First-ever Round of 18

So I’m not a golfer. I’ve never pretended to be a golfer. I’ve only been on a 9-hole par-3 course in Barronett a couple times in high school with my friend Greg, and then I took a beginning golf class in my final semester at Gustavus. Other than a few times playing mini-golf, I hadn’t touched a golf club since May 2005. I’ve turned down invitations in the past to play at the 9-hole par-3 course here at Tussey, but this time when Adam called and invited me to play a full round of 18 holes with them at the Penn State White Course on Memorial Day, I thought: “What the heck, I’ll probably suck but it should still be fun.” It was an absolutely gorgeous day for golf too, sunny and mid 70s.
So a bit before our scheduled tee time of 1pm on Monday I went to the driving range with Adam, trying to shake off a whole lot of rust (not that I ever had a consistent or good swing to recover, though). I didn’t have my own clubs, so I had to rent my own, as the White Course doesn’t allow two people to play out of the same bag (which of course makes them more money). And there were five of us (me, Adam, Julian, Ben & Chris, all from my church), so the course made us split up into two groups. Adam, Julian & Ben went out in the first group, and Chris & I went out right after them. The plan was to stay right behind them and more or less join them after the first hole or two. That never quite worked out though because I sucked too much, causing Chris & I to fall further and further behind the threesome, until at the end we were three holes behind at least. We never caught up, and we only ran into them maybe a couple times the whole afternoon. So what I thought was going to be more of a group outing didn’t quite turn out that way. I felt bad that my poor golfing probably also made Chris’s afternoon less enjoyable as well, because we weren’t able to keep up with the rest of the group.
While I was able to hit some decent shots at the driving range (mixed in with plenty of bad ones, of course), as soon as I stepped into the first tee box, I suddenly lost what little ability I had started to regain. Even with a few mulligans/penalty shots from the tee, I still eventually just took one of my pathetic shots, and something over a dozen strokes later got it in the hole. I was embarrassed and was getting really frustrated. After the embarrassing 1st hole I started to get better gradually, so that from the 3rd through 8th hole I finally started being able to hit tee shots that were consistently going forward and getting some distance on them. Unfortunately I got a blister at a bad spot on my left hand on the 2nd hole, so I had to change my grip to try to protect the blister. After a few holes (and many swings) of doing that more awkward grip/swing, my hands really started to hurt, my left one in particular. The pain really started to come on by the 9th and 10th holes, and I really should’ve stopped after the 10th or 11th hole when it was clear that I could no longer maintain a good grip on the club throughout an entire swing (especially not during the backswing), which meant that the ball was going any which direction and usually not very far (when your golf swing effectively becomes one-handed, it’s not good). I decided to suck it up and try to play through it, but from that point on I quite honestly could not wait for the round to be over. And the hand pain only got worse, which only made my shots worse, which only added to my frustration (and caused me to have to take more shots, so it was a positive feedback of pain and frustration that led to an increasingly negative attitude on my part). Continuing to play really was serving no purpose though, because I wasn’t able to try to try to practice or improve my swing the rest of the round because I wasn’t able to have a consistent swing at all.
It’s now a few days later, and my left hand is mostly better, but it’s still a little bit sore, surprisingly. It’s a good thing I didn’t have to play piano this week… In retrospect, I should not have said yes to playing a full round of 18 holes when I hadn’t touched a golf club (other than a putter) for four years. The smarter plan for me would’ve been just to be at the driving range for an hour or two, and maybe do a 9-hole par-3 course a few separate times at least, before attempting a full 18. If I had known we were a group of five and would have to be split, I would’ve declined so that they could’ve had their foursome and stayed together (especially since I was the only complete newbie to golf). I also did not anticipate that it’d take 6 hours to golf 18 holes (especially not for just two people); I’d planned to do some work that day on my prospectus, but that obviously didn’t happen. I foolishly didn’t wear sunscreen either, partly because I didn’t think it’d take more than about three to four hours, so those sunburns are finally starting to mellow now. I also should not have been teeing off from the farthest box back with the rest of them; I should’ve been from the farthest box up, because I wasn’t going to be comparing my scores to theirs anyway, since they’d all played previously. Basically, I’d do pretty much everything differently if I could.
I do very much appreciate the invitation to play 18, but my overall experience would’ve been much more positive had I even just agreed and paid for only 9 holes. If I would’ve stopped after 9, I would’ve come away with a feeling like I was starting to get better. What I can say for sure though is that I won’t be golfing 18 again any time soon, barring some special circumstance. I am willing to give golf another chance — eventually — but I need to be more realistic about my abilities and skills and stick with the driving range or par-3 courses for awhile. Golf is meant to be enjoyed, and I would like to enjoy it; I had a good enough time on the front 9 after the 1st hole, but on the back 9 I really didn’t enjoy it at all. It also costs a fair bit of money to play enough rounds to start getting better, whether you keep renting clubs or finally buy your own. Because of the money and time aspect and how much I have to do this summer, maybe it’s a hidden blessing that I had a rather negative experience with golf this week, because I’m certainly not going to be one that says, “hey, let’s go play some golf!” Or at least I won’t be doing so anytime in the foreseeable future. Maybe I should just stick to tennis or some other sports, where I also know I’m not very good, but I feel like I have a bit more control over what happens and how well I do.