Lady Golfer Columnist: Claire Kane
THESE days my golf clubs live permanently in the boot of my car. The logic is that I’ll be using them again in a couple of days so it’s just not worth the hassle of lugging them in and out of the garage every time I want to play.
I’m not sure my insurance company would approve of my storage arrangements but at least all my kit is all together in the one place.
As a result, I no longer have to worry about forgetting to pack anything vital like wet- weather gear when the Met Office fails to spot the rain coming in.
The downside of this tactic can be the ‘out of sight and out of mind’ theory – and there have been a few occasions when I have stood on the tee and noticed my dirt-encrusted clubs could benefit from hot soapy water and a scrubbing brush to stand any chance of successfully spinning a ball back on the green (yes, I can hear you say “you should be so lucky!”).
In the past I would also dump various golf gear on the back seat of my car and from time to time one would escape from a pocket or a bag. This resulted in the odd golf ball rattling around the floor of the car whenever I turned a corner.
These days I’m far more meticulous in confining my golfing kit to the boot, especially since the time I had to do an emergency stop when a car suddenly pulled out in front of me.
Thankfully we avoided a collision and after the initial shock I did the usual indignant and self-righteous action of beeping the completely oblivious driver several times to highlight the error of his ways.
It wasn’t until I tried to drive on that I realised something was wrong as the car wasn’t responding.
My immediate thought was that something had broken because I’d stopped so violently – hey, what do I know about cars?!
Puzzled, I kept trying to press down on the accelerator pedal but nothing happened – in fact it was completely immovable. My immediate thought was that something had broken because I’d stopped so violently – hey, what do I know about cars?!
It wasn’t until I got out of the car and looked down at the pedals I noticed a stray golf ball had shunted forward when I hit the brakes and it was well and truly stuck under the accelerator pedal.
By this time, the offending driver and car had disappeared and there was a queue of vehicles behind me, tooting their horns impatiently waiting to pass the inconsiderate driver parked on the narrow road (me)!
Red faced and feeling very embarrassed, I finally levered the jammed golf ball from behind the pedal, thankful at least it hadn’t rolled under my brake as that could have made a very ‘interesting’ insurance claim.
In hindsight, finding a golf ball wedged behind the throttle shouldn’t have been a surprise, because as I know from first- hand experience the very strange places golf balls can end up in.
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