The Jay's Days: Fore!

My husband is a pretty good golfer and lately he's been working on his game a little more. I'm a pathetic golfer! I took lessons with a sorority sister shortly after Jim and I were married and the instructor laughed when he said, "Show me your swing" and we thought he meant dancing! Oh, and we learned the hard way that you're supposed to strap in your golf clubs into the cart before you pull away from the clubhouse! Yea, they got a laugh out of those sorority girls! I haven't really hit the links since! But we decided that with four boyz - we've got a built in foursome so it's time for them to learn the game of golf. (Who knows, maybe I'll take lessons again sometime!?)

We signed them up for a week long "golf camp" at a local 3-par course called "ShorTees". Appropriately named all around. I had to talk the owner into letting us "play up" and have Griffin and Fletcher join the older boyz since they were younger. The "little linkers" in the 4-6 year old age group were to play for just an hour were the "Junior Linkers" ages 7-14 were able to play for two hours.

I was at the window to the golf shack telling the older gentleman how grown up and well behaved my 6 and almost 5 year old were while Fletcher was literally climbing the wall to get to the bucket of golf balls on the countertop! He was mid-fit when I handed him a ShorTees pencil in an attempt to distract him but the fit escalated and he was proving himself "Little Linkers" worthy, if even that? For some reason that I've yet to understand, the guy agreed to let them all be in the junior level class. (Maybe because it cost a little more money?) We'll call it grace.

Our cousins from California were coming to town that same week so they signed up to join us, too.

The week actually turned out to be a really great week and after some coaching not to make divots on the green, Fletcher held his own and even made par on a few holes! Kiefer made par a few times, too. Griffin, although a bit more unpredictable in the direction his ball would fly, really enjoyed it, too.

Three fourths of my kids enjoyed it. The oldest wasn't completely inspired by the game, but he saw it through and hopefully someday will appreciate that we made him learn the game of golf. If not for the social aspects, at least he can appreciate the well manicured greens and dream about the tractors and lawn mowers that manicured the grass so perfectly.

The golf camp happened to occur the same week of Fletcher's fifth birthday. It was charming that the old men who put on the camp led everyone in song to wish our little linker a happy birthday and you know what he got as a gift? That ding dang golf ball that he was having a fit about the day we registered!

I guess that's the advantage of turning from Fore to Five during golf camp!