Wife golf

[mdl]

My wife is 56 years old and reasonably athletic. She likes to try new things, in particular sports. She bikes and windsurfs too. She does know some women who play and if she took up golf they would include her. I have played a lot of golf with men. Never women. I think it would be frustrating to have a 375 yard par 4 when the longest shot you could hit would be 150. I like the idea of a par 3 pitch and putt course to start with.

You should be fine then.  Remember that usually there are women's/front tees where there aren't usually 375 yard par 4s.  The longest par 4 at one of my home courses (462 yards uphill from the back tees) is 371 yards from the front tees and is marked as a par 5 for the women.

My wife finally asked to start playing a little over a year ago.  I got her a cheap full starter set (Alien, SW-5h I think, plus 5w, 3w, and driver) for $100.  She isn't super athletic, though I think she's more so than she gives herself credit for.  More often than not it's just that she's embarrassed about performing poorly and so not concentrating on the task at hand!  Anyway, because of that the plan was to take her to the range enough times that she wouldn't feel super embarrassed at the local par 32 9-hole course.  Was going pretty well, thought I might take her out after another 3-4 range trips, until she got pregnant...

My plan at the time was giving her very basic coaching on the range (posture, grip, ultra basics of mechanics), which she responded to pretty well.  I was gonna do that until she felt reasonably confident that she could at least make decent contact not too low a percent of the time.  Then get at least a session or two on the putting and chipping greens.  I went that order just cause for her swinging the club a full swing and hitting the ball and hearing the sound and seeing it go (relatively) far was the initial fun/draw for her, so I wasn't going to put her off it by forcing starting with short game.

In general I'd just say you know your wife.  Introduce it however you think she'll find most fun and make her most likely to wanna continue.  Keep it fun for her.  If she's jazzed learning to get putts and pitches close/in the hole, great.  Start off the putting green with a wedge and let her learn about contact and face angle there.  If she's bored by that and would rather have a nice day on the course and try to hit a few decent shots, just get her making contact on the range and not hitting putts 2x too far and bring her on the course with generous foot wedges, pick up after a few errant shots off/near the tee and drop a ball at her PW distance...

Lastly, if she gets the bug, get her lessons with a (good!) pro ASAP!

[inthehole]

Another idea - you can call your course & ask them when is the LEAST CROWDED time of day  - maybe you could rearrange your schedules so you can play without other people pushing you & the self consciousness that comes from that.     If you can play when there's nobody around, it's way more fun for a beginner

[MS256]

The posts about not teaching your wife reminded me of a couple that my wife and I used to play with.

He was around a 3 or 4 handicap, had been playing golf a long time and knew a lot about the game and how to go about shooting a good score. The main reason he didn't have an even better handicap was that he was more addicted to hunting and fishing than he was to golf and would often go months at a time without playing.

She was a decent 80s player with a pretty good swing and quite a bit of distance for a woman.

The funny part was that she absolutely didn't want him to tell her anything on the course and would quickly tell him as much whenever he made a suggestion.

She began to take lessons from a local pro and would get on the first tee box and announce that "This is what my pro taught me today."

99% of the time whatever it was would be the exact same thing I had heard her husband tell her too many times to count.

He would just look at me and shake his head and roll his eyes as if to say "I think I've heard that tip before somewhere."

[mikeylikesgolf]

I am surprising my wife with a new inexpensive set of golf clubs from amazon

Wilson Women's Hope complete golf set.

I am hoping to take her to the course with her new clubs soon!!!

Is anyone familiar with the golf clubs I ordered?

[rehmwa]

HA - she likes the clothes (I think they look like old people clothes...but whatever makes her happy)

AND - we had to go buy another bag right away even though the one that came with the beginner set was just fine.

note about everything costing 2x...yes..  example - I had to replace my grips last year....she wanted new ones also even though the set was new and she had no clue about grips, grip sizing, etc even to assess if she needed a change yet.....  Learn to do your own maintenance

[WUTiger]

See if you can find a local golf clinic. A clinic provides group lessons for beginners, and often lends the beginners clubs to get them started. Clinics don't cost very much - a tie-in with "grow the game" efforts. Often, they have special ones just for women.

As for clubs...  She might do best with petite versions of women's clubs - shafts are shorter, and club lie a bit flatter. These are designed specifically for women 5-foot-2 and under. Adams Idea boxed set features petite versions in their Almond and Blackberry sets. See a golf shop to find different petite offerings.

[newtogolf]

I love my wife dearly but I like that we have our own interests and hobbies too.  I wouldn't discourage her from taking up golf but I also won't encourage it.  I work from home and we do a lot of things together including dinner and events at the club.  Golf is "me" time and I enjoy just hanging out with the guys, swapping stories and having a few laughs.

[jakepalm]

My girlfriend hates golf..

[billchao]

My girlfriend hates golf..

Girlfriends are easier to replace than wives ;-)

[crunchygolfer]

Lots of great ideas.  I captured my experience with introducing golf to my wife on my blog here http://crunchygolfer.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/introduce-her-golf/

[Patch]

Here is what I did, and worked out perfectly for my wife and I. My wife was a non golfer, but she liked to ride in the cart with me. Problem was, some courses we visited, even if we offered to pay, would not let her ride, with out having her own a set of clubs. So we bought her a bag, and put a putter in it. That's it, just a putter. Oh, and few of those pink lady balls. Her golfing consisted of just putting, and to make it interesting, we made up our own little competition. She would drop a ball on the green at a point farthest from the pin. Her "putting" par was what ever that hole's par was. 3, 4, or 5. If it took me 5 strokes from the tee box to hole out, she could win the hole by just holing out in less than 5 putts. At first we gave her a putting handicap, which she quickly made obsolete. Eventually she became a very good putter, and it was getting almost impossible for me win. So we then added a chipping club, with the same rules. She would drop a ball 10' off the green, and chip/putt from there. Long story short, she eventually started playing from 150 yard marker, and/or par threes in that same yardage range. She uses a 7 wood. She was happy, I was happy, and we never held anyone up while she was learning the game.

[mikeylikesgolf]

That sounds like what we are doing. I took my wife to the course with a putter and wedge. She seemed to enjoy it. I am hoping to do more and continue like you and your wife are doing.

[rehmwa]

She hit her first birdie today - short Par 5 very first hole of the day, just a great 3rd shot to the green.  She hasn't even gotten par on a 5 yet.  (one par 4, and a handful of 3's)

I haven't seen a grownup that giddy/happy in a LONG time

pretty cool - 51 on the front, but she melted down on the back 9

she'll break 100 this year.....I'm sure of it