How Did You Get Your Spouse to Play Golf?

[paininthenuts]

Sorry, this thread caught my eyes, and I have to comment. Everyone I play with plays golf to get away from the wife, and in some case kids. Why the hell would any bloke want his old woman to play golf with him. Is it that he doesn't get nagged enough at home, is it that he thinks she is having an affair with the postman, or is it she hasn't got enough house work to do?

 

Don't get me wrong, I love my wife, but not enough to spoil golf !!

Honestly, totally confused 

[boogielicious]

6 minutes ago, paininthenuts said:

Sorry, this thread caught my eyes, and I have to comment. Everyone I play with plays golf to get away from the wife, and in some case kids. Why the hell would any bloke want his old woman to play golf with him. Is it that he doesn't get nagged enough at home, is it that he thinks she is having an affair with the postman, or is it she hasn't got enough house work to do?

 

Don't get me wrong, I love my wife, but not enough to spoil golf !!

Honestly, totally confused 

Sorry you get nagged at home. I don't. I enjoy doing things with my wife. I also enjoy playing with my buddies. It is just more people to play with for me.

[Patch]

I went with "other". As we started taking more road trips, I would play golf, and my wife would read books. At some point she decided to ride with me. She found that the scenery and and meeting other folks was a good thing. She also liked driving the cart. 

It was not long before we started running into "pay to ride" and her having to have "her own clubs" to go on the course with me. Of course this led to "if they are going to charge me, and make me have clubs, I might as well play too" thinking on her part. That's basically what got us playing golf together. 

 

[alfriday]

My wife and I belong to a club that has Friday Night Couples Two Balls.  Three couples to a team.  The events are alternate shot between men and women.  Often, the event will be a best shot, three women hit, take the best shot, then the three men hit.  We can arrange a team to play, or we can just show up and get placed on a team.  Most of our couple friends take part.

 

It is a low pressure way to start playing.  A bad shot is no big deal.  The one rule for most couples is to have fun and not get too serious.  Albeit, there are a few couples and groups that are out to win.  

 

My wife had never played golf the first time we played in the two ball.  She made an 8 foot putt for longest putt on the hole and won $5.  We still have the $5 in a scrapbook.  After a few months of playing in the two balls, my wife started playing with me at night and with her friends in the mornings.     

[GolfLug]

My wife has taking interest in the last year or so after being married for 12 years. She is a complete beginner and not hooked or anything but gets out with me for a nice fair weather 9 hole thing here and there. It is another venue for us to spend time together. We even have a bit of travel golf together under our belt when we met @DaveP043 and his wife down in PH last Thanksgiving.

In my CC league I play lot of experienced couples who are there together every weekend and more. They do fine and even great once the less experienced spouse becomes just another partner eventually and you are not having to be a constant mentor/teacher in the ways of golf.

I highly recommend. She/he will have a better appreciation of the endeavor in general but I also support completely those who feel that it is their time to be with their friends away from family. Really no wrong approaches here.  

[Lihu]

My wife signed up my kids for lessons along with her friend's kids. After that everyone in my extended family also got into golf. I didn't really like golf all that much at the time, but my easy access shooting range shut down and my archery club got into a fight with the previous mayor of the city. That mayor put stupid restrictions on shooting times. So, I took up golf as a past time since everyone else in my family was doing it.

However, I hated my swing, hated that my instructors couldn't make the swing "feel right", hated golf, didn't want to do it, but everyone else was doing it so if I wanted to spend time with them then I had to be at the course(s) anyway. So, I had to learn it, and the fact that I hated not doing something correctly even more drove me to improve. It was just pure frustration. Hated it. Felt like crap.

The golf swing always feels wrong, but when it's really wrong it feels like crap. I can see why some people break or throw their clubs.

Hated it. Hated it all the way up to 2 years ago. Then I started to like golf because my swing was not total crap.

So, to make a long story short, I'm the spouse that got into golf because of their family.

Now, I've learned to make a reasonable swing only so I can put up with this game, and I have to admit that it's getting more fun.

[phillyk]

2 hours ago, paininthenuts said:

Sorry, this thread caught my eyes, and I have to comment. Everyone I play with plays golf to get away from the wife, and in some case kids. Why the hell would any bloke want his old woman to play golf with him. Is it that he doesn't get nagged enough at home, is it that he thinks she is having an affair with the postman, or is it she hasn't got enough house work to do?

 

Don't get me wrong, I love my wife, but not enough to spoil golf !!

Honestly, totally confused 

This is true with most of my golfing buddies.  Whereas me, I was already playing golf nearly everyday when I met my wife.  She knew what she was signing up for when we got married.  She is the type that doesn't like to teach or be taught by siblings or close friends.  She's afraid of getting upset or angry because of frustration with learning the skill.  Although, I've taught brand new golfers to experienced ones, she thinks I won't have the patience for her.  At the end of the day, she told me that golf is my thing.  She may go out and drive the cart around as I play, but she has no real interest in playing golf, except for mini golf.  I'm hoping that one day I can convince her to do it.

[Lihu]

15 minutes ago, phillyk said:

This is true with most of my golfing buddies.  Whereas me, I was already playing golf nearly everyday when I met my wife.  She knew what she was signing up for when we got married.  She is the type that doesn't like to teach or be taught by siblings or close friends.  She's afraid of getting upset or angry because of frustration with learning the skill.  Although, I've taught brand new golfers to experienced ones, she thinks I won't have the patience for her.  At the end of the day, she told me that golf is my thing.  She may go out and drive the cart around as I play, but she has no real interest in playing golf, except for mini golf.  I'm hoping that one day I can convince her to do it.

I can relate to that, and I understand the frustration of learning the swing.

It's totally weird that it's a really simple motion, but one of the hardest to achieve. So, when someone tells you you're doing something wrong before the "singularity of the golf swing", the first response you'll make is negative to extremely negative. Really negative because it's coupled with the fact that it doesn't feel right anyway. You really don't need to be told that. . .

Once you get past this "technical singularity", if someone tells you you're doing something wrong, it's like "Oh, yeah, thanks." and you move on. . .

[WUTiger]

While we were dating, my wife knew I caddied and played golf, so she went with me to a U.S. open district qualifier and a minor tournament. 

After we got married we got her some clubs, and she played semi-regularly in the early years. She then played a couple of times a year for a long time. Recently we got her custom-fit for some Adams clubs, and she will play in the women's league now that she's retired. 

[paininthenuts]

22 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Sorry you get nagged at home. I don't. I enjoy doing things with my wife. I also enjoy playing with my buddies. It is just more people to play with for me.

So you have the only wife in the entire universe that doesn't nag, well done. You either found a real gem or a transsexual 

This will make you laugh. My best mate is a club pro. He played off of scratch at the age of 14, and he won the British junior open at the age of 16. He was on holiday in Palm Springs and playing 18 holes with his wife. She was playing badly, so he attempted to give her some advice. She lost her temper and said "well your not playing so well yourself". He told me he wouldn't have minded, but he was 4 under at the time 

[Patch]

On 2/16/2017 at 8:43 AM, phillyk said:

This is true with most of my golfing buddies.  Whereas me, I was already playing golf nearly everyday when I met my wife.  She knew what she was signing up for when we got married.  She is the type that doesn't like to teach or be taught by siblings or close friends.  She's afraid of getting upset or angry because of frustration with learning the skill.  Although, I've taught brand new golfers to experienced ones, she thinks I won't have the patience for her.  At the end of the day, she told me that golf is my thing.  She may go out and drive the cart around as I play, but she has no real interest in playing golf, except for mini golf.  I'm hoping that one day I can convince her to do it.

My much better half knew I was an out of doors, sports minded guy when we met, and married. She was a track person who ran stuff and pole vaulted. We enjoyed doing things together, when our schedules allowed for time together.  

We took a different way of getting her into the golf game. Her first two clubs were a putter, and a wedge. That was her bag make up. 

She started out putting for par. Being we were both a little competitive, I would play from the tips, and she would start from a spot furthest from the cup on the green. Once she was proficient at putting, she moved off the green to use her wedge. 

This served two purposes. One, she stayed interested in the game, partly because she would kick my butt on most of the holes. Second, it kept me playing well to avoid getting my butt kicked on all the holes. 

Once she started breaking par with her wedge/putter, we added more clubs, and she moved further a way from the green. This was a win-win situation for both of us.