Different Strokes

TUCSON — My first golf lesson, from a macho pro at a Caribbean resort, was so miserable that I didn't play again for five years.

I wilted under the broiling sun and the scornful gaze of my instructor, who ordered me to do this, do that--rarely disguising his disgust at having to teach a nervous neophyte instead of a real golfer who could appreciate his pithy pointers. I ditched the sport faster than I could yell "Fore!"

But then I married a man who believes that a bad day on the golf course is better than a good day just about anywhere else. David wanted to play as a pair wherever a tee time could be scored--especially on vacation.

With much pessimism, I reluctantly tried golf again last May. This time, however, I chose a female instructor at a Tucson resort program designed for and by women. The difference knocked the chip off my shoulder and into my shots. Three days of lessons and one round of golf at the Lodge at Ventana Canyon, with its two championship 18-hole courses nestled in a valley of the Santa Catalina Mountains, ignited my enthusiasm for the game.

The National Golf Foundation estimates 27 million people play the sport nationwide, and 10 million of those folks do so while on trips. Forty percent of all beginners are women--at 1.2 million last year, the fastest-growing segment in the sport.

For many female novices like me, though, golf has seemed like an intimidating sport dominated by men. Only after more resorts began offering programs specifically for us--with instructors (often women) who understand our learning style, our body shape, our sensibilities--was I willing to give it another shot.

I chose the Lodge at Ventana Canyon for its beginner golf schools. A three-day program called Women to the Fore was an easygoing introduction to the sport, not the week of killer training offered at some places.

On my first morning at the lodge, instructor Allison Carter and I found a spot among a dozen other golfers on the practice range.

"Women tend to like more explanation, a more supportive teaching style and a more social environment than men do," said Carter, a Ladies Professional Golf Assn. veteran with a decade of teaching experience. "Male teachers seldom understand that more nurturing approach because guys just want to be told what to do and then left to do it."