Illustration Friday - Play

This summer I took golf lessons. I had never played golf in my life, not counting mini-golf. My husband wanted to learn so he signed us both of us up for a five session golf clinic. I had no desire to play golf but didn't want to hurt his feelings so I decided to give it a go. Surprisingly, I really liked it. I even won a free bucket of balls at the driving range last week.

So when my husband went shopping for golf clubs this weekend, I tagged along to see what was available in the ladies section. Shopping for golf clubs has been an interesting exercise. Since my husband and I have the same amount of golf experience, I thought the sales pitch to both of us would be similar. But I didn't consider one important factor, the male love of high tech gadgets.

The first store we went to was a large sporting good chain. The salesman talked to my husband first while I kept an eye on the kids. I eaves dropped on the two of them as the salesman discussed the merits of steel over graphite, head sizes, sweet spots, inertia, trajectory, weight ratios, and the theory of relativity. Once he had gone through his sales pitch with my huband, I asked him what he recommended for me, as I have the same golf experience as my husband. I was shown one set of beginner clubs. He said they had graphite shafts and then spent several minutes showing me all the pockets in the cart bag for my personal belongings and the insulated compartment for my water bottle.

The second store we went to was a small independent golf store. He showed my husband no fewer than 5 sets of clubs as he engaged in a lengthy discussion about the high-tech engineering of today's golf clubs. As for me, I was shown one set of beginner clubs. He said they they had steel shafts. That was it. He didn't have much else to say - I guess it was because they didn't come with a bag.