COVER
ter words to make the men feel comfortable. Assumption: “My cigar bothers women, I might as well just stay home with my wife.” Some women like cigars too. Here’s where the manners come in for both sides: The man’s responsibility (even when playing with men) is to ask, “I’d like to enjoy a cigar, is there anyone who’d like me to be careful around them with the smoke?” Whether he does or does not do that, it is perfectly appropriate to say, “Cigar smoke makes me sick – could you just be careful with that?”
Assumption: “Women talk too much.” Yes, we agreed, we probably do talk too much for the men. This is one area where women golfers paired with men can use the same intuition they would at that dinner party and do what we generally do to get along in their world, figure out what’s appropriate and stop at that. 26 I october 2011 I GottaGoGolf
Is she talking too much? Or maybe she’s distracting him just by looking cute? Assumption: “Women worry about stuff that doesn’t matter.” Well, isn’t that the truth! “Is it my turn? Are you sure? Oh no, there’s water over there, better get out a different golf ball. Oh gosh, I’m so embarrassed about that drive, they must think I’m such a hacker.” We agreed that most of us could use a few sessions on golf psychology so that we’re focused on helpful thoughts rather than things that don’t matter. Assumption: “I like to compete and women don’t.” Many women do like to compete and could dispense with this stereotype by proposing a little match on the back nine, after assessing the guys’ games. A quarter a hole isn’t going to put us into foreclosure. Assumption: “Women distract me from my game.” We considered solutions such as
making sure our skirt is long, our neckline is high and our fit is baggy. Uh, don’t think so. This one is strictly their problem. Assumption: “My wife will be jealous if I play golf with another woman.” The married women all declared this is just not true. They would be quite jealous however if the husband went out golfing all weekend and left them home to do the housework and take care of the kids. Guys, a definite don’t. Assumption: “I’m afraid a woman might beat me.” Sorry, gentlemen, the ladies laughed uproariously at this one. Yes, we might beat you. This is the 21st century, we thought we were done pretending to lose. Ladies, this is their problem. The best we can do for them: Don’t be embarrassed to win, engage in some trash talk so that they’re
photos / dreamstime (this page); Getty images (right)
Assumption: “Women play too slowly.” This stereotype won’t go away despite studies that say otherwise. We concluded that we might appear slow because it generally takes us an extra shot to get to the green – but we are unlikely to be engaged in outerlimits expeditions to find that $2 golf ball. (Admittedly, ours is not usually a $4 Pro V1.) We feel men generally slow us down. If they think otherwise, that’s their problem. We can make our point by doing a lot of standing around with arms folded.