Anyone else kick themselves everyday for not picking up golf when you were younger?

[RocktimusPryme]

I turn 25 in February so I suppose some of you would still consider me young. But when I look around at the opportunities available to young golfers, that just arent there for working stiffs like most of us it makes me wanna throw up. Whats worse is that to a certain extent at least I KNEW about these things when I was a kid. I remember my buddies talking about playing one of our local courses in tampa for half off after 3 when they got out of school, and and additional half off for being a student. Thats $9 bucks a round at a pretty decent Robert Trent Jones course!

I was on the website for TPC las vegas the other day, it was $10 bucks for junior golfers to play anytime....... That course is 120 for me, and probably $300 for most of you guys who done live here. Now dont get me wrong here I totally 100% from the bottom of my heart support courses letting kids play cheaply. I think thats wonderful I really do.

But I just wanna yell back at myself through time when I was about 13 or 14 "Hey, your never going to be any taller than 5'10", and your knees are going to stop working properly when your 17 so put the &AS;%$#@! basketball down!" I just think that seeing how far Ive came playing a little over a year and a half now what I could have done being able to play in high school on the golf team with access to practice everyday, and being able to play affordably at will. Not having to do this around having a job, just being able to focus on golf alone. Not that I think I would be a Tour Pro right now, but Im pretty sure I could have played in college somewhere.

[Razorhog]

Absolutely. I'm not from a "golf family" but my dad played a bit and my brother got into it in college. It took me until last summer, and I've been out of college 8 years.
One good thing is that I can actually afford to play now :)

[Spackler-esque]

I whole-heartedly regret not sticking with it consistently earlier. I'm 24 and got my first set of irons (Acer XDSs) twelve-ish years ago. Since then I have gone through periods of years where I barely played or, worse, didn't play at all. I can't help but think how much better I'd be and how much happier I'd be if I'd gotten more into the golf community sooner.

It really doesn't help that I'm the only one in my immediate family who plays... Oops.

[glebert]

But if I started younger then I wouldn't have a good excuse for being so bad!

My dad had tried golfing once (some sort of business outing) and was so frustrated he quit at the turn. Now that he has seen how much I love it I think he wishes he had given it more of a chance. Unfortunately his health is failing, so it just isn't going to happen.

I also have the excuse that the golf coach at our high school was one of the most conceited guys I have met. He now owns a driving range/mini golf business. I hear he is still a jerk.

[ks8829]

I turn 25 in February so I suppose some of you would still consider me young. But when I look around at the opportunities available to young golfers, that just arent there for working stiffs like most of us it makes me wanna throw up. Whats worse is that to a certain extent at least I KNEW about these things when I was a kid. I remember my buddies talking about playing one of our local courses in tampa for half off after 3 when they got out of school, and and additional half off for being a student. Thats $9 bucks a round at a pretty decent Robert Trent Jones course!

I am going to have my 14 year old son read this thread. He play High School Basketball on the freshman B team as a starting point guard. He is 5'6", 120 lbs. He said that he is going to try out for the High School golf team but every opportunity to play I ask and he turns down.

[JonnyGolf]

Yeah, I totally wish I would have played when I was a kid and in high school. I would have been on the high school golf team with Paul Goydos!

[atrapasuenos]

Absolutely yes. Sometimes I feel that I wasted 13 years of my life playing football for nothing, the only thing that left for me is a terrible back injury.

Regards!

[Voiceontapex]

I wish I had been into golf during high school so i could have tried out for the team or something

[RocktimusPryme]

I am going to have my 14 year old son read this thread. He play High School Basketball on the freshman B team as a starting point guard. He is 5'6", 120 lbs. He said that he is going to try out for the High School golf team but every opportunity to play I ask and he turns down.

Lol would hate to discourage anyone from playing basketball, because I still love it and still play pickup games. But the thing is with my athletic skill set (solid but nothing overwhelmng)which is probably similar to your sons at a brief description I would have had the greatest chance of success with golf. Again not that I think I would be on the PGA tour now had I played when I was younger, but I would have a far better chance of being there than the NBA.

I could have played ball at a small college, but chose to go to an bigger school on my academic ride. Though I got bored, and quit. I think had I been playing golf in college it would have kept me there. And Im all the way positive I could have gotten to college playing somewhere had I started in my early teens. The pitch to give him though is that in all likleyhood he wont be able to play basketball competitively for very long. And thats what you miss. Or what I miss anyway. Is being on the field, and field pitted against your peers. I played some sort of sport all my life, and I dont have that competition now. So Im striving to get back to it. To a point where Im confident enough in my game to play tournament golf. And if your son gets good now he can play golf in competition pretty much his whole life. Where he would only have basketball for a fleeting portion.

[Fourputt]

No regrets here. I have played a little golf here and there since I was 18, but until I was about 40 there were other activities that called louder. Hiking and backpacking, whitewater kayaking, skiing in winter. When you're working full time, you just have so much time available, and those other pursuits were simply a stronger draw for me. I started having back trouble from kayaking, so when I gave that up, I turned to golf in the mid 80's, and I'm also an avid scuba diver now too. As I see it, I'll play golf until I can't swing a club, so I still have time left to enjoy it.

At this point in my life I couldn't take up any of those other sports, so golf is a good fit. But I'd have missed out on a lot if I had only played golf starting high school, so I'm not regretting any of it.

[Shindig]

Age 10: quit baseball, decided I wanted to go back to tee-ball. There's sign one that only makes sense in retrospect!
I learned recently that quitting baseball was one of the biggest ways I disappointed my dad as a kid. I wasn't much of a disappointment in many other things.
Instead of taking up golf, I practically quit sports for 12 years.

Age 11: I wanted to spend more time with grandpa. He played golf, and when my family visited him in Florida, I never once thought to tag along.

Age 12: saw Goldfinger for the first time. For a kid who wanted to be Bond, why didn't I pick up the one thing he did in that movie that I might have been able to do?

Age 13: wore a polo shirt to school everyday, because those were the clothes I decided I liked. Look, I was a weird kid, OK? Gee, here's a sport I can play in a polo.


I'm sure that if I think more about it, I'll come up with other hugely obvious in retrospect signs. Mom played until a few years before I was born, but not seriously. She's starting to get back into it. Dad never played to the best of my knowledge.

[dragonflyin]

Yeah, I totally wish I would have played when I was a kid and in high school. I would have been on the high school golf team with Paul Goydos!

Was he stellar back then or just mediocre?

[Big_M]

yeah... I played in HS, but didn't take it all that seriously. I devoted most of my time to hockey and basically just played JV my Sophmore and Junior years for a little bit of free golf and competition. I also didn't come from a golf family. If I had it to do over I would have still played hockey, but also played a LOT of golf and tried for a college scholorship and some college level play. My short game still isn't what it was in HS, but I am a much more complete player now.

[jonanthans]

Every day since I played my first round almost 5 years ago. Can't believe I turned down offers to go when I was a kid.

[gogolfing]

I played when I was younger but then basically quit playing for a when I was 16-20, and then from 26-33. Glad to be back at it with a vengeance over the last 5 years, but yes I wish I didn't have those times off in between in hindsight.

[PiKapp23]

I took up the game at 14 and do not regret that at all because I didn't even really know what golf was before that (there were no courses in my area and no one played). My dad didn't play until my parents got divorced and then I didn't really see him much after that. I didn't get a chance to play until I was 14 and got to spend summer with dad.By then he had been working at golf course as an assistance pro about 30 miles away. My only regret is that I didn't stick with it more when I was in college and the first few years after I moved to Cincinnati. Between ages 19 and 32 I only played 1-2 a year, if that, and usually only in fraternity scrambles then. But then again, I didn't have the money for it...

[mkoreiwo]

I certainly do. But then again, I'm a lot older than a lot of posters here. I took it up when I was 49. Like Rick, I was more the active outdoor type. I was seduced by the dark side and now golf is my sporting obsession. I used to laugh at my brothers & their golf talk, now they laugh at me :)

[Hobie]

Not at all.... Life happens and there were other hobbies I had and were more into. As I started to get a little older, those hobbies were no longer as enjoyable as they once were.
Picking this game up came at the right time....