artful_golfer

I've been known to dance around my cart to a really good song.

I had not considered this. Thanks for a different perspective. If faced with this in the future, I will remember your thoughts . . . but still try to be my nonconfrontational self.

Thanks. I understand and fully support guy golf and male camaraderie. And I have always encouraged my husband and son to play with their guy groups and would never try to join them. I also understand ladies golf and how different the dynamics are with a ladies group. We both need our groups and friends to be with. But this was tournament golf with mixed overall teams. To be fair, the dynamics would probably have been quite different if we had been in a foursome.

Thanks for your reponse. I didn't post this in the women's forum because I felt like it's not a women's only topic and I really wanted feedback from my men spy friends. I think the Women's Forum will allow men to react to a topic but not comment. The guy I was playing with was not directly rude or ugly to me. It was more that it was obvious he was not happy with the playing situation. And I felt like it was best to tread lightly and hope to prove I could handle this. I was very fortunate that it was one of my better playing days.

Convincing men it's ok to play with women. This post turned out longer than anticipated but I think it's important and would like feedback on it. Often men don't seem to think women are worthy to compete against. I've experienced my fair share of a couple of men letting a group of ladies know they are not welcome on the course. I played in a club team tournament this past weekend that is setup much like Ryder Cup with all match play. Difference is we include men and women. Often men play against the men and women vs women but we are starting to see a few men vs women in this tournament. Usually this tournament is foursomes but we had two extra players the 2nd day. Luck of the draw had me playing in the twosome against a man I knew casually but had never played with before. He had a lower handicap but only 2 strokes. At first you could tell he was quite bothered - both verbally (complaining to the pro) and physically (demeanor, facial expressions, etc). My husband followed us the first 4 holes and later said it was easy to tell he was upset. I had decided to be "sort of" quiet but super positive/complimentary (he really did have an awesome long drive) and just play my best game. I won the first hole, then we tied the next two holes. By that time, his demeanor was still stiff but loosened just a little and more as we played. I won the front nine 2-up with 1 to play giving my team a point. Then came a huge change. He wanted to go ahead an play the 9th hole just for the heck of it (which I also won). By the time we took a restroom/water break and got to the 10th tee box he was completely different. I think he had realized that I actually was a worthy and fun competitor. He chatted for 10 minutes on the tee box and then we continued to chat and laugh throughout the back nine. He won the back nine so we split the points, which I was semi glad about. After the round, I thanked him for playing and told him I enjoyed the round. He thanked me for forcing him up his game, which he absolutely did starting with number 14. Then he suggested we tell those setting up our weekly weekend groupings to mix it up more with men vs ladies (without it being couples) so everyone could get to know each other better. I was surprised but delighted. I have won a new friend and been accepted as a fun, worthy competitor. Wish I didn't have to prove it. Or do men have to prove it also?

Hey ladies. I posted something in the Random Thread forum about my LGA Flamingo Ladies Invitational. I think you will also be interested in it because it's a tournament by and for ladies. If I copied it correctly, this is a link:

This past Friday-Saturday (May 19-20) our course was full of flamingos and an overload of pink! I want to toot our horn a little. My LGA hosted our 9th annual Flamingo Ladies Invitational. It was our most successful yet with 80 players (40 teams) from 17 cities and raised more money than ever. (Note - in earlier years we had a cart decorating contests - that's where my profile photo was snapped) Getting us together is kind of like herding cats and we sound like an entire town of cackling hens, but we manage to hold still for a tournament group photo every year. Lots of pink and we seem to prefer white caps. We have a blast, laugh, eat, laugh, play golf, laugh, raise $ for our causes, laugh, sip Bloody Mary's for breakfast and laugh some more. This year the Crossroads Guardians of Hope brought out their pink firetruck. This organization supports cancer patients. The firetruck is covered with signatures and messages for and from cancer patients. We had the opportunity to add to the writings. This photo is my Flamingo Planning committee (plus a couple of extras) with the firetruck named Debbie. And me in the driver's seat. From the tournament profits, each year we donate to our 3 local high school girls golf teams. Those teams and their coaches volunteer during our tournament. They meet players at their vehicles, pickup their bags and make sure they are strapped onto the correct golf carts ready to play. This is a photo of those awesome students and two of the coaches this year. This last photo of me and my playing partner in our cart before tee off. Thanks fellow spies for putting up with my long post!

One lady at my golf course insists on always driving, no matter who the other person is in the cart or even if it is that person's private cart.

I have tried to recruit new MGS members since I first joined. Some men have joined but if any women have joined they are just lurking and so don't know about them.

Hey ladies. I wasn't sure where to post this in the new ladies forum, but hope this will do. Ideas for fun times with other lady golfers (and non-golfers). As president of our LGA I wanted to beef up membership and encourage more participation and excitement about being a member. So I formed some new committees. One is a social committee tasked with coming up with 4 socials during the year that have nothing to do with golf. We have 3 new members this year that don't play golf and I told them we would plan activities we would all have fun doing together. We are all loving the social aspect. A couple of nights ago was our 2nd social of the year. We had a Cornhole Social and crowned a team the Cornhole Queens. We had a BLAST playing on the clubhouse patio lawn and for some of us, we learned how to play Cornhole for the first time. Only about 1/2 of our members participated but some brought guests and I think I may have recruited a new member. This was easy to plan at no cost to our club (cash bar) and the only snacks were some pretzels. See our photo below (and note two hilarious male golfers behind our heads who photo bombed us). Being one of the shorties, that's me down in front, to the left of the flag cornhole board, in the navy dress holding a glass of wine. Just look at those happy faces.

That's unfortunate, but I suggest that you still make it a positive, big deal for those who participated. They deserve the same special treatment as if there were 600 participants. Maybe a special awards dinner, PR within your hospital system and out in the community. Write a press release for the news with a photo of the winner (you don't need to say how many employees participated). The fact is you do have participants and you are helping them, you are their cheerleader. Embrace what you do have and let your community know.

I read these! All of it. Yes it took me more than one sitting but I thought it was quite interesting. Thanks for the links.

Purchase a PuttOut Pressure Trainer then move it wherever your wish.

Hope you Spy ladies watch LPGA tournaments on TV and support them in person when you can. You'll learn a lot. This Chevron Championship was great in person. What an exciting playoff finish and then watching winner Lilia Vu choose to carry on the tradition and jump in that cold lake on a cold day! The crowd cheered her on and loved it. The course was in awesome shape. One new thing I learned with this tournament is a better way to rake a bunker. I watched a Caddie rake it by pushing the rake away from him. He made the smoothest feathered strokes that left the sand perfect. My husband and I were mesmerized watching his care, like watching an artist.

Ours ate the green beans on the bush. I would find half of a been left.