The pressure was on at the range yesterday. Not in the form of a teacher or any other pro or anything. No, the eyes that were on me were those of a six year old girl.
I finally felt comfortable leaving the Goose alone for a little while and really needed to get out and swing a little. I had another errand to run and didn’t want to be gone too long, so I only got one bucket at the range. My swing felt good and every club I picked up was doing what it was supposed to. I was even using the 25-35 mph wind to land some shots on a couple of the greens at different distances. Not every shot was spot on, of course, but every shot was clean. I worked my way up to my driver and was having fun showing off to the teenaged boys who were trying to outdo me a couple stalls down (not a problem, only one of the three could even hit the ball).
I had just finished with my driver and was starting to cool down with my 7 iron when the “eyes” came my way. A little girl in all pink shorts and top – couldn’t be cuter – was walking with a man, probably her grandfather, on their way to the lower portion of the range. They were coming from behind me so I hadn’t seen them yet, but I heard something to the effect of “well, you can hit it like that when you get older and have more muscles” as they were approaching. I didn’t know he was talking about me. As they were passing, I turned my head and saw them. She practically giggled when I looked at her and I smiled and went back to my business. The man then stopped, and sat her down on the bench right there to just watch me. He made comments like “see how smooth she swings” and “just like that” and “doesn’t her swing look smooth and easy.”
First, I’ve never had anyone point to my swing as the right way to do things. That was cool. Even better than that, though, was the look of awe on this little girl’s face. When I waved to her as they walked away, she waved back and grabbed her grandpa and giggled into him.
I switched to my sand wedge and my lefty club to finish out the last few balls and proceeded to dunk the 50 yard basket in a final hoorah. Good outing all around I’d say. Good outing. Thanks, little girl.