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!
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
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 your
00:45custom fitting done you can't pick it up stock and it goes the same for gloves as well. You'll see in
00:50a pro shop loads of gloves for right-handers all the left-handed gloves stocked up but when it comes
00:55are 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-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 his
01:22son maybe he'd give them to me obviously because I'm a lefty I can't use them it's very frustrating
01:27and a lot of beginner left-handed golfers will understand that as well that perhaps they want
01:31to 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 another lefty's out there what am i supposed
02:20to do with this i'm in a terrible position and doubly i'm wound up because he just said i was very
02:25fortunate to be here so see what i can do with this not bad in the end so another problem only left-handed
02:37golfers face is overhanging trees on a tee now i'm on the 15th hole here there's a great example and as a
02:43left-hander who likes to fade the ball i come nice and left on the tee and i'll often find there's
02:47little branches and bits of tree overhanging my sight line now of course some right-handers might
02:52find this as well on certain tee boxes but i think it happens to lefties a lot more people who are
02:57right-handed won't see that and so they won't get trimmed away and give me some more space now
03:02that'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 it's another
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 find a half
04:02decent lie on this mat on the other hand right handers i've got a beautiful clean lie yet another
04:08problem for 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
04:31bunker in front of me about 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
04:49out on the golf course a lot of them were about right-handed golfers forgetting that we're left
04:54handers and even my cameraman howard kept setting up on the wrong side of me throughout this whole
04:57shoot so what do you think at home am i just moaning too much or have i come up with some really
05:02good ideas there and are you left-handers relating at home let me know down in the comments below but
05:07for now from peterborough milton golf club see you next time