I have never been golfing. To be honest until Tiger Woods, golfing was never on my radar.
I recall my hubby telling me that in high school one of his black male teachers was advocating for him to pick up golfing but he just ignored him. (Now my hubby wished he had listened back then, but he has been doing it now that he’s grown.)
So why all of a sudden do I think every black family should go golfing at least once? I have five reasons: to break the glass ceiling, to learn in the comfort of your own family, math problems, and vitamin D.
Break the Glass Ceiling
In A Different World, there’s an episode “Original Teacher” where Dwayne Wayne gives an illustration. It’s a story about two fleas. The two fleas are trapped together in a jar with a tight lid on it. Every time they try to jump up, they hit their head on the lid and they jump back down. This keeps happening until one day someone takes the lid off the jar, but the fleas didn’t know it. When they jumped up, before they could hit their head on the lid, they punked out and jumped back down because they were scared they were going to hit their head on the lid. The fleas were free but they didn’t even know it.
I think for a long time we have carried the stereotypes that the country club is only for “the good ole boys”. We think we can’t afford it so we don’t even give it a try. But take a look around, there is no lid on the jar.
For Father’s Day I decided to follow my own advice and check out the local golf clubs in the area and I found a beautiful course that was only $25.00 for 9 holes for two people. Since it was going to be all six of us in the family going (my husband, my mother in law, the three kids and myself) it was $75 plus tax . This is for a full scale golf course. The local putt putt was going to be more than 2 times as much for the same group of people.
Of course it did help that my husband had his own set of golf clubs that was gifted to him by my mother BUT we found golf clubs at the local thrift store so that the kids could practice as well.
Learn in the Comfort of Family
We arrived at the local golf course and I found that there were so many things that I didn’t even know. For example, how to operate a golf cart. Uhh, it seemed simple enough, until one of my kids pressed the button in the middle that made it go into reverse and we didn’t know it. To be honest, I didn’t even know there was a reverse button. I went into the golf shop to let them know the cart stopped working only to be shown what the real issue was. I am happy we discovered this among family and not in a business or other professional setting…. Well, now you know too. Shhh!
Math Problems
Why did I mention math problems? It’s not because I’m a math teacher but because I remember encountering a math problem in my textbook as a child relating to golf. The person who won had the lowest score (which was a negative number). I got the question wrong. It didn’t make sense to me because, well, I never golfed. My family never talked about golfing. It just wasn’t part of our culture. While I believe that standardized tests are written for the socially and economically advantaged, we can help our children bridge the gap by exposing them to healthy experiences to expand their horizons.
Vitamin D
Yep, you’ll get lots of sunshine, fresh air and exercise. The perfect formula for a great day and a good night’s sleep. Need I say more?
What I Learned & Disclaimers
Our golfing experience as a family was AWESOME. However, I did learn a few things that I would want to warn you about. Let the kids try driving at the first hole but it goes quicker if you just let Dad (or the adults) do the driving to the putt area and when you get there, let the kids put their balls down and putt from there. (Disclaimer: I’m not even sure that I am using the right terminology but hopefully you get my drift.)
We actually never finished the nine holes, we spent two hours and only got through three holes. We spent the rest of the time driving around the HUGE golf course. BUT we had fun!
I hope you will take your family on a golfing adventure. If you already have, let us know how it went in the comments below!