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In this video, Golf Monthly's Dan Parker talks through the eight most frustrating problems and situations that only left-handed golfers face. Whether it's a lack of choice in the pro shop or some unnecessary remarks from your playing partners, left handers have certainly got the short straw when it comes to golf so hopefully right handers will be more sympathetic towards them after watching this video!
Transcript
00:00Do you use one of these? It's a left-handed golf club. Now around five to seven percent of golfers
00:06are left-handed and they face a lot of problems. I'm one of those golfers and I find there's so
00:12many problems left-handers face that right-handers don't. I'm going to give you eight examples today
00:16here at the beautiful Peterborough Milton Golf Club about the eight problems that only left-handers
00:21face. Right so the first and the biggest problem for left-handers is getting hold of this and it's
00:26golf equipment. All left-handers will know that as much as pro shops and retailers try their hardest
00:31there just isn't that much stock equipment for left-handers. Your right-handed mate can walk into
00:35a shop and pick up pretty much whatever they want whereas us lefties have to sit and wait and order
00:40it. It's really quite frustrating and as much as you can get demo clubs tried out and you can get
00:45your
00:45custom fitting done you can't pick it up stock and it goes the same for gloves as well. You'll see
00:50in
00:50a pro shop loads of gloves for right-handers all the left-handed gloves stocked up but when it comes
00:55to right-handed gloves you'll find a couple in some scrappy old packets they'll be size XL to double
01:00XL and nothing in between. So equipment, gloves, anything for us lefties it's a bit awkward it's
01:06really hard to get hold of. The next problem only left-handers face is that they can't get any hand
01:12-me-down
01:12clubs from their often right-handed parents or grandparents. Now I've got my dad's old JPX 900
01:18irons here that he's just finished with he's just upgraded. Maybe I'd like to have a go with them as
01:22his son maybe he'd give them to me. Obviously because I'm a lefty I can't use them it's very
01:26frustrating and a lot of beginner left-handed golfers will understand that as well that perhaps
01:30they want to try their first set and they don't want to invest and a parent or grandparent plays.
01:35They're often right-handed the clubs often don't work and it's really really frustrating for left-handed
01:40golfers. One of the next problems only left-handers face is people forgetting you're left-handed
01:45especially at the start of the round and especially on the first tee box where they'll stand right behind
01:49where you want to swing. Now people will ultimately learn throughout the round that you're left-handed
01:53and start standing in the right position but that can take a while so right-handers remember we're
01:58left-handed and remember where to stand. Right my playing partner just said I was very fortunate to
02:05be on this side of the tree and this is another problem that left-handers face is right-handed
02:09playing partners forgetting they're left-handed and saying oh you're fine you've got a great shot here.
02:14Obviously for a right-hander they do but for me as a lefty and other lefties out there what am
02:19I
02:19supposed to do with this I'm in a terrible position and doubly I'm wound up because he just said I
02:25was
02:25very fortunate to be here so see what I can do with this. Not bad in the end. So another
02:36problem only
02:37left-handed golfers face is overhanging trees on a tee. Now I'm on the 15th hole here there's a great
02:42example
02:42and as a left-hander likes to fade the ball I come nice and left on the tee and I'll
02:46often find
02:47there's little branches and bits of tree overhanging my sight line. Now of course some right-handers
02:52might find this as well on certain tee boxes but I think it happens to lefties a lot more. People
02:57are right-handed won't see that and so they won't get trimmed away and give me some more space. Now
03:01that's in my sight line. How would I get on hitting it? Let's have a little go.
03:14Well I've hit a perfect draw by accident but they were certainly in my eye line and it's certainly
03:19very annoying for left-handers. So another problem for us lefties is our right-handed playing partners
03:25again forgetting we're left-handed and offering us their shiny new driver to have a hit. Now this annoys me
03:30so much because I'd love to try the driver it looks lovely they've been hitting it really well
03:34they'll hand it over to me have a go with that and I can't and it's very frustrating and it's
03:38another
03:38thing that right-handers do to lefties is they forget so another problem for lefties not being
03:43able to try out your mate shiny new equipment. So whilst this map might be an exception to the rule
03:48because it's been very well looked after another problem that left-handed golfers face is having to
03:52play their ball out of right-handers footsteps especially on winter mats on a little par three like
03:57this when I want to play with the ball off the deck I've got to rummage around to try and
04:02find a half
04:02decent lie on this map on the other hand right-handers I've got a beautiful clean lie yet another problem
04:08for lefties. Now another annoying thing for left-handers is their playing partners comparing
04:14their short game to the great Phil Mickelson because he's left-handed and that unfortunately
04:18isn't the reality for most left-handers I don't compare right-handers drives to every single Bryson
04:23DeChambeau bomb do I so I don't think it's fair to compare left-handed short games to Phil Mickelson
04:28so should I give you a bit of an idea of what our short games are really like? Bunker in
04:32front of me
04:32about six feet of green to work with let's see how we actually get on us lefties
04:44turns out I'm actually quite good. So those are the eight most annoying things that left-handers face out
04:49on the golf course a lot of them were about right-handed golfers forgetting that we're left-handers
04:54and even my cameraman Howard kept setting up on the wrong side of me throughout this whole shoot
04:57so what do you think at home am I just moaning too much or have I come up with some
05:01really good
05:02ideas there and are you left-handers relating at home let me know down in the comments below
05:06but for now from Peterborough Milton Golf Club see you next time
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