my 2 cents: The German Golf License

Yogi and me are now in the 4th week of the German Golf License test… this Sunday will be the final exam…

Therefore I’m at the moment as much as possible on (or is it “at” ?!?) the driving range for practice, practice and practice - which is quite hard to realize if you know that there’s not much daylight here in Germany after 5pm during this time of the year.

So, we went last Friday down to Reutlingen to visit the local INDOOR GOLF (www.golfscreen.de).
First at all… the WEBSITE looks much more interesting than the indoor golf itself ;-)
Acc to the provided pictures on the website this place should be crowded, full of people, warm & cozy… and not empty and deserted like the evening I went there…
For everyone who’s interested to go there be careful: the prices mentioned on the website are PER PERSON – and not “per flight”! That’s a lesson Yogi & me had to learn after we payed EUR 45 per person for the 3 hours of playing at the Covered Bridge Golf Club (Indiana, USA).
Conclusion: the place is nice – if you wanna hit some balls and wanna know the exact distance, angle etc for your personal “swing analysis”. But that’s it in my opinion. Not worth to visit the place more often then once per year…

The “Platzreifekurs” is held by Thilo Greiner, a golf Pro with a “C” coach licence.
A nice guy, maybe a little bit to football fanatic and a little much to addicted to his cigarrettes ;-)
But, -sorry Thilo, nothing personal- I prefer to have a coaching by Roger because…

… Today I had my 3rd official “private lesson” (the 1st lesson was at the Nippenburg [coached by: André Leyh]; the 2nd lesson was down in Indonesia at the Indah Puri Golf) with Roger Hastings, a meanwhile 65-year old English Pro from Nottingham.
Geez… this chap is GREAT! After making a few strokes & swings he saw my problems and told me how to correct them – and it worked just great.
Best part, when we were working on the 7-iron swing, he said “Scheisse” (German for: crap, fuck …) everytime my swing was crap. He told me that it’s fine if I say “Scheisse” after a crappy swing.
I told him that I don’t swear in German which gave him a puzzled look… but after I yelled FUCK after the next bad swing he laughed, saying “Now I know what you mean by saying that you don’t swear in German…” ;-)
Isn’t it great when a bi-lingual coaching is really working…?

After the coaching and “all alone practice” I decided to take the written test (you can do it by yourself anytime, too – just visit www.golf.de if you wanna know what German golfers HAVE TO know ;-) ) and I passed it with flying colours – 28 of 30 possible points :-D *yippee*
Now I can concentrate again on the practical test on Sunday… hope that the weather will be similar than today and that all those hints, tips & lessons I received so far will help me to achieve the necessary points…

The test is played on the official 18-hole course of Monrepos but only 9-holes will be played where the 6 best will be scored the “Stableford way”.
With my handicap of –54 I have therefore not a par 3 , 4 or 5 but can play up to +3 strokes per hole more without having to worry to get the necessary points.
If I need more than the “additional” 3 strokes per hole I have to start to worry – or play much better… ;-)