Patricia Hannigan - Golf Girls Little Tartan Book: How to Be True to Your Sex and Get the Most from Your Game

Published in 2010 by Stewart, Tabori & Chang
An imprint of ABRAMS

Copyright 2010 by Patricia Hannigan
A Lark Production

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Hannigan, Patricia.

Golf girls little tartan book : how to be true to your sex and get the most from your game / Patricia Hannigan.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-58479-829-3
1. Golf for women. I. Title.
GV966.H36 2010
796.352082--dc22

2009035982

Editor: Jennifer Levesque
Designer: Pamela Geismar
Production Manager: Tina Cameron

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Dedication

To my husband Nick, whose good-natured support for both my golf and this book has been unwavering and awesome.

arvey Penick, whose Little Red Book is my golf bible, devoted his life to teaching others how to get the most from their game. A PGA Teacher of the Year, a World Golf Hall-of-Famer, and a coach to Ben Crenshaw, Mickey Wright, Kathy Whitworth, Betsy Rawls, Tom Kite, and Sandra Palmer, Mr. Penick was and still is revered for the simplicity of his wisdomTake dead aim being a perfect example. He knew golf, he knew people, and he knew how to help people play better golf.

But one thing he didnt and couldnt know was what its like to be a female trying to indulge her passion for golf.

Lets be honest. We women are confronted with a level of scrutiny men just dont have to deal withand we get it from both men and women. Its not enough to play well. We often worry about how we look and what we wear, about how we behave and what we say. And no matter what we do to please our onlookers, to fit in at their clubs and competitions we offend. Either were too sexy in our appearance to be taken seriously as an athlete, or were too athletic in our appearance to be admired as a female. Either were way too aggressive in tournament play to be liked as women, or were not aggressive enough to interest television audiences of mostly men. All sorts of stereotypes confront us out there on the fairways, seemingly contrived to send us packing. We cant drive far enough. We cant play fast enough. Well never be male enough, wed have to conclude, for men to cede any of their turf beyond one token week at St. Andrews R & A during the British Open.

Fact is, women can play golf just as well as men. Anyone remotely familiar with the etiquette and finesse integral to the game would have to conclude that its rather perfectly suited to a feminine sensibility and skill set. But we girls are caught in the grip of a vicious swing, a gotcha! Catch-22. Observing how relatively few women are out there playing (one girl for every six guys), we feel self-conscious, intimidated, even unwelcome on the course; feeling unwelcome, we dont play, and voil! Relatively few women are out there playing.

The problem, as I see it, is really one of female confidence. We women need to cultivate it for ourselves, which is why Golf Girls Little Tartan Book hits the sweet spot. It isnt about golf so much as its about playing golf on our own terms. We want to win at the mental, physical, and social game of golf because of our sex, not in spite of it. And we most certainly can, given our set of gender-specific traits.

Ill give you a perfect example. Not long ago, Scottish golf journalist John Huggan observed that in pitching, chipping, and putting, women should be every bit as good as men, but just arent. For an explanation, Huggan sought out David Whelan, whos coached Paula Creamer, Rachel Hetherington, and other high-profile golf girls. Whelan pointed out that far too much emphasis is put on hitting balls off the tee by those coaching women, and a lack of technique around the greens is the direct result. Whelan, who focuses his girls on the short game, is working to narrow what he perceives as perhaps the biggest gender gap in golf.

Now why do so many coaches focus their female clients on driving? Because most every coach, being male, would naturally perceive hitting balls off the tee as the place for girls to start in order to overcome the handicap imposed by their less-powerful physiques. Men drive farther; women need to catch up to be competitors; ergo, women should work on their driving. But if I were to be coaching women, Id focus on what we girls, with our precision and finesse, naturally excel at: The Short Game. Id get girls just starting out to pitch and chip and putt until they could confidently compensate for whatever their driving might permanently lack. And that would show the men a thing or two. At some point we would probably have to insist that the ladies tee be abolished, lest it give us girls too great a stroke advantage over the poor guys.

Coach Whelan went on to say that, from a coaching standpoint, women required more encouragement and individualized attention because they were inherently less confident than men. You might interpret his comments as sexist, but only if you thought that mens unreasonable and often unfounded confidence was a good thing. Whats wrong with giving women the attention and encouragement they need, from a coaching standpoint, if they develop real confidence as a result? Whats wrong with needing more nurturing, and more assurance? Like thats a bad thing?

And on the subject of confidence, let me say this. We like to look good, we girls. We know were being watched; we know men cant help it. Im not about to wear a bikini for my next foursome date, but you wont see me in boxy, baggy cuts or powdery pastels and prints, either. Because the styles, they are a-changing: Exciting colors, close-to-the-body cuts, and runway-inspired designs reflect the new thinking about girls in golf. Young pros like Natalie Gulbis, Paula Creamer, Cristi Kerr, and Michelle Wie now frequently take center stage at Fashion Week. Everybody, male and female, is beginning to get it: We all play better, and we all sure have a lot more fun, if we girls get to indulge our yen for hot outfits and hip gear and stylish accessories. Golf is a social game, lets not forgetwhy wouldnt we bring to the party what every all-male party lacks?

And speaking of fashion, a word about that term tartan. Its Scottish for what we call plaid, and it has long been associated with golf because the Highlanders who invented the game wore a lot of it. Fashion-wise, Im very fond of tartan because its colors and patterns go way, way beyond the Burberry camel or navy-and-green Black Watch that usually come to mind. My new favorite skirt, for example, is a Pink Daiquiri blend in shades of Barbie fuchsia. But historically, tartan packs a lot of symbolic punch. Scottish clans wore tartans specific to their bloodlines, so that from a distance you could tell who was approaching by the pattern of his kilt or shoulder blanket. (My Irish ancestors, in fact, could be recognized a fairway away by their Hannigan plaid.) Scottish bloodlines, though, were matrilineal as well as patrilineal, meaning it was quite the honor, as a male, to wear your grandmothers family tartan. Clan chieftains, Ive also learned, were as likely to be female as male. So while some people may perceive tartan as ancient and stodgy and male, its really rather modern and fashionable and female.