After deciding to retire early following being made redundant, I decided I needed something to occupy my time. I used to play golf a bit when I was younger and thought this would be a good way to keep myself busy and also provide exercise too.
My first job was to go to the local driving range to see if I could still hit the ball OK. Happily I could, so I went to buy a cheap set of clubs. The best laid plans don’t always work out though and after trying out various ones I ended up spending far more than I intended but got a set that I liked.
The next question was where to play, I knew about a localish 9 hole course so I headed there, I had a couple of rounds but the course was in poor condition and very wet. I then found out about a privately owned non members course and tried that, it wasn’t bad but it was rather featureless and at £15 pound a round would prove expensive if I played more than a couple of times a week. So I thought I would enquire at local private courses. The nearest to home was literally round the corner so that was my first port of call, but although the professional told me they were keen to get new lady members the secretary was far from welcoming, just thrusting a membership form into my hand without any welcoming words.
I then remembered a course about 3 miles away that I had played years ago and went to enquire there, the pro asked for my name, address and phone number and a few days later I was invited to attend a new members meeting, where I was welcomed to the club. The fees were reasonable working out at only £10 a week and so I became a member of Ellesmere Golf Club.
I had been told at the welcome meeting that the ladies generally held a roll up on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. A roll up is when everyone turns up at the same time and then go out in drawn pairs, it’s a great way to meet the other members and is generally followed by lunch in the club house. So off I went, at little apprehensive, but everyone was very welcoming and I soon had loads of names to try and remember.
It was early March when I joined and the proper season had not yet started, and knowing that once people started playing in competitions, partners would be harder to find to decided to try and get a handicap so I could join in the competitions. Several of the ladies offered to play with me while I put the qualifying cards and as I hadn’t been playing very long, my scores were not great and I was given an initial handicap of 34.
I went on holiday before the season started but returned, looking forward to joining in.
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