique.

I don’t think you need to be very sporty to play golf either. I like running and people said I’d find it easier because I like to keep fit but I don’t know if that’s true. I think you could play no sport at all and still be able to play golf.

 

How can we encourage more women to play golf?

Things like the Up To Scratch Challenge are a great idea. Golf seems to be a sport that only older women play, so I think there should be more free sessions for younger women, and those who do play should be more vocal about it.

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