#126 Web TV: How Challenging Is Golf - An Interview With Rhonda Purvis

How Challenging Is Golf - An Interview With Rhonda Purvis

I thought that this week we would have another Tuesday Talk With Tiff since we haven’t done it for a while. It’s about time we started having some more conversations with some lovely golfers.

Below is a transcription of the interview with Rhonda. I look forward to you getting some insights.

Tiff: I have the lovely Rhonda Purvis here with me today. Welcome.

Rhonda: Tiff’s wonderful. Thank you very much Tiff, thanks for agreeing to interview me, I’m privileged, thank you.

Tiff: I feel honoured to have you here, so, thank you. We’re going to hear a bit of back ground about Rhonda before we get into the golf side of things. Rhonda is a gung-ho tennis player, is it the last two years you have won the club championships?

Rhonda: I have and at my tender young age, I won’t tell you how old I am because I only look 35. I have been very fortunate and I have won, the last two years running, the club championships. The tennis champion at Bayview tennis club.

Tiff: How long have you been playing tennis?

Rhonda: Probably too long Tiff. I think I started playing and having lessons at about 8 years of age. Our family was a tennis family, with a surname of David, what else could you expect?

Tiff: Of course. That would only make you about 38?

Rhonda: Yes, right, oh I love her even more.

Tiff: Rhonda, we met about two years ago?

Rhonda: Yes, two years ago.

Tiff: You wanted to have golf lessons? Rhonda, being a tennis player, coming into golf, me being a tennis player coming into golf, everyone thinks tennis players pick it up very quickly and easily. What was your initial experience with golf?

Rhonda: My initial experience was, oh my God, this is not easy. Everyone that you speak to tells you, just as Tiff has said, that as a tennis player you will pick it up easily. A few lessons you’ll be fine. That is not the case. It’s damn hard work!

I think we are all very lucky, those of us who do have Tiff as an instructor, we are very fortunate because she is passionate about her golf and she takes the time to tell you what you are doing wrong. I just can’t thank her enough because I am starting to improve.

But, it has taken two years and I was getting very, very despondent with it, thinking that I am never going to pick this up. I changed my attitude, I thought I am going to do this because my family, as in my brother, my two sisters and their children are fantastic golfers and I am feeling a little bit left out. We are all getting on and I don’t think I can play tennis and run around the court for too much longer, so I have put my mind to golf and that’s what I am doing. With Tiff’s help, I am finally improving.

Tiff: Well you do work full time so it’s also quite a challenge for you to fit the time in to practice because you only really get to have a weekly lesson and then you practice on Sundays?

Rhonda: Yes, that’s true. I have been going to the Terrey Hills golf range and sometimes after school I go on a Monday afternoon, I might try and go on a Thursday afternoon, but hopefully the day before I have a lesson with Tiff, so that she can see I have been practicing (Tiff: and the improvement) and the improvement, of course.

Tiff: It is a journey and I remember when Rhonda had just started playing, having lessons with me and we got her into a program that I run up at Palm Beach. I used to find it quite amusing because I would watch her play a shot and she would have a groan straight after it.

Rhonda: This is true, always.

Tiff: It was constant and I would say, Rhonda, stop groaning, it’s difficult, it’s challenging, it’s going to take time for you to develop things in your game and you know that thing, being a tennis player, and the expectation that you had to be able to do it straight away?

Rhonda: Yes, it was.

Tiff: You thought: I am an accomplished tennis player; I should be able to do it and it was like starting all over again?

Rhonda: Yes, very much so. As I said earlier, it is practice. You have to find the time to practice. As Tiff said, working full time, it is difficult, you can’t put in the time like those who are not working and it does make a difference. It’s going to be a slower process for you to actually achieve what you want to do. It’s two years now and as Tiff has said, I am on the next level and it makes me feel good and ready to keep going. I can’t always have a lesson every week, which is unfortunate because being a teacher, I have exams, reports and sometimes it’s difficult. (Tiff: School holiday camps in other countries?) Yes, I’m lucky.

I feel as though I have improved a lot and it’s really thanks to Tiff. If ever any of my friends wanted to take up golf I would be saying you must come to Tiff. She is passionate about her game and has all the knowledge. She takes videos of you and you are able to look back and see exactly what she means.

Her Tuesday Tips are just fantastic. I find the time to read those and then I think, I’m going to practice that and they work, let me tell you.

Tiff: That’s fabulous from what I see compared to when you first started, you didn’t know how to do anything, you didn’t even know how to hold a golf club?

We come here to the Terrey Hills Par 3 to work on Rhonda’s game and she is now getting some pars every time we come out and play (she almost got a birdie this afternoon which is really exciting, her first one, just missed).

She is hitting the ball straighter and has a much better understanding of pitching and chipping and what clubs to use for pitch shots and what clubs to use to chip and we are getting the strategy in place for your putting as well?

It’s really exciting to see. Even though you say, I think I’m improving, can you actually feel it?

Rhonda: Yes. I feel more confident and I think when you go out on the golf course it’s lovely that you can say to Tiff, I think I’m going to use an 8 iron here and when Tiff agrees with you, you think, YES.

Tiff: Oh, I’ve got it right.

Rhonda: Yes, you can feel the improvement.

Tiff: You don’t feel like guessing it now? We have worked very hard on getting specific things happening for you.

Rhonda: Even with putting, with Tiff’s wonderful Tips and I’m not going to give those away to you (you have to come and have lessons for that).

Tiff: There are a few secrets, you only get those if you come and have lessons with me.

Rhonda: That’s right. What she tells you works and I feel much better about my golf and I’m happy to come to golf. I don’t groan any more, I just think, oh dear, that was a bad shot, I need to do this. You can tell the things you are doing wrong as well. If you hit the ball and it slides along the ground, then you know you have not come back on the right angle or you haven’t come into your body, or you haven’t flowed out.

Tiff: Touched the grass?

Rhonda: All those things. There is so much you have to remember. It’s just about being confident and feeling good about yourself.

Tiff: Absolutely. I know you have limited time but it’s putting time in. I see the difference, sometimes it could be only a week’s difference and it’s just that small amount of time that you have spent, the diligence at the driving range with a specific thing we want to work on and then the next week I think, wow, how good is that. Sometimes it might take a month or maybe two months for that thing to kick in.

Rhonda: When it does you know the practice has been worthwhile.

Tiff: Rhonda hasn’t got her handicap yet, so for those people out there wondering if she does have one, she’s not at the stage of joining a club, she could quite easily play off a handicap of 45, that’s not a problem for her, so really, what’s the next stage for you Rhonda. Where do you feel you are going from here because I’m interested and I’m sure whoever is listening is quite interested too.

Rhonda: I think I will still be working full time for another year, so it’s still going to be a little bit of a problem to progress more quickly. I’m happy with that because it’s my lifestyle but I would like to join a club and join your clinics and hopefully go from there. I do have to make the time and it is, as everybody knows, time management.

Tiff: You are very busy though.

Rhonda: Yes, I am.

Tiff: She works all the time.

Rhonda: I volunteer for a lot of things, as Tiff knows. I am a pianist as well.

Tiff: And tutors after school and plays tennis at night (Rhonda: Yes) and all that sort of thing. Rhonda is finding some time in her week to go and practice because we do see it coming together. Which is really, exciting. It will be great to see, when she gets to that stage of wanting to play, do you think you will be playing competition as well?

Rhonda: I would like to play comp. I really would, because as I said earlier, you can’t play tennis all your life, maybe you can, but you won’t run to the ball. I think tennis is running. I meant to say also, earlier on, that tennis is a wrist game, I believe, whereas golf is not. You have to keep a firm wrist and that’s what I found really hard to start with.

Tiff: The body movement too, in the swing. We have been, both being tennis players, and I’m sure you have found this too, when I first started I was very armsy, I didn’t know any different anyway, and that’s the same as happened to Rhonda and all the other tennis players I have taught along the way. We start with the arms and because we have grown up hitting balls as we strike, that’s what we do with a golf swing, you automatically think like that. Actually. It’s not the case, you’re starting to discover how much more of the body that you need now.

Rhonda: Yes. That’s right. Very true.

Tiff: Well, we would love to thank Rhonda for coming and sharing her experience. Do you recommend lessons? I know that you said it earlier, but we’ll just recap on the lesson aspect and how important it is if you want to play better golf.

Rhonda: Yes. You have to have lessons and you have really got to be consistent with them. You can go away and practice and you could be practicing the wrong way. You really do need to have lessons to make sure that what you are doing is the correct thing. Otherwise it’s going to take twice as long to find any improvement.

Tiff: Bad habits sneak in.

Rhonda: Yes, they do.

Tiff: Then we golf pros have to break them down and we have to start all over again.

Rhonda: We do. We do. That’s half the fun of it.

Tiff: Thanks Rhonda for coming and sharing your golf experience with us.

Rhonda: I hope someone will pick up the points that I have shared and be inspired.

Tiff: Have an awesome day, thanks Rhonda.

Rhonda: And remember, tee it high and let it fly.

We hope you enjoyed the interview and got some great takeaways from Rhonda's experience. You may be able to relate to her.

Have an absolutely awesome day, take care, and remember; Tee it high and Let it fly.