Our golf club does not let everyone enter onto the golf course. You need to know how to play golf, and know the golf etiquette and golf rules. As new members we did not know what that really meant, and kept asking ourselves and our pro how difficult it was to get a green card.

Although every club and organization may have slightly different rules, let me tell you what our club requires, which is built on the requirement that the German golf association (DGV) makes.

We had to learn the golf rules well enough to be able to answer 10 out of 15 golf questions correctly. More important was the golf etiquette questions, where all 10 questions had to be answered correctly. For this test we were allowed to use the rulebook and try to find the correct answer.

It was also required that we were able to play 5 holes on the golf course, and on average not use more than 3 strokes over par, which would be a handicap of 54. To do that it takes a lot of practice on the driving range, and that is where we mostly got our first lessons.