Goofing off on the golf course
Siddharth Mundra, WG'07
Issue date: 11/20/06 Section: Insider
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I always wondered how a game that involved chasing a ball the size of a lemon across six thousand yards could be so addictive to millions. So in keeping with the mindset at Wharton of learning new things I decided to check this game out. About a month back I began taking weekly classes at the driving range on the outskirts of Philly. I learnt early on that if you play golf you've gotta have a car - it was quite a pain getting to the driving range!
Golf is a hard game to learn and master. I realized this fairly quickly when making contact between the club and the ball was itself a challenge. Unlike other racquet sports, golf is not very forgiving. There is this tiny sweet spot that if you miss, the ball can go just about anywhere. Even if you are lucky to hit the sweet spot, the chances of getting the ball straight are pretty minuscule. Hmmm…so if you thought that playing baseball or cricket would put you at a golf advantage, then you are wrong. But practice does help - by the end of the golf class my success rate had gone up from 0% to 5% (You can see that I am an optimist). Oh well! Apparently it takes years of practice before you get your swing right.
Golfers advised me that the best way to learn golf is by playing on a golf course. So when the opportunity to play in the Wharton Cup at the Tattersall Golf Club came up, I decided to put this advice into action. While signing up there was a column on 'average score' where after much thought I typed in 'high'. I took the safe haven on a scramble format where the best shot (among the four) is chosen for each drive so even if you are horribly bad the only impact would be that your shot would not be chosen. But because there weren't enough participants, the Cup was postponed for spring and it was turned into an informal game. Trying to hit shots off the grass is so much more difficult than doing it off the mat in the driving range. And though the course is very beautiful, it is a hard one - especially for a beginner. And yes, I lost a lot of balls - some in the trees, others in water and the rest in piles of leaves. But after much huffing and puffing, and help from my mates Vivek Iyer and Andy Day, I made it to the 18th hole with a fabulous score of 132. At least I was not wrong in marking my score as 'high'!
Anyways, despite all the trials and tribulations of learning golf, I definitely like the game. It is going to take me many years to bring down my score to a healthy level and I don't see myself getting too much time when I begin work, but I hope to continue making best use of my opportunities to learn.
Golf is a hard game to learn and master. I realized this fairly quickly when making contact between the club and the ball was itself a challenge. Unlike other racquet sports, golf is not very forgiving. There is this tiny sweet spot that if you miss, the ball can go just about anywhere. Even if you are lucky to hit the sweet spot, the chances of getting the ball straight are pretty minuscule. Hmmm…so if you thought that playing baseball or cricket would put you at a golf advantage, then you are wrong. But practice does help - by the end of the golf class my success rate had gone up from 0% to 5% (You can see that I am an optimist). Oh well! Apparently it takes years of practice before you get your swing right.
Golfers advised me that the best way to learn golf is by playing on a golf course. So when the opportunity to play in the Wharton Cup at the Tattersall Golf Club came up, I decided to put this advice into action. While signing up there was a column on 'average score' where after much thought I typed in 'high'. I took the safe haven on a scramble format where the best shot (among the four) is chosen for each drive so even if you are horribly bad the only impact would be that your shot would not be chosen. But because there weren't enough participants, the Cup was postponed for spring and it was turned into an informal game. Trying to hit shots off the grass is so much more difficult than doing it off the mat in the driving range. And though the course is very beautiful, it is a hard one - especially for a beginner. And yes, I lost a lot of balls - some in the trees, others in water and the rest in piles of leaves. But after much huffing and puffing, and help from my mates Vivek Iyer and Andy Day, I made it to the 18th hole with a fabulous score of 132. At least I was not wrong in marking my score as 'high'!
Anyways, despite all the trials and tribulations of learning golf, I definitely like the game. It is going to take me many years to bring down my score to a healthy level and I don't see myself getting too much time when I begin work, but I hope to continue making best use of my opportunities to learn.
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