Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
"Get a grip, Stan" was the first thing the good lady wife Kathryn said to me as I attempted a u-turn on a busy road near Riffa in my desperate attempt to locate Bahrain Golf Club.
It wasn't my fault we were running late for our first golfing lesson, Kathryn had to stop off somewhere on an urgent appointment before we left so temperatures were running slightly higher than outside the car.
Perhaps once we got into the swing of things we'd both cool down, which was exactly the case once we located the driving range in the middle of the desert and spotted Chris Kelby, the Royal Golf Club's head teaching PGA professional and GulfWeekly's GolfScene columnist, waiting patiently for us.
Fortunately Chris is used to teaching complete novices as well as established players trying to improve their game.
On the plus point we came with no bad habits. Chris explained what the set of clubs meant, which ones sent the ball high and which ones send the ball long ... providing you can hit it, of course.
"Get a grip, Stan," he said because the way you hold the club is all important in this game. Left hand first, cover your thumb with your right hand, let your little digit wrap itself round for good measure, knees slightly bent, legs apart and swing, baby, swing.
It worked. We both hit our balls although Kathryn appeared to crack them further, obviously thinking she was giving my head a good whacking.
Mine may not have gone very far but they were straight and solid in typical Taurean-style - balls flying just over the 50 metres mark with a seven iron.
We were left with a couple of buckets of balls to practice with because, as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. I may bring a club to the office just to keep my hand in.
I think I'm getting a grip of this game ... more next week.
