GWL Challenge #1 - Golf

From front to back: Jeff, Paul, Mande & Karl

The Gaijin Weight Loss Challenge kicked off last night with our first Wednesday activity. We went to the driving range in Makuhari to hit golf balls. I used to do this as a stress reliever back in my bachelorette days, but I had not touched a golf club in 8 years! To be honest, I had to ask Jeff for some pointers on how to hold the club and how to swing properly.

While Paul had never swung a club in his life (Tennis is his sport of choice.), and Karl apparently had gone to driving ranges in the past, Jeff was the pro among us. He used to be really into golf and he actually owns a set of clubs.


Jeff in all his glory


Let's get down to business here. Makuhari's driving range has free parking and charges 500 yen for unlimited usage. You can rent a club for 200 yen. And, you can fill your basket with golf balls - 600 yen for 55 balls if you use the 2nd floor, and 50 balls if you use the 1st floor.

The weather was perfect, the company was swell, and a good time was had by all, except maybe Paul, who hit the golf ball machine more times than he hit the ball, and who took longer to get through his basket because he kept missing. Even though we gave him shit for sucking so bad, we assured him that he would kick our asses in tennis.

Paul - wishing it was a tennis racket

Boys will be boys, so as you can imagine, they wanted to use the last of our balls to make a competition. We could earn points based on the "straightness" of our drives, first using a wood, and then using an iron. Being the only girl, I couldn't care less about points and was much more worried about relationships and how everyone is "feeling." But, screw that, I won 2nd place in the wood compe, and 3rd place in the iron compe. I have no idea what we are earning these points for...but we'll have to think of something. They are already brainstorming about good competitions for upcoming sports.

Mande getting ready to go pro