BRIDPORT: Take on Tom!

This is especially true when you see the setting of the Bridport and West Dorset Golf Club. The scenery of the Jurassic Coast would make it an enjoyable experience no matter how bad a day you are having on the green and is enough to make any rambler jealous.

I’ve always thought that in my latter years I would take up the sport of golf. I like the idea of spending weekends away on the courses of Spain, getting away from it all and enjoying the banter with my mates as I knock a couple of strokes off my handicap.

Until recently however I had never putted a golf ball without it travelling through a plastic windmill first.

So when Bridport and West Dorset Golf Club’s Resident Pro David Parsons invited me to join him for a taster session, I jumped at the chance.

The session consisted of just over an hour on the driving range to perfect our swing, before moving onto the putting green for 45 minutes; just enough to whet the appetite.

Many would imagine at a golf taster session to find a bunch of middle-aged men preparing for a relaxing retirement on the fairways.

And on this day at least you would be right to imagine that. There were seven of us in total, all men, and when asked to give our age mine was the only one that had a corresponding lottery ball.

This is not typical of the club however, which has a large number of youth players with a good progression route and many female golfers as well. In fact it is younger men that the club are seeking to attract.

The taster sessions are just one of the ways in which the club actively looking for new golfers of all ages and abilities.

David is keen to quash any misconception that the club is an expensive exclusive members only organisation.

In fact, for less than the price of a pint of beer any member of the public can enjoy the driving range and the putting green.

And for less than the cost of filling up your car you can benefit from a four-session beginners course with David, who is without doubt an excellent coach with decades of experience.

Out on the driving range, David quickly taught us the basics of grip, aim and ball position, enough to have us all striking the ball with some level of competency.

My previous experiences on a driving range had been inconsistent to say the least, my style probably less like Tiger Woods and more like his wife as she smashed up his Cadillac.

After just a short introduction from David though my technique had improved immeasurably and it was less a case of will I hit it and more a case of how far.

Next we moved onto the putting green, a scene of many a frustrated golfer but, David told us, the best place to reduce your handicap.

David once again gave us the basic rules on how to set up for the shot and we were soon confidently sinking putts that would have eluded us before.

In sport you often enjoy that brief moment when everything comes together perfectly, whether it’s catching a volley sweetly in football, hitting a ball for six in cricket or serving an ace in tennis.

In golf that moment, I think, comes when you strike effortlessly through the centre of the ball and watch your drive travel cleanly down the fairway.

At these moments you suddenly see your name up in lights, you hear yourself being discussed on a sports phone-in, you see yourself popping open the champagne and celebrating with your adoring fans.

Then you forget to bend your knees, lean too far back and scuff the ball into the net five yards away. I think it is those brief moments of magic though which give you the bug and make it all worthwhile. 

If your organisation could do with a boost or you feel more people should know about what goes on at your club, then email [email protected] or call 01297 446154

PICTURE: HOLE IN ONE - View from reporter Tom Glover lines up foir a putt at Bridport and West Bay Golf Club