Tee Time!

PASSIONS | by SHERRY STRIPLING

IN SPRING A WOMAN’S THOUGHTS TURN TO TEE PARTIES, also known as golf foursomes. Golf teaches us patience, humility and to laugh at our friends, if not ourselves.

Somehow women remain the minority in golf – less than 25 percent of adult players. So take advantage of the sweet deals golf courses offer “the gals”, as we’re still called in the plaid-pants-and-cigar world of clubhouses.

American Express and Play Golf America dub June Women’s Golf Month, when participating courses offer free lessons for women 14 years of age and older. Look for other free or low-cost deals, too, such as club rentals, golf rule reviews, food or fashion shows. The card company even offers free online lessons via golf.com.

The course near my home holds a women’s clinic on Tuesday nights throughout the spring and early summer. For $5, we get a glass of champagne, range balls and a lesson on a different aspect of the game from a T-shaped hunk in tight golf slacks (or is that the champagne talking?).

Then, in the long evenings of gold-tipped twilight, we follow up the lesson with a discounted round with built-in golf mates.

Other clubs, such as the fabulous Glacier View near Glacier National Park in Montana, offer women free weekly clinics and a one-month “try-me” membership for all the golf you can play in June.

These benefits are lumped under “golf development” – ways for courses to grow interest. Ask around for good deals at your neighborhood course.

And if you don’t get enough golf in June, try July, which is “Family Month,” when many courses offer parent-child clinics, including “Take Your Daughter to the Course Week”, July 5-11.