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!
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00:00 Do you use one of these? It's a left-handed golf club. Now around 5 to 7%
00:05 of golfers are left-handed and they face a lot of problems. I'm one of those
00:10 golfers and I find there's so many problems left-handers face that
00:13 right-handers don't. I'm going to give you eight examples today here at the
00:17 beautiful Peter Milton Golf Club about the eight problems that only left-handers
00:21 face. Right so the first and the biggest problem for left-handers is getting hold
00:25 of this and it's golf equipment. All left-handers will know that as much as
00:29 pro shops and retailers try their hardest there just isn't that much stock
00:32 equipment for left-handers. Your right-handed mate can walk into a shop
00:35 and pick up pretty much whatever they want whereas us lefties have to sit and
00:39 wait and order it. It's really quite frustrating and as much as you can get
00:43 demo clubs tried out and you can get your custom fitting done you can't pick
00:47 it up stock. And it goes the same for gloves as well. You'll see in a pro shop
00:51 loads of gloves for right-handers, all the left-handed gloves stocked up but
00:55 when it comes to right-handed gloves you'll find a couple in some scrappy old
00:58 packets that we size XL to double XL and nothing in between. So equipment, gloves,
01:03 anything for us lefties it's a bit awkward, it's really hard to get hold of.
01:07 The next problem only left-handers face is that they can't get any hand-me-down
01:12 clubs from their often right-handed parents or grandparents. Now I've got my
01:16 dad's old JPX 900 irons here that he's just finished with, he's just upgraded.
01:20 Maybe I'd like to have a go with them as his son, maybe he'd give them to me.
01:23 Obviously because I'm a lefty I can't use them. It's very frustrating and a lot
01:28 of beginner left-handed golfers will understand that as well, that perhaps
01:30 they want to try their first set and they don't want to invest in a parent or
01:34 grandparent plays. They're often right-handed, the clubs often don't work
01:38 and it's really really frustrating for left-handed golfers. One of the next
01:42 problems only left-handers face is people forgetting you're left-handed,
01:45 especially at the start of the round and especially on the first tee box where
01:48 they'll stand right behind where you want to swing. Now people will ultimately
01:52 learn throughout the round that you're left-handed and start standing in the
01:54 right position but that can take a while. So right-handers, remember we're
01:58 left-handed and remember where to stand. Right, my playing partner just said I was
02:04 very fortunate to be on this side of the tree and this is another problem that
02:08 left-handers face, is right-handed playing partners forgetting they're
02:11 left-handed and saying oh you're fine you got a great shot here. Obviously for
02:15 a right-hander they do, but for me as a lefty, you know the lefties out there,
02:18 what am I supposed to do with this? I'm in a terrible position and doubly I'm
02:23 wound up because he just said I was very fortunate to be here. So see what I can
02:28 do with this. Not bad in the end. So another problem only left-handed golfers
02:37 face is overhanging trees on a tee. Now I'm on the 15th hole here, there's a
02:42 great example and as a left-hander who likes to fade the ball, I come nice and
02:45 left on the tee and I'll often find there's little branches and bits of tree
02:49 overhanging my sight line. Now of course some right-handers might find this as
02:53 well on certain tee boxes, but I think it happens to lefties a lot more. People
02:57 who are right-handed won't see that and so they won't get trimmed away and give me
03:00 some more space. Now that's in my sight line, how would I get on hitting it? Let's
03:05 have a little go.
03:08 Well I've hit a perfect draw by accident, but they were certainly in my eye line
03:18 and it's certainly very annoying for left-handers. So another problem for us
03:22 lefties is our right-handed playing partners again forgetting we're
03:26 left-handed and offering us their shiny new driver to have a hit. Now this
03:30 annoys me so much because I'd love to try the driver, it looks lovely, they've
03:33 been hitting it really well, they'll hand it over to me, have a go with that and I
03:37 can't and it's very frustrating. It's another thing that right-handers do to
03:40 lefties is they forget. So another problem for lefties is not being able to try out
03:44 your mate's shiny new equipment. So whilst this map might be an exception to the
03:48 rule because it's been very well looked after, another problem that left-handed
03:51 golfers face is having to play their ball out of right-handers footsteps.
03:55 Especially on winter mats on a little par-3 like this when I want to play with
03:59 the ball off the deck, I've got to rummage around to try and find a half
04:02 decent lie on this mat. On the other hand, right-handers have got a beautiful
04:06 clean lie. Yet another problem for lefties. Now another annoying thing for
04:11 left-handers is their playing partners comparing their short game to the great
04:15 Phil Mickelson because he's left-handed and that unfortunately isn't the reality
04:19 for most left-handers. I don't compare right-handers drives to every single
04:23 Bryson DeChambeau bomb, do I? So I don't think it's fair to compare left-handed
04:27 short games to Phil Mickelson. So shall I give you a bit of an idea of what our
04:30 short games are really like? Bunker in front of me, about six feet of green to
04:33 work with. Let's see how we actually get on, us lefties.
04:39 Turns out I'm actually quite good. So those are the eight most annoying things
04:48 that left-handers face out on the golf course. A lot of them were about
04:52 right-handed golfers forgetting that we're left-handers and even my
04:54 cameraman Howard kept setting up on the wrong side of me throughout this whole
04:57 shoot. So what do you think at home? Am I just moaning too much or have I come up
05:01 with some really good ideas there and are you left-handers relating at home?
05:04 Let me know down in the comments below. But for now from Peter Milton Golf Club
05:09 see you next time.