SOME GOLF RELATED SHOTS OF MY LI'L ONE

Note: This is again an older post which I have copied here from another blog of mine as it is relevant here. 

The snaps above were taken in MEPTA(Mauribagh Environmental Park and Training Area), Lucknow sometime beginning of the year 2009.

The ones below were taken during her second GolfRite US Kids Tournament held at LGC(Lucknow Golf Club), on 27 Dec 2008.

She did pretty okay in the local tours. But, if anyone does have some suggestions to keep her interest from fading, I will be more than happy to recieve them. Thanks.

Daddy Caddie and Daughter Dear During the Tournament

 

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This snap below was taken after she played a tournament in Kolkata(Calcutta) on 3 Jan 09. Saurav Ganguly was the chief guest. Somehow, I managed to get a snap of my daughter with him. No, truthfully he readily agreed when I requested. Thanks to him.

 

At that particular moment she didn't know about Ganguly much , now she knows a little, but I am sure she is going to cherish this photograph later on in life.

WHAT'S WITH THE BELLY PUTTER?

The proposed ban on anchoring of belly putters by R&A and USGA seems to have brought up a few subtle debates. I, for one haven't used or seen a belly putter(except on television)! So, my opinion on belly putting shouldn't matter to anyone,for or against, yet I seem to have one and you want to read on?

The belly putter definitely looks unwieldy when I watch the tour pros use it and I cringe when my favourite professionals walk on to the green with a long, complex(to me) belly putter. When they walk around to read the slopes of the green, I feel like easing it out of their hand through the television! Anchoring against the belly? Nah! Not for me.

My thoughts aside, I wonder how easy it is in reality to use a belly putter. The talk is that few of the tour players like Ernie Els, Adam Scott and Keegan Bradley have won major tournaments using this unwieldy belly putters and I think they wouldn't like to let the belly putters out of their bag ever!

I also wonder whether a proposed rule change can be revoked because of protests. Sure R&A and USGA would have done some substantial research into this to come out with such a proposal and now to hear all the nos and nahs may be a little frustrating, I guess.

Nevertheless, we will have to wait quite a while to see what the players want, how the PGA will be affected, how and when USGA and R&A will tackle it. Meanwhile, the discussions, the debates, suggestions and opinions will be criss-crossing hazards, bunkers, oceans and greens all across the World of Golf!

Apart from the touring pros, I wonder how the average amateur golfers feel about banning the 'anchoring' of belly putters. Sure, belly putters are not proposed to be banned, it is just the anchoring of belly putters that is not accepted by R&A and USGA. So, assuming I am talking to club golfers, weekend golfers and hobby golfers, how do you feel about the belly putter that is slowly causing ripples across the clear ocean?



 

Should Golfers Have to Pass an Etiquette Test? | Golf for Beginners

Should Golfers Have to Pass an Etiquette Test? | Golf for Beginners

DUCKS, DEER AND KANGAROOS ON FAIRWAY!

Did you read about those Kangaroos that crossed the fairway? If not, read it here.

It happened during an LPGA tour in Australia very recently according to the post.

How wonderful! I do not know how the players and organizers felt about it, I sure felt good to read the post and I am sure I would have enjoyed the sight if I had been there.But nobody let me.

That in turn reminded me about all those animals and birds that I have seen on golf-courses in India.Ducks and Geese waddle about in many of the courses, Deer I have seen in MEPTA (Army Golf Course),Lucknow. I have seen peacocks too in the same course. A huge snake slithered by in Tollygunge Golf Course, Kolkata. Snake holes? I have seen them on almost all the courses I have been to. May be, the snakes missed my eyes!But, these are all common in India as Alligators are common in Florida!(correct me if I am wrong)

What seems more unusual is that Yaks are common in some courses in Sikkim(India). I read about it somewhere that they in fact play hosts to players and take them around the golf course. What an alternative to Golf Buggy! In Wellington Gymkhana Club, the biggest complaint of the green keepers is that there are plenty of Bison and Wild Boars which have a free access to the fairways. But, these animals I believe are not that interested in the fairways as they are about the Greens!

The place where I stay right now has another Army Golf Course called the Mountain View Environment Park and who do you think are the regular visitors? Elephants! I am not joking, it is true. I am not an eye-witness, but we heard the caddies talk a lot about them.And one fine evening, my husband had seen a huge tusker on one of the greens! What an amazing sight it would have been!

A BOOK ON GOLF I LIKED

I recently came across a book while I was browsing on Amazon.com. Thankfully Amazon allows you to get a look into most of the books by getting a sample totally free of cost. Though the sample just contains a few pages, it is enough to know the style of writing, what the book is going to talk about, etc.So, I got a sample of this book titled,'How Short Hitting, Bad Golfers Break 90 All the Time' written by Fred Fields. Sure the title sounded as though it has been written for me.Of course I can pardon the author for not making it 100 instead of 90! He may not know that people like me exist!

Well, the sample was all fine and so I ordered for the kindle version of the book and Voila I had it on my tablet in minutes.I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I  read it aloud (relevant chapters) once for my daughter and once for my husband! Yes, definitely the relevant chapters were slightly different for both of them.

Do not ask whether I have managed to break 90...I haven't been on the course since I got the book. Even I had been, my aim would have been to break 110 first! So, does this book help me in my golfing thoughts? Sure it will help me change my thoughts when I am next on the golf course. This book has been written by a golfer who is quite into his 70s, so I know his experience on the golf course is quite high.Moreover, he has written the whole book very interestingly with logical reasoning behind how one can break 90 with ease.

I will recommend it to anyone who is a high handicapper who has got the right swings but not the right scores! Happy Golfing!

GOLF AND ITS LITTLE DIMPLED BALL

Golf is a game of madness. Its full of fun and triple the frustration. The little dimpled ball seems to always tease you.

It is about this wonderful game where a perfectly sensible person goes around hunting for a little white ball.

I started playing golf about 3 years ago. The first two years I chased after that white ball with all the clubs I could find in my bag. I still took century plus whenever I attempted. Then I gave up on the pretext of concentrating on my budding child's budding game of golf! 

This game is indeed frustrating for many reasons...firstly, the golf set isn't very easy to carry and walk around, that too we have to do it over 6000 yards! Then, like other sports, you cannot go in shorts or track suits.To top it all off, there are plenty of rules to follow. There are rules within rules. To know them all is a big task. With all these 'not so lovely' points, this game somehow has a tendency to draw you back.

So, I got drawn and now, after a year's break, I am back at it again. Can you believe it? I am worse off than before or it could mean the dimpled one has become even more smarter. I walk to the ball fully confident that I can send it airborne with ease, yet when I stand over it and stare down at it, it stares right back at me and sends some funny thoughts directly to my brain. Then, I am not so sure...I cannot back off as I am mesmerized and in a trance I go ahead and swing at the ball to design a perfectly straight shot - only that the golf ball refuses to fly, rolls ripping across the green grass and slows down to rest about 50 yards from where it started.

I look at my club, do a practice swing to see what went wrong, put on a false smile on my face and walk down 50 yards wanting to teach that golf ball a lesson. My partners, in the meantime say some encouraging words and I walk on brave and confident once again...only till I reach the golf ball.

The whole process repeats till it finally finds the hole as the hole.

Whatever happens, I am not quitting this time. I am going to break hundred, of that I am sure. After how many more years, I am not too sure. Till then, I am going to shine and clean the dimples and beg them to listen to me and obey me someday! Well, I think I should more importantly take some lessons.

As I am not so sure of the golf ball obeying me soon, I have decided to read the rules of golf in the meantime so that I know when and how I can drop the ball as I often find myself in such situations.