It’s 99 degrees at 4 p.m. on a summer Thursday. The kids are out of school. And today some new moms and their new friends are out AT school.
But, what is this? Two of them are popping the tops on Coors Lights, right in front of their teachers! Miles Hains and Behrod Keshtavar, maybe a little big envious on this hot afternoon at CommonGround, smile at them.
“You didn’t bring one for me?” Miles jokes. “That’s messed up.”
Meanwhile, Behrod tells me, “This is the chillest class ever. We encourage them to bring a beverage, because the idea is just to have fun here.”
“Here” is the Welcome2Golf series of four clinics that introduce men and women to fundamentals of the game with programming intended to convert the newbie into an avid golfer. The Florida-based National Golf Foundation, which produces statistics and identifies trends in the industry, developed Welcome2Golf to remedy what it identified as the game’s failure to retain players. It tabbed ExperienceGolf at CommonGround to launch one of its flagship “welcome centers.” Other Colorado sites include Applewood, Broken Tee and Legacy Ridge/Walnut Creek.
The schedule and messaging clearly are not targeting seniors and retirees, though all are welcome. ExperienceGolf’s weekly sessions, for example, happen during weekday happy hours or on Saturdays, when working people may find time in busy schedules. And W2G’s “Golf Because” marketing and social media campaign, designed by the Boulder firm TDA, includes reasons like, “Social media is not the same as being social” … “Happy hour starts whenever you want it to” … “It’s only as competitive as you are” … “A game requiring patience clearly wasn’t designed for men.”
All 12 players who signed up for the Thursday sessions (four 90-minute clinics, $299) happen to be women. Several were pals at CSU, another noticed her husband was enjoying golf and another already has gotten so hooked in she’s joined a nine-hole par-3 league at a Denver course. Three, says Miles, are new moms happy to carve out some me-time.
The seven who beat the heat on this particular day for the third of their four clinics seem comfortable with each other and with their instructors, who are carefully framing their interactions to keep them light or, as Behrod said, “chill.”
Says Hains, a fan of the simple wisdom of Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book: “With adults, beginning something new, you don’t want to look like you’re doing it wrong. What I tell students here is, you’ve got to get into the ‘kid’ mentality. It’s OK to make mistakes. It takes a while. As a kid you hit a great shot and you go home and you’ll remember it.”
He likes that Welcome2Golf reverses the lesson plan of a similar program, Get Golf Ready.
“I used to have the Get Golf Ready mentality of putting, chipping, pitching, full swing on irons, full swing on woods – finishing on driving,” he says. “But the main man of Welcome2Golf (Ted Eleftheriou, the NGF’s VP of Player Development and Engagement) wants us to tee it high and let it fly in the first class. He wants to help the golfers get the ball airborne so that it’s more about fun.”
So the first week is grip, stance and a simple L-to-L swing finishing with the back foot up. Putting, chipping and pitching come later.
On this day, the group is on a “field trip.” They walk over to the first tee on CommonGround’s par-3 course for an introduction to terms including yardage marker, putting surface, green, flagstick, pin and hole. Hains raves about the relatively secret nine-holer hidden behind CommonGround’s practice range and recommends students spring for $10 sometime and play. He tells them to prepare as they would for a hike, with water, sunscreen, hat and “Frogger” towel.
The sign at the first tee tells players it’s a par three and gives Miles the opportunity to ask them, “How many golfers you think there are in the world?” One replies, “A zillion.” Miles agrees and says: “Less than .001 percent of them consistently shoot par. It’s an unrealistic expectation.” His advice is to replace par on the scorecard with whatever your best score on that hole has been.
And then, each grabbing a club and three balls, the group splits up to work with their instructors on short game at the first and second greens. Laughter mixes with moans, successes with misses. Now and then, there’s the distinctive sound of a crisp strike.
During a lull, I ask the 28-year-old Behrod what part of his game is strongest. It turns out, he’s a bomber and a regular winner on the regional PGA club professional circuit who last year took the Colorado PGA Assistant Championship.
Yet, he appreciates the concentrated effort these women are making. “I’m open to teaching any skill level as long as they have the commitment and patience to get better,” he says. “Because I will always be patient if they are willing to be patient with themselves. I teach ages 3 through 90. I have a guy who’s 87. He took a lesson from me this morning!”
Most of this group is near his age, and he’s enjoying the easy rapport. At the end of the session, he and Miles set up the following week’s grand finale with them.
They have a 4 p.m. tee time, which, they explain, is precisely when they begin their round so they should arrive early to warm up.
“We’ll bring a speaker and listen to some music and go play,” Miles says. “The goal is not a lot of instruction but to use what we’ve learned and put it in play. Expecting perfect golf? Nah.” Everyone laughs.
If all goes well the final week, the women will trade contact info and play again, or sign up for W2G’s new Level 2 offering or ExperienceGolf’s intermediate programs, including Operation36 and Play With a Pro.
And, if all goes well, maybe one of them will bring their instructors a beer.
