The left side of frustrating
Aren't you on the wrong side of the ball?
By ROBERT TYCHKOWSKI, EDMONTON SUN
Anyone who golfs left-handed hears it at least once a season. You're lining up your drive on the first tee when a guy in the next foursome barks out: "Hey, you're standing on the wrong side of the ball.''
This is the same guy who asks if it's hot enough for ya when it's 30 C, or calls one of his few remaining friends at the office and asks if he's "workin' hard or hardly workin'.''
Ha ha ha!
The wrong side of the ball. I get it.
'Cause I'm standing on the opposite side as a righty. Oh, that's priceless. Watch your back, Robin Williams.
You can't teach somebody that kind of subtle, razor-sharp wit. Unfortunately, you can't beat him with clubs, either.
So you pretend you haven't heard it a million times before and you force yourself to chuckle at a line that would make a Grade 2 gym class roll its eyes.
No, it's not easy being a lefty. You can never find the equipment you're looking for, you have to translate instruction books and videos, and they won't let you send tee-box comedians scrambling for cover with a knock-down shot.
But there is hope. Back-to-back Masters victories by Mike Weir and Phil Mickelson are driving left-handed golf to the forefront of consciousness and acceptance.
"The biggest thing these two wins have done is legitimize left-handed play,'' said Texas-based Trey Owen, chairman of the National Association of Left-Handed Golfers.
THE DUMB JOKES
"If you get the dumb jokes anymore you have a legitimate comeback. But I honestly think there will be less and less of that now because Weir and Mickelson are putting lefties in more of a mainstream area.''
While the wins are a huge moral victory, success in the golf shops is another story. The search for left-handed stuff can still be maddening.
In Canada, because many kids shoot left in hockey, the percentage of left-handed golfers is about 30%, greater than anywhere else in the world. But in the U.S. the number is only seven per cent. And the U.S. market drives the industry, so left-handed equipment remains a difficult buy.
"Even though there are left-handed players winning big tournaments on the PGA, lefties in the States are still a relatively small marketplace,'' said Tyler Lefebvre, manager at de Boer's Golf Shoppe and Training Centre. "So companies just don't make as much left-handed equipment as right-handed equipment.''
Even PGA pros, when they see great new stuff on display at tournaments, are always asking the reps how long they have to wait before it comes out in left.
"If the company does make the club in left, you don't always get the same choices,'' said Lefebvre.
"There could be three or four different lofts available in a driver, but left-handed there might only be two.''
THAT'S DEDICATION?
Callaway dedicates just five per cent of its equipment to lefties.
Even though Steve Flesch (one of only six full-time PGA lefties) is a Cleveland guy, their new CG10 wedges don't come in lefts yet. The Nike 460 Ignite Driver comes in four lofts for righties, two for left (the 410 Ignite doesn't come in lefts at all). Of the 20 wedge brands listed in the 2004 Golf Equipment buyers guide, only nine are available left-handed (and eight of those nine offer fewer loft options for lefties).
"As far as finding equipment you can't always go with what you want,'' said Jason White, a left-handed assistant pro at Raven Crest. "When I wanted Taylor Made they didn't make a left-handed player's club so you end up going with Nike instead, which I don't think is as good a club. But it's coming around.''
It's better, at least, than it was 20 years ago when left-handed equipment didn't hit the market until a year after it came out in right, if at all.
"When you talk to people who played left 20 years ago, they'd walk into a store and they might be able to find one set,'' said Lefebvre.
"It's still that way down in the States; you go into a store and 95% of the inventory is right-handed. There might be one offering from Titleist, one offering from PING and Nike and that's it. You're not going to get all the choices.
''That's just because the numbers dictate it. They're not selling it so there's no point in bringing it in.''
And don't expect PING, Cleveland, Callaway and Nike to flood the marketplace with left-handed stuff because Weir and Mickelson won the last two Masters.
"It won't change a whole bunch,'' Lefebvre said. "What it might do is get people thinking it's acceptable to play left-handed, but in terms of the manufacturers it's going to take a significant bump in left-handed customers before it results in more equipment.''
COULD BE A WHILE
Hockey isn't exactly booming in the States, so it could be a while yet before a legion of lefties emerges with the power to demand equal opportunity. But Mickelson and Weir are at least blazing a trail, and making some inroads.
"The best thing I heard this year is that Titleist has a set of irons that Phil helped them design,'' said Owen.
"And they're only available in left- handed, no rights at all. That's huge.''
