Tag Archives: Golf

Top Golf

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There are only a few Top Golf locations situated throughout the world. London, D.C., Chicago and Texas.
What is Top Golf? It’s a driving range, but not any driving range… it’s more like a game. When you arrive, you get a card with your name and balance, kind of like a gift card. Each ball has a computer chip in so it will acknowledge which ball is yours (this is done when you get your bucket of balls out of the machine.) If you hit your ball over the fence and into traffic, they will know it’s yours, beware.
 
This is where it gets interesting. Instead of hitting the ball at a flag as you would at most driving ranges, each flag is surrounded a bigger hole type area. The closer to the flag you hit the ball, the more points you get. Yes I said points. There are various types of games that you can play with your friends to fire up the competition a little bit. The closer to the flag and the farther away the flag is, the more points you get. Every once in a while, the computer will show that you get a bonus ball. If you hit within the inner most circle surrounding the flag, this is considered a hole-in-one and you get a free game. Not too shabby!
Pay no attention to form. Strictly the fact that I hit the hell out of that ball!
At one point we were going there every Sunday morning and calling it “Church”.  Not only would we go to play golf but they also have great food and drinks available. This is a great outing for family, a group of friends, business parties or even just to practice on your swing. It’s pretty cute to see the little kids get out there and practice their swing. The only downside is that it is a little more on the expensive side but it’s definitely worth the fun for any skill level. I had never played golf before Top Golf. Even though I mostly go to just hit the ball hard and far, I really do love it and it helped lead me to actually try out a real game of golf!
I even beat the boys!
Points of Note:
* Pets are welcome, just don’t leave them in your car.
** Free clubs are available to use if you don’t have your own.
***Be sure to sign up on their website to be on their email list – they will occasionally send you free games.
**** The Top Golf in Dallas has three miniature golf courses. They are a lot of fun.
 

FORE!

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Over the weekend I got to play my first round of golf. Real golf. The golf where you carry around your own bag with your own clubs for 18 holes trying to get this little ball into this little hole with a flag. Real golf. Except for me I was just carrying around this golf bag with 5 clubs, three of which I actually used.

I’ve always thought I’m a mini-golf kinda gal. Frankly, I rocked at mini-golf and sad to say for the people who I played against, I was very competitive. Growing up we would spend a lot of time with my grandparents who would keep us in line when our parents were working. My brother would go golf with my Pepere and I would hang out with my Memere. As we grew up, golf was never anything that interest me. Um, maybe I should clear this up – Sergio Garcia was interesting to me. Having played softball for my entire life, I thought the golf club should be swung like a softball bat and it doesn’t work like that. And yes, I’ve even tried the Happy Gilmore approach.

Then one day its like the entire world changed. I was introduced to a driving range. Can you hear the “aha!” and see the lights shining down? I was taught how to actually hit a ball! And found out that its actually a lot of fun to hit that little ball pretty hard! It came to the point where I didn’t care where I hit it, it just felt good to hit that little sucker a really long way (and no, I had no idea where I was aiming).

Sy plays golf pretty often. He golfs like I would snowboard when I lived in Vermont… as often as I could either with friends or by myself. Obviously, we have some priorities here. Well I was loving the driving range and having not really played softball since I moved to Texas, I think I just missed swinging at something. Every now and then I’d ask Sy if he would take me to a golf course so I could try. I think he was nervous. Actually, I know he was nervous. He said as competitive as I am (and how I do not (definitely do not) like failing), I would end up really pissed off if I didn’t do well. So we worked in steps.

Last summer, I had to pleasure of going to a golf course for the first time. I drove the golf cart around the course. It was pretty fun. You can cruise in those little suckers but I still had that inkling of wanting to learn how to play (maybe not on this day it was about 110 degrees outside). This weekend a miracle happened, he (FINALLY) took me to a golf course that he grew up playing.

Meadowbrook in Arlington aka Ghettobrook. It is a small 9-hole course (that you play twice), its cheap and it’s not super busy. It’s like a little golf secret! Little did I know that I’ll be trying out for the LPGA tour next year. I didn’t do so bad other than not knowing the rules and pushing Mr. Sy’s buttons by talking, not putting my bag behind me and to the right far enough, taking too much time to find my ball but overall he was a good teacher. (He told me I’m not suppose to be doing these things even though all I kept hearing from them was “Shit!” from the group behind us.)

I hit it down the fairways pretty straight, well for the most part and when I could hit it. Tee’d off and hit a few balls farther than Mr. Sy (ok maybe just once) and was at par for at least 3 holes when I went to putt. AND I ended it off on a pretty good note by bogie’ing my last hole. Oh Yeaa! Whoohoo! And the crowd goes wild! (Or in the case of golf, does their quiet clap.)

This is the tee box from the third hold.
The first round I ended up hitting the ball thru the trees right off the green!

The only thing that I can’t say that I like is that I feel like I am always in a rush with these groups of men playing behind me. I’m not a fan of being followed but by the time we finished the game, my anxiety was better.

Don’t judge the stance.

All in all, I would like to try it again… I want to try it again… I will try it again. So all you ladies – golf is not a man only sport (frankly you don’t even need to golf, cruising around in a golf cart drinking some cold brews sounds pretty fun too and a lot less work), give it a try. Until next time, I’ll be looking for my prime, plaid outfit practicing my putts in the living room!