WomenInGolf Newsletter No 2

Happy New Year to you all and hope that you have had a wonderful Christmas and New Year break!!

Following our successful WomenInGolf Newsletter No1 promotion, we will be running a similar promotion for this edition of the Newsletter. If you have missed out on the Newsletter No1 promotion, do not miss out on this one!

Newsletter No2 Promotion

We are working very hard on increasing the distribution of our Newsletters and to increase awareness of our freely accessible website, WomenInGolf.com.au. But most importantly, we are promoting women golfers and emphasising the importance golf lessons can make to your game, whether your are a beginner or an experienced player. Your contribution to this end will be greatly appreciated and should be duly rewarded!

Here is our promotion: Provide us with a minimum of 5 or more email addresses of your friends or associates whom you think will be interested in our Newsletter and websites, you will receive a prize consists of three golf lessons from any of our participating ladies professionals or your nominated professional near you.

More promotion: Currently our participating ladies professionals are primarily in Sydney. We are working on involving more ladies professionals in other States. If you know of one, please email us their contact number. Better still, get their personal profile to be included in the WomenInGolf Women Pros page, and you will receive a prize consists of three golf lessons!

This promotion is only valid in Australia and may only be entered once for this newsletter.

However, if you do not have 5 or more email addresses, do not worry! You are not going to miss out. If you provide us with 1 to 4 email addresses, you will receive a prize of three WomenInGolf golf balls.

Prize Winner
Here is what one of our golf lesson winners has to say about his very first golf lessons with one of our participating professionals, Sally Smith:

Having actively played in a range of sports which includes soccer, rugby, squash, badminton, field hockey etc until my late thirties, I turned to golf early this year to keep the mind and spirit in tuned with health and well being. My first brush with golf came last year and the experience was not an exciting one. I was very disappointed very quickly because no matter what I did or how hard I hit the ball the golf ball refused to pick up height - it just rolled along the fairway. I quickly realised that unlike most other sports, without coaching, I was not going to get very far in this game.

Courtesy of Womeningolf I got my first coaching session with Sally Smith at the Macquarie Driving Range in North Ryde. Very quickly Sally made me feel comfortable. By the end of the first lesson, I was able to hit the ball with some confidence, and most importantly, off the ground!! Sally provided with me notes that I refer to when I am practising in the range, which has helped me to improve enormously.

With the expert guidance from Sally and a lot of driving range practice, I can now hit the ball and drive it to a reasonable distance. My aim now is to focus on getting my setup right and work on being consistent. Once I have a handle on that aspect of the game, I will then work on positioning and accuracy.

I look forward to my next lesson, knowing that there is a lot to learn in the game of golf.

Kumar from Glenfield

Video

An excellent way to improve your handicap, or, for the beginners to improve your game. We have a video called Womens Golf by Jane Lock, which will help you to do just that. The good thing about a video is that you can watch it over and over again and practise the swing in front of the TV. It does not take the place of golf lessons, because a coach can look at your faults and correct it. However, a video can demonstrate to you the fundamentals of the swing and give you some drills to practice on. For only $27.95, it is a good investment for your game!

Coming Australian Ladies Tour

This February and March, look out for details of the Australian Ladies Tour events and results on WomenInGolf.com.au. We urge you to go and support our ladies professionals and watch them play.

Your News

Send us your news in Suggestions and we will include it in the next newsletter. It may be your club news from competitions, events you have on, open days you wish to promote, personal achievments, offers for visitors to play at your club, contact details of the social secretary, etc, etc. Anything you would like to share with the WomenInGolf community.

Starting to Play Golf

Recently, we have a lot of queries from potential golfers and beginners as to how to start to play the game of golf, rules and etiquettes and glossaries etc. As you can appreciate that there is a lot to learn in golf, we will try to provide as much information as possible. In this newsletter we have asked the pros to provide some information for the beginners,however, some suggestions are just as relivent to the experienced player. Read on.

From the Pros

ALWAYS WANT TO TAKE UP GOLF, BUT NOT SURE WHERE TO START
By Anne Rollo

It’s much easier than you think!!

FIRST OF ALL, GRAB A FRIEND
Everything is more fun with company. Once you have got the hang of it, you will also have someone to play a round of golf with. The first step is pretty obvious – get some help! Look up the yellow pages under golf coaches, golf ranges or golf courses and find a professional coach near you.

LESSONS
Ideally you should have a minimum of 5-6 lessons which will vary in cost, starting at about $35.00 for half an hour. ( Divide it by 2 if you share!) Golf is quite a technical game and there are more than on type of swing that you need to know to play a round of golf. You not only need to learn the basic swing, but other areas of the game such as chipping, putting and bunkers.

If you don’t have a friend to begin golf with, don’t worry. You can sign up for beginners’ course. They are very popular and it’s a great way to meet some future playing partners. It’s also cheaper; it is approximately $95.00 for 5 one-hour lesson over 5 weeks. (For example, at the Baulkham Hill Golf Range, telephone 9838 9787) Most beginners’ courses include the entire basics plus an explanation of the clubs, etiquette rules, use of a score card and much more. You don’t need any equipment at this stage as most places will provide it with the lessons, just a comfy pair of shoes, loose clothing, a hat and sunscreen in the summer.

YOU HAVE FINISH THE LESSONS, WHAT NOW!
You probably are very keen to get out onto the golf course , but hang on a minute! Give yourself some time at the golf range to practice what you’ve been taught so that you are not spending too much time thinking about the technique.

PLAYING ON THE COURSE
Your first time onto the course can be a bit daunting, so before you go, make sure that you are getting the ball up and away more often than not. This would take up to 6 months at practicing once or twice a week depending how quickly you are picking up the game. Some people will have success straight away and others will take a bit longer, so be patient.

YOU ARE ON THE FIRST TEE!!
To avoid your first foray onto the course being too overwhelming, here are some tips to remember:

• Tee your ball up the whole way round
• Call the following group through if you are slow
• Once you have had 10 swing on a hole, pick up your ball
• Stick to just playing nine holes for a while Most importantly, enjoy yourself.

I hope this has answered some of your questions on taking up golf. If not you can call me Anne Rollo on 0404 235 563. Good Luck.

BEGINNERS AND CLUB SELECTION
By Sally Smith

Many beginners come to me with a full set of clubs totally confused about what to use, and what to expect from each golf club.

Thirteen clubs and a putter is a standard set of clubs usually consisting of a: 1,3,5 wood, 3 iron through to 9 iron, pitching and sand wedge. It is difficult to decide what to use and when to use them and some of these clibs are more difficult to hit when you are still learning and developing a golf swing.

My suggestion to all beginners is to use some basic clubs for game play.

• Stick to one driving club – this should be a 5 wood or less.The 5 wood is the wood in your set that has the most loft and the shortest length. This combination makes it the easiest wood to hit.
• Select a basic playing or fairway club – something around a 5 iron. This is usually the blub you re most comfortable with. Generally when you are learning you don’t see a lot of difference in performance from 5 to 8 iron.
• Select 2 clubs for chipping – a 7 iron for the running chip shot and a wedge for the higher stopping shot.
• And of course the putter for the green.

Use this system on the golf course and as you gain confidence with other clubs add them into your game play. Hopefuly, this will cut down your confusion about club selection. For more advise contact Sally Smith on 0414 555 985.