In September 2018, The Ryder Cup, a golf meeting between Europe and the United States, took place in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, just an hour's drive from Verneuil-sur-Avre. This competition, which welcomes the greatest world champions, takes place successively in Europe and then in America every two years and attracts 1 supporters at each edition.
I admit, a few months ago, I knew absolutely nothing about this event! But his arrival in France and particularly, at the gates of Normandy Sud Eure, is publicized and aroused in me a certain curiosity.
Golf can be played at any age. The vast majority play golf to relax, meet up with friends in nature and exercise in the great outdoors. Like other sports activities, golf requires accessories that are not that expensive. Many clubs in France allow you to get started without putting your bank account in the red.
This is the case of the Domaine des Bois Francs golf course which offers lessons, initiations and discovery courses for adults and children. I didn't need more to embark on the adventure!
So here we are, me and my husband, registered for an initiation session on a Sunday morning. The Bois Francs golf course is located at the entrance to Center Parcs. It has its own parking lot. Its clientele is therefore made up of holidaymakers and inhabitants of the surrounding region.
We enter through the Club House, a modest building composed of a small restaurant with sober and relaxed decoration and a golf accessories shop. At the counter, Fatima welcomes us with a smile and introduces us to Benoît, our instructor. The latter looks like an experienced professional: broad shouldered, dressed in linen pants, crampons and a cap, he hands us a firm and dynamic handshake. He carries over his shoulder with disconcerting ease, a golf bag that seems to weigh a ton!
Today, we are only 4 registered. We will therefore share this experience with a young couple from Vernoliens. In order to prepare myself for possible mockery, I announce the color: " I don't know anything about golf and I suck at mini-golf!". The young woman smiles at me and replies "the same for us!" ". Benoît immediately puts us at ease and tells us “there are no bad students, there are only bad teachers! ".
After having equipped us with men's / women's, right-handed / left-handed clubs, we leave the Club House to go a few meters further to the Practice. This anglicism designates the training ground, here covered.
Then begins the theory part. The object of the game is to make the fewest strokes possible over a defined course. On each hole, there is a "par", which is the standard number of strokes set to complete it. Generally, a course has 18 holes but it can also have only 9 or less. There follows an overview of the equipment used, the terrain and a little vocabulary lesson: the fairway, the green, the iron, the wood, the putter, the tees… etc.
Remember that golf is a sport. Some warm-up movements are required so. With the help of a club, Benoît invites us to reproduce a few stretching, bending and rotating gestures.
Then he gives each of us a basket of 70 balls. A few safety rules so as not to get hurt, but above all to avoid knocking off our neighbors, and here we are installed on the “firing point”. Benoît first invites us to hit a few balls instinctively. Our shots are lamentable… However, the monitor remains focused and observes us seriously. Then he stops us and shows us the position to adopt. Again, he invites us to resume our strikes. For some, the gesture is better. For others, the position, which does not seem natural to us, stiffens us and makes us even more awkward. So Benoît stops us once more and shows us the right gesture.
For 30 minutes, we will alternate the practice and the lesson. As we progress, the instructor corrects posture, gaze, gesture, flexibility, coordination of movements ... His eye perceives the smallest detail. He is even able to guess, from our gestures, that so and so has practiced tennis and so and so, bodybuilding, that so and so has back problems and so and so has a cramp!
I am overwhelmed by how quickly we integrate information and by the impressive progress we are capable of ! Although my wrist is starting to get sore, I feel more and more comfortable with the exercise. My ball sometimes goes over the 80-meter limit and I start to wonder if it's me who is doing this!
For this first introductory part, we used a n ° 7 iron, the club we usually use to play on the first part of a course.
Benoît then takes us to the green. This is the last part of a course, where the hole is. Here, the grass is very short (a few millimeters). We have the feeling of walking on velvet!
Benoît invites us to take a putter. This is a club similar to that of minigolf. It is used to propel the ball over short distances. What seemed to me to be the easiest in a round of golf is actually very tricky! Indeed, unlike minigolf where the ball must be pushed with more or less force, the putter is handled with great delicacy. The ground is so soft and level that the slightest impulse sends the ball for miles! You have to take into consideration the direction of the mowing, the slope of the ground and the distance between the ball and the hole. A practice that requires a lot of patience and concentration!
Already an hour has passed. The initiation is coming to an end. I still have a thousand questions to ask, so many things to understand and experience! Benoît gives us a booklet on the "essentials of the rules of golf" and an information document on the courses and training provided in this club. We warmly thank him. This experience was very informative and motivating. The instructor showed extraordinary patience and pedagogy.
I admit with a little shame, that I was afraid to find myself in a somewhat “snobbish” atmosphere, surrounded by haughty players, staring at me with my tennis shoes and my Sunday shorts. I was afraid of getting bored at this game which seemed neither sporty nor complicated.
Practicing a sporting activity every week, I am surprised to feel a little stiff and tired. The concentration I had to show exhausted me. The repetition of the gestures, ample and precise, made work muscles which were hitherto unknown to me. Above all, I was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere on the estate: a smiling staff, a friendly atmosphere, players (novices and experienced alike) who greet each other, meet each other in compliance with safety rules and without ever getting together. judge.
Truly, this initiation really changed my vision of golf. An experience that I recommend to everyone, young and old!
Sunday September 18, 2022: open day
The Center Parcs les Bois Francs golf course is organizing an open day for everyone from 10 a.m. to 17 p.m. A great opportunity to discover this sport and learn. Reservation on 02 32 60 50 02 or [email protected]