Patrick, Ben, Daniel and Tom“Golf will never compete with soccer as Britain’s national game” a member of the Lea Marston Golf Centre staff named Daniel Parsons remarked as we stood watching my 11 year old son Patrick and his friend Tom whacking little white balls with varying degrees of success across a huge expanse of well-mown grass known as a driving range.
“But it is becoming more and more popular, especially amongst young people” Daniel continued “…and at Lea Marston we are trying to change the image of golf, make it more open to everyone and show people it is actually quite easy to take up”.
Daniel had invited myself and my young charges along to Lea Marston to find out a little more about the game of golf and to hopefully discover just how accessible it is to novices, young and old. My only hands-on experience of golf was three decades ago when, as a teenager, my dad bought me a set of clubs but no lessons to go with them. Hence, the initial elation of having undergone the rite of passage into owning a gleaming set of flashy-looking golf clubs soon passed as my clubs gathered dust in a corner of my bedroom. I recall having one very self-conscious hike up and down Warley Municipal with a pal who was a lot better at persuading his balls to travel vaguely in the direction of the distant flags than I was; I nearly hit another golfer on the head with a badly hit ball because no one had told me to shout “four!”; and shortly after this dismal one-off experience, my older brother persuaded me to swap my clubs with him for a pair of ice hockey skates, a denim jacket and a Jimi Hendrix LP.
On top of that sort of experience it is easy to go through life fostering an unfounded resentment against an activity like golf …and those who are apparently good at it. Somehow golf has a sophistication that soccer doesn’t and it’s not just having the posh looking bag of assorted clubs. Golf requires an understanding of ‘the rules’, the meaning of fairly fundamental terms like ‘handicap’ and knowing which clubs to use on different parts of the course. Then there’s the clothing and the shoes – more fashion-based than sporty, somewhere between Paul Weller and Bing Crosby …the techniques required to successfully hit a ball and finally there is the ‘image of golf’ to which Daniel alluded – the elitist sport of business men, sealing multi million pound deals out on the course before retiring to the ‘male member’s only’ club house for a hearty brandy and a few dodgy jokes. All reasons for believing this to be someone else’s world, not mine.
But then, along came Tiger Woods to change all that - a black guy beating all the white blokes at golf (instead of basket ball) was like the Berlin Wall coming down: the old elite (real or imagined) had been knocked into the rough and golf was suddenly very cool. Well that’s my take on it anyway, but either way, here I was with my 11 year old son on the range at Lea Marston Golf Centre, giving golf a second chance.
What was interesting was just how quickly the guys picked up the basic techniques. In a half hour lesson from Daniel and his colleague Ben Challis our two young novices had mastered the right-angled position of arm and club prior to the swing, the required angle of contact between club and ball in order to achieve maximum power and height and the desired posture of upper body, legs and feet immediately after the swing. In half an hour, the boys had gone from the sort of crude and random hacking that will send a ball 5 metres if luck is on your side, to impressive, professional-looking swings, propelling balls 50 to 100 metres up the range. Meanwhile, I stood back having one of life’s ‘Zen and the art of playing golf’ moments – I had made the quantum leap, if only inside my head, and golf was suddenly seeming a lot more accessible than I had imagined for the past three decades.
Lea Marston Golf Centre is in Haunch Lane, North Warwickshire, close to Junction 9 of the M42 for Kingsbury. The Centre runs lessons and short courses for both individuals and groups of all ages and abilities ranging from a 30 minute session from one of the centre’s coaches for just £17 to (£12 for juniors) to 5 x 30 minute sessions and 1 hour on course lesson (including video analysis and short game lesson) for £100 for adults (5 x 30 minute sessions £50 for Juniors). The Centre also offers group sessions, corporate coaching, children’s birthday parties, stag / hen packages, school holidays coaching and residential golf schools.
According to Daniel, in the summertime as many as 70 kids can attend the Centre in a single weekend. The Centre also has two courses which include a 9 hole lakes course and a shorter academy course, plus a well stocked golf shop.
“The emphasis is on customer service at Lea Marston” Daniel told me and I could see what he means. “It’s a friendly family place where anyone can come along and really develop through regular lessons, but especially Juniors under 16, there is loads of activity going on for young people here”.
I am definitely sold and will be making remonstration with my big brother to swap the skates back for the clubs (although I may try and keep the Hendrix LP). As for my son Patrick, we’ve already made the purchase of a bag of clubs but this time we will learn the lessons of the past and make sure he goes back to the wonderful family friendly Centre at Lea Marston for some proper coaching at a very affordable price and in a non-elitist environment. Thanks to Daniel, Ben and colleagues at Lea Marston ...golf is definitely cool in our house!
Contact:
Lea Marston Golf Centre
Telephone 01675 470707
Haunch Lane, Lea Marston, Warickwshire B76 OBY
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