Anyone for Golf?

When we get together we normally play our favourite game: football. Now whether it was because we had a few injuries or whether we just fancied a change I do not know, but for some reason this time we decided to play golf. Not the real thing you understand but "pitch & putt", which is almost the real thing but the holes are not quite so long. "Golf??!!" I hear you cry. "But isn't that for retired executives?". Well, maybe it does have that reputation, but we all really enjoyed ourselves and learnt a lot too. Our progress can be attributed to our golfing expert, Chidabhas, who also seems to be an expert at pretty much any sport I can think of. Our first stop was the driving range where we had 20 balls to perfect our technique. For many it was the first time - and it showed. Balls went flying all over the place, but rarely where they were meant to be going. Sometimes the ball would be missed altogether!

On my first few attempts I just tried to wallop the ball as hard as I could - with little success. It was then explained to me that if you had the right technique you didn't have to hit it to hard. How true that was! For my next shot I tried to do everything right, but, crucially, I didn't try to hit it too hard. In fact I just totally relaxed and hit it perfectly. Wow! What a great feeling that was! Hmmm, I was beginning to get hooked...

We then proceeded to play all nine holes, which ranged from about 100 to 150 yards. We all laughed hysterically whenever someone messed-up a shot and tried not to get too upset when we messed-up our own shots! Occasionally someone would do a fantastic shot and we would all appreciate it like anything. My favourite shot was actually my first shot on hole 1. Somehow everything went perfectly and the ball landed nicely on the green. All my friends were seriuosly impressed with my first ever real golfing shot. Unfortunately, it all went downhill from then on... My funniest moment was watching Steve try to do a delicate chip shot onto the green only to mis-hit the ball and see it move about 1 foot and then fall back down to the point where he first hit it. Not only that but he then continued to repeat the exact same shot another 4 times! All in all we had a great time and no-one suffered any injuries, and hey, I didn't feel totally exhausted after playing for three hours (unlike football). Hmmm, maybe we should play this again sometime...

more golfing photos