Bring A Friend Day (29 March 2010)

The EC LUGGers had our first official session Monday afternoon at Cottonwood GC. It was 'Bring A Friend Day', and the group was big enough to liven up the scene even though it was the first workday of the week. Coach Mary gathered the LUGGers over at the practice green soon after 4PM to start working on basic putting mechanics and distance judging before sorting the group into teams of two to practice holing out short putts and a playing with few other fun drills.


Assisting Coach Mary was Coach Pat Beilke, who drove all the way down from Carlsbad to be with us. After a brief water break everybody moved over to the west putting green for a testily fun duel with the obstacle course the mad golf coaches had thought up: 9 improvised putting holes (actually 6 putting holes and 3 balance and ball tossing stations) set to par 27. There is no telling how many of the EC LUGGers will one day walk on the inside of the roped out country club playing for millions on the LPGA Tour, but one thing for sure is many LUGGers sure can toss their dimply little white ball in a way that would make a softball coach salivate.
By the end of the day the group had learned a few things (aside from the fact that chocolate brownie bar and tangerines make for really great snacks in warm weather) like how to judge their putt and make good contact with the ball (and, hopefully, that the sound of the ball bouncing merrily against the inside of the cup after a well executed putting stroke is a really wickedly satisfying thing!).

And since we were all keen on joining the rank of the respectable seasoned golfers, a few basic course etiquette were also mentioned, of course, like:
1. Where to stand when another golfer is prepared to make her stroke (either opposite her front or away to her back.... and taking care that one's shadow is not visible to the person or on her presumed ball path)
2. The order of play (the person who shot the lowest score on the last hole gets to start first, and then the one whose ball is further from the hole gets to play the next shot first)

The good places to stand are were the orange circles are in the photo, taking care, of course, that your shadow doesn't fall across the player's line of putt (the imaginary blue line)

Everybody also got a little LPGA-USGA rules booklet as souvenir at the end of the obstacle course challenge. It might not be as good a read as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows or The Spyglass Cup are, but it has Snoopy on the cover and the rules it prescribes are quite a bit easier for us muggles to practice than Hogwarts homework magic is, so hopefully our EC LUGGers will know a few more golf rules from it when they show up for the next event, 'Golf Ball Egg Hunt', on April 5th from 4-6PM... I'm betting a chocolaty rabbit's ear that that will come in handy for scoring well next week!