I used to make fun of golfers.  Seemed like a bunch of unathletic aging guys, dressed like country club pimps, driving around a manicured field looking for their balls.  Having grown up in a small town, a good Friday night during my high school years was; illegally procuring a 6-pack, chugging it with my buddies in the parking lot of the local driving range, and spending a couple hours smacking drives out into the darkness, or aiming at the guy on the tractor picking up the balls.  But that was pretty much the extent of my golfing experience, and that was when I had both feet. 

Fast forward about 18 years or so to the present day. 

One of my good friends plays golf every once in a while, and he drug me out to the driving range a couple times in the past year or two.  Saturday morning he shows up at my door asking me to go to the range that is just up the street.  Timing was good, so I agree.  We're there for about 5 minutes and he starts trying to talk me into playing a round of golf.  Now, I can hit the ball pretty well about a 1/3 of the time, the other 2/3 consist of a wicked slice, or topping it, which results in the ball skipping accross the ground.  Occaisionally, I'll miss the ball completely, and try to make a joke of it by looking way off in the distance and saying "wow, I got all of that one!".  So, I keep telling my buddy that I'm not going out on this nice country club golf course, in front of all these people with these skills.  He is pretty intent on getting me to go and my apprehension results in a ferocious 10 minute volley of name calling.  So finally, I compromise.  I tell him that I'll go tomorrow, as long as we go to a course that won't be so busy, and people playing behind us won't get mad if(when) every one of my shots ends up off in the bushes or water.

So Sunday morning comes around, and we head off to a small public course a couple miles away.  Come to find out, two other guys are meeting us there.  So I've got more people watching me. He tells me one guy plays at least once a week, while the other has been playing for 30 years, and he's only 34.  Great.  I'm a pretty competitive person, but at this point, I let out a sigh and just hope I don't embarass myself or hurt anyone.

We meet up with the other guys in the parking lot and one of them throws me a beer.  Wow, just like high school, drinking beer in the parking lot. Although it's 9:30 on Sunday morning and not Friday night, I feel like we're off to pretty good start.  While we're waiting for our tee time, I make sure I tell each of them several times that I've never played before, and this isn't gonna be pretty.  They told me not to worry, as we had plenty of beer and the weather is good.

So those 3 guys go first off the tee, each of hits it long and straight, right down the fairway.  I'm about to start sweating, I'm all kinds of nervous.  I take my swing and was completely surprised!  A perfect shot, probably the best I've ever done.  It went farther than everyone else, and was perfectly in the middle of the fairway!  The other guys were just as shocked as me.  I notice this and calmly turn towards them and say "Does anyone know any hard games?"  So we hop in the carts and head down the hill. My next shot landed 5 feet from the hole, I putt it in and I birdied the first hole I ever played!

Now after this, things went horribly wrong, I lost about 8 or 10 balls, sat out a couple holes, drank a few more beers and drove the cart.  But my performance on the first hole was enough to hook me.  I'm watching shows on the golf channel now, I'm looking at purchasing a set of clubs, wanting to go to the driving range to practice, perhaps take some lessons...I really can't wait to go again.

I am a little disturbed because this means I have become an unathletic aging guy that will be dressing like a country club pimp.

Now on to my question/problem, maybe there's another LBK (or left handed RBK) golfer reading this that can help me out...My left foot is my front foot, so when I swing, I can't really pivot that foot at all.  I'm not sure if this is something I just need to practice, or if I need to adjust my swing somehow, but I think this is the main reason I slice so many shots off to the right.

If anyone actually read this whole blog, thanks, I'm proud of you for sticking with it!

Kris