Pioneer

A beginning of the new year and a new decade is a perfect time to look back upon on my first two years of professional golf career.  I was the first Slovenian player with a full-card for the Symetra tour and in the Ladies European Tour. This has given me a personal experience of what pioneer in a professional sport means. With the exception of some of the most important tournaments where my family members came to support me I have been traveling and competing all around the globe completely alone, without any supporting team like a coach or a regular caddy.

Professional golf differs a lot from other individual sports that are popular in my home country Slovenia. Alpine skiing, for example, has traditionally a clear cultural place in our society and this brings along also a very much stable and generous financing.

Three years ago when I started my professional career, money, equipment, clothing, and logistics were my main concerns; to some degree they still are. As the only Slovene on tour, I have to find my own way.  I faced new challenges by myself, which are sometimes banal since they aren’t in anyway related to the art of golf or improving my game; they are the formalities and logistics in the golfing business. As it’s in my nature, I try to see these challenges as another lesson for my mental toughness, but sometimes I do fantasize of a perfect world where I would not need to think about these things and instead use the time to rest and recharge the batteries.

Everything above has made me truly appreciate meaning of the word “pioneer”. I believe that a successful pioneer has to be a very stubborn person who goes further than anybody else. I am sure that my passion for golf is going to keep me going and cheering for all the new players who can emerge and join me on the journey. Gremo Pia Babnik at her LET final qualifier!!

Please comment on your thoughts of pioneering a new product or business and if you have any questions. Glad to help anyone that is at the beginning of a professional golf journey!

 

The value of women’s golf

Magical Kenya Ladies Open was personally the highlight of 2019 season since it was an unexpected inaugural event on Ladies European Tour plus an exciting adventure to a new country. In addition, I was fascinated by the way Kenya got promoted as a tourist destination through women’s golf.

Magical Kenya tourist agency sent a remarkable message to the rest of the world by successfully hosting a ladies golf tournament. Making their country accessible, secure and comfortable enough for women athletes speaks volumes. I truly had a wonderful experience. But I also don’t have problems with extra large insects or new/different cuisine, e.g. curries, ugali,.. 🙂

Also I had an additional experience from the rest of the players due to some unplanned circumstances which ended up being the most memorable part of the whole visits. That was when I witnessed the other side of Kenya through the hospitality of local people when most needed.

I missed, partly due to my forgetfulness, the scheduled bus transfer from Mombasa airport to the Vipingo Ridge Resort, which resulted in me getting stranded with my dad at the airport at 4am. A taxi driver then helped us out by helping us contact the tournament organizers.

After a brief moment on the phone, our taxi driver handed me the phone. As I answered the lady on the other end, I started to panic imagining various bad scenarios that could happen. I felt vulnerable in the situation because I had no idea who I was talking to, could barely understand what the lady had asked and started to question our taxi driver.

However, I quickly shrugged off those negative thoughts and allowed myself to properly appreciate the hospitality shown to us. I witnessed how our taxi driver and the lady from the phone were going above and beyond to try and help us get on our way safely after a tiring journey. They helped us out patiently while also making us feel comfortable and welcomed. As a result, our adventure in Kenya was able to start happily and we were beyond grateful for the kindness and help from our first contacts in Kenya.

Zakaj Golf

V državi, kjer golf ni tako popularen, večkrat dobim vprašanje ZAKAJ GOLF. Kot mlada deklica sem želela plesati, in najraje od vseh športov gledala umetnostno drsanje.  Torej zakaj golf?

V gimnazijskih letih sem našla svoj odgovor. Ker se tudi v golfu prepletata dva najljubša elementa: šport in umetnost.  Golf me je zasvojil, ko sem ugotovila da je prav tako čudovita kombinacija umetnosti in športa. Zamah je tehnično in atletsko zelo zahteven, kar priznajo tudi bivši profesionalni športniki iz drugih panog. Po drugi strani pa golf ni le zamah in kdo bo najdlje udaril;  jaz putanje in chipanje bolj vidim kot umetnost, saj je sam gib minimalen in fin, poleg tega pa putanje z branjem zelenic in hitrostjo zelenic spominja bolj na umetnost kot pa na šport. Včasih sem bila jezna, ko so znanci menili da golf ni šport, ampak zdaj se zavedam, da ima poleg športnih tudi veliko drugih značilnosti, ki to igro naredijo še bolj privlačno.

V zvezi s tem se marsikdo vpraša, zakaj golf v Sloveniji ni tako razvit kot na primer smučanje?  Eden izmed razlogov za to je zagotovo tudi majhno število igrišč. Večino ameriških igralcev, ki so začeli igrati golf v mladosti, so odraščali v neposredni bližini golf igrišča. Meni se zdi, da je v Ameriki toliko golf igrišč kot pri nas Mercatorjev. Poleg tega se stare palice lahko kupi po ugodni ceni.

V ZDA sem igrala na igriščih, kjer sem spoznala  veliko mladih poslovnežev, ki so zelo hitro postali zasvojeni z golfom. Ne vidim razloga, razen stereotipov in predsodkov o golfu, ki bi preprečevale slovenskim poslovnežem, da poskusijo in resnično dajo priložnost tej čudoviti igri. V Sloveniji je žal še vedno prisoten stereotip, da je golf predvsem za starejše in premožnejše, zato upam, da bom s svojimi rezultati in promocijo golfa še naprej podirala ta stereotip in dokazala nasprotno: Golf je šport za vse! Več o tem pa v naslednjem blogu.

Revija Golf Club

Golf bag WANTED

The best teacher are tough experiences when you are out of comfort zone and encountering problems. The past week was definitely the most educational week of the past two months regarding my golf game.

The reason for many difficulties last week at Ladies European Tour Access Series was that my luggage got hold up and didn’t arrive with me to the final destination, Helsinki Finland. Even more the airline couldn’t tell me it’s exact location. It has happen before that my clubs didn’t arrive with me to the destination when transferring flights. So I already knew I will have problems since my eye contacts are with my toiletries in golf bag luggage and I don’t have my golf shoes, umbrella, or elastic bands to warm up. The biggest problem will definitely be my golf clubs, which are fitted just for me and it is hard to find something similar because I need something in between of regular women’s or men’s. I knew the drill but honestly it didn’t bother me that much to not have my clubs for few days. I could exploit this time to really focus on my new technique drills and even hitting without golf shoes which my coach Uros Gregoric wanted me to do for practice anyway. The little wins like finding a pair of forgotten eye contacts in my backpack helped me get through as well. I just had to make sure I focused on the positive things.

I don’t remember the last time I practiced without my golf shoes, because I would slip even with my best spikes underneath golf shoes. However Uros wanted me to use less rotational forces and more vertical forces when striking golf balls. Having flat shoe soles would help me spring up more, otherwise I would easily lose balance. But snickers were only meant for practice. Anyway, I tried the first day and I really liked the way the ball flew. The feeling was obviously different and uncomfortable but it worked. All I needed was repetitions, which I got since my goal was to work on only technique. If I got my clubs back in time, working on feel or tempo would be pointless. For putting I have also been making some huge changes in put stroke so I needed as much of technique practice as I could get and using someone else’s putter helped me to set technique on the top of my practice list.

In many aspects, it seemed like everything happened for a purpose. I played the practice rounds with two different sets and worked on my techniques while getting to know new course. But then I had to play the first round with rented clubs as well since mine haven’t arrived yet. The day before  I measured the distances for these clubs, and tried to get adjusted as much as I could. I kept saying to myself that all I need is to hold on just one round. After the first few holes I realized that the biggest difference is actually in the putters. Since I had no benchmark like I have with mine it was very hard to adjust to the speed of greens. However, I have always been telling myself that every time I put I can learn something about the speed and get feedback as long as I pay attention to the tempo I put with. So I managed to bounce back on the back nine and gained trust in the new putter.
After my first roundy clubs arrived, all in one piece and nothing missing. I was relieved to see them and not have to worry if they accidentally would get completely lost. But iI have also started to feel pressure and expectations from my own clubs once I got them back.

During the beginning of the week, I managed to turn the unfortunate happenings into a great learning experience. All I needed to do was to find something good instead of having high expectations about my game once my clubs arrived. That was rather easy since I was really excited to finally hit 20 meters more and consistently with my driver and be able to trust the distances of my woods. Playing the practice round without your own clubs gives you some uncertainty for some club choices or tee shot lines. At the beginning of the tournament, I told myself to only go for greens in two on par 5s if I have a great lie and less than 3w in hands.
Although I had mixed emotions about getting clubs back I am proud of how I turned around all the things that seemed against me and used them in my favor.  I wanted this blog to be a reminder to myself and everyone else, that it is possible and very valuable.