(and it’s not the time of day her matches are played)
I’ll set the scene for you, because I know not many parents are golf parents. It’s 2 pm. It’s hot because we live in Florida. My husband and I are on the golf cart with a cooler filled with ice-cold water and Gatorades, high-protein snacks, handheld fans, and cooling neck towels a-plenty for our daughter and the girls she’s golfing with if they need them (they need them). The sun is beating down on us, but it’s nothing compared to the sun beating down on the girls because they have to use their pushcarts and walk the course for 18 holes.
But our girl? Our girl is out there on the course looking like she was born for this.
Golf season is officially here, and we could not be more excited. We love watching her golf, and she loves golfing. I never thought I’d enjoy watching golf, but there’s nothing quite like being on the course watching our daughter play. It is my favorite. In honor of her sophomore year golf season starting – and her second year playing Varsity golf – here are my three favorite things about being a golf mom.
Ava’s quiet confidence
Golf is certainly not a loud sport, but I’m not talking about spectating. I’m talking about her confidence on the course. It takes a great deal of it to be a high school golfer who is accustomed to practicing with her girlfriends, but who doesn’t get to golf with them at matches. She golfs with two to three other girls every match, each from different schools…and usually all older and more experienced than she.
It takes a tremendous amount of confidence to be smaller than the other girls and to have less upper body strength, but to get out there and play her heart out knowing these girls have years on her. Golf forces patience, and it requires confidence. A single bad tee off can easily throw the entire hole off if you let it get to you. But watching her over the years as she’s learned to be more confident in herself and focus on her game has been tremendous.
The ride between holes
High school golfers don’t get to use golf carts. They walk. They have push carts with umbrellas and fans and cupholders and all kinds of fun gadgets, but it’s the ride between holes I like. If all the parents of all the girls golfing a hole together are present, we are allowed to ride our kids between holes. That conversation is always my favorite. It’s usually complimentary to the other golfers, but sometimes it’s a lot of, “OMG WTF DID YOU SEE HER SHE SAID 6 AND SHE SHOT A CIRCLE EIGHT!” We laugh a lot, we hydrate, and my husband makes sure he uses this time to remind Ava of everything her instructor teaches her at lessons the rest of the year.
Watching Ava handle hard shots
The thing about golf is that you have a home course on which you practice daily. You become so utterly familiar with every hole, every dip, every shot, every sand trap, and you are your best self when you have a home match.
But when you are golfing at someone else’s home course? It’s a different story. It’s a course you’ve likely never played. The home team knows it like the back of their hand and has every advantage. Watching Ava put herself out of her comfort zone to play a course she’s never been on, handling difficult shots or different game rules from different schools, is always exciting. She handles it well (most of the time).
But it’s watching her when shots are hard, when mistakes are made, and when she realizes exactly what she did and plots how she’s going to turn a bad shot around that makes golf so much fun. I often find myself watching her take things in stride and wishing I handled life more like she handles a bad shot on the course.
Final thoughts
Golf is a time-consuming sport. It’s long days. It’s hot. It requires a lot of packing just to sit and watch (Sunscreen, bug spray, cooling towels, so many bottles of water, so many snacks). It requires talking to other parents and helping look for lost balls in high grass and wondering if heat stroke is imminent and how long before you actually die from it, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I love watching my girl golf.
Tiffany Raiford 