I love a good, “I told you so,” moment.
For five years, I’ve attempted to explain to people just how much fun it is to watch our daughter’s golf matches. And this is coming from someone who enjoys playing golf, but I’d rather sit through a colonoscopy than watch golf on television. Can we say booooooring?
Five years of telling people that it’s not boring to watch our daughter’s matches. It’s actually one of the best feelings in the world. The camaraderie. The anticipation. The drama. The encouragement. The random solidarity you find with people you’ve never once met in your life before.
Finally, this week, our best friends looked us in the eye and told us they get it. They understand. Their son played in this first school golf match this week, and they felt all the same things we’ve been feeling – and failing to put into words – for the past five years. Naturally, this inspired me to show up with a Friday Four…and it’s my four favorite things about being a golf parent.
It is genuinely fun to watch.
I mean, I’m not interested in watching professionals play. Don’t care, won’t care, not my thing. However, watching teenage girls play? That’s where it’s at. The intensity. The anticipation. The focus. Watching them nail a drive like they’ve been doing this their entire lives? Love it. The collective feeling of “OMG will she recover?” from a bad shot…addicting. It is so much fun to watch.
And I should take a moment to explain how a school golf match works. Ava has ten girls on her team. Every match, the top five compete against other school golf teams. They’re ranked by seed (seed one, seed two, and so on). The bottom five also golf, but their scores are not included in the match. Their scores are only used to determine seed position for the following match (Let me interject and tell you I love that their coach does this to give everyone a chance to compete).
For example, Ava shot a 48 at her second-to-last match as seed three. She won the match, and she was made seed one at the following match. This means she competes against all the seed one golfers from the other schools that come to compete. Any given match, there is anywhere from one to four schools. All the seed ones golf together, all the seed twos golf together, and so on and so forth.
You all caught up now?
The girls are competitors, but they also encourage one another.
Here’s what I love the most. Ava’s golfing with girls she may or may not know. Now, after five years of golfing for her middle and high school, she knows many of the girls she golfs with from other schools because they’ve been competing for years. However, even when it’s a new girl or a new school, these golfers are competitive. They are all there to win. But they also cheer one another one and encourage one another so much.
For example, when one hits a dime, everyone congratulates her. When someone is having a rough hole, the other girls encourage her and tell her it’s cool, it happens all the time, they know how she feels. They are so kind and so gracious to one another despite wanting to kick each other’s ass. I love it. The competition is so strong, but it’s also so kind. These girls have excellent attitudes.
Golf parents are the best sports parents.
Class is what you find in the parents on the golf course. It’s parents who are on their spectator carts chatting with other parents, offering tips their daughter’s private golf instructors gave them so our daughter can use those. It’s my husband telling the other dads that one of the best things Ava’s private coach did for her was take every single one of her excellent shots and throw them into the rough before telling her, “Nice shot. We know you can hit a nice shot. Let’s work on hitting bad shots, getting out of the rough, and mentally learning that hitting a bad drive or a bad chip doesn’t mean your entire hole is ruined. Once you know how to recover from a bad shot, you’re going to win.”
It’s parents who learn all the girl’s names and encourage them. It’s all of us telling kids we’ve never met before how great that drive was, that chip, that putt, that recovery. It’s parents all looking for a lost ball in the woods and sharing tees because they found ‘the best tee’ that’s changed their daughter’s game, so here’s one for all of you to try so you can see if it works for you.
It’s parents asking if they can take photos of all these girls together because it’s been so much fun watching them golf, and they hope one day they’re golfing together at college. It is honestly a joy to watch.
There is a wonderful sense of community on the golf course.
We as spectators are not permitted to talk to the girls while they golf, but we can speak to one another. We can discuss tips and advice. We can discuss golf bags and accessories, and we can offer the kids snacks and beverages. It’s a bunch of parents saying to everyone’s kids, “Hey, girls. Need a Gatorade? A cold bottle of water? I have snacks!”
It’s families telling other kids they’ve never met, “You have a gorgeous swing,” and greeting one another like long-lost family when you realize you’re golfing with someone you’ve golfed with in the past.
It’s difficult to explain, but the feeling you have on the golf course is something special. It’s competitive, but it’s friendly. It’s encouraging, and it’s amazing to see all of these girls wanting to win, but also wanting to see their competitors succeed. It’s such a male-dominated sport, and seeing so many people who just want everyone to do well is beautiful.
There is nothing, and I mean nothing, like being a golf parent.
