Coming Back to Golf After a Several Year Break?

[Braivo]

I played a ton of golf as a teen and into my early twenties and got pretty good at it (would regularly break 80).

Then I had three kids in 4 years and hardly touched a club for 10 years! Maybe a few scrambles at work outings, but that's it.

Then 7 years ago I found myself divorced and with some time on my hands so I picked up golf again. It has taken me all of those seven years to start to feel like I can play even close to the way I did back in my early twenties. Obviously some of it is age (I'm 40, not 25), but it just took TIME to get the feel back. It was a much bigger struggle than I anticipated. Perhaps I just relied on pure athleticism back then and I had to reinvent the way I swing. 

It wasn't until I set up a net in my basement and started swinging EVERY DAY that I started to see real progress and improvement. 

Anyway, has anyone else returned to golf after several years away? Care to share your experiences here?

[Piz]

Yep.  I didn't play at all for several years and it was only, as you say, when I started practicing every day that I saw some improvement.  

[ScottF]

I’ve been playing for the last 6 weeks after a nearly 20 year layoff. Back in the day, with 70’s vintage blades and REAL wood, woods, I never had an official handicap, but I shot in the 70s most of the time. The big shock was the enormous loss of distance after I came back. I’m sure glad that courses have senior tees, and senior discounts being that I’m 65 with a questionable back. I’m retired so I have the time to practice or play every day. I set up a net in the backyard and hit balls there, I practice my short game and putting at a local course and hit 3 or 4 buckets every week.  The work I’ve been putting in is starting to pay off. My first 5 rounds back were all in the 90’s. Last two rounds were 83  (par 72 6200 yards) and 77 (par 70, 6000 yd course)  

[Voltore]

I came back last year after a 30 year gap. Then I was shooting in the 90s. The year has had some up and downs, HC is 24, but getting some lessons has helped. As I'm getting better, I'm finding that a higher % of good shots, in fact my issue now is relearning distances on irons as i'm now overshooting greens. I just need to go up a club and keep practicing. WHen I first started my drives were lucky to make 130, but now 190-210 seems more normal! 

Still it's the good shots that keep me coming back. Welcome back and enjoy.

[knott]

Came back after 12 years. Short game was what took the longest to get back. I am also battling fatique. Back then you could do 36 holes in a day and didnt have to think as much. 

 

[TourSpoon]

I came back in my forties after a decade or so off. I blogged about it here: 

Long story short, I was able to break the sub 5 index with work, time, dedication, etc. Good luck! 

[tehuti]

I came back to the game in 2017 after a long layoff. I played from the mid 80s to the mid 90s before just dropping off completely around 1998. A coworker and I bought some no name custom clubs around 2005 but even then I may have played once a year. All of that time in between I thought about playing again, but was not prepared to put in the time to get my game going again. Once I decided I was willing to put in the practice time I recommitted, put a new bag together and started playing again. It helped that a buddy started asking me if I wanted to play, but I found myself wanting to play more often than when he was available so I started going out solo and found that I was fine doing that. Since then I have been playing as often as time permits.

[Darkfrog]

I started playing golf in college sometime around 1996-1997 when I was around 19. My roommate was an excellent golfer, and convinced me to try it. That, and Tiger Woods explosion into professional golf at the same time was all it took to get me hooked.

I never took lessons and I wasn’t good, but I loved the game and I played regularly up until around age 30, when I kind of transitioned into a different part of life; more demanding work, got married, bought a house, kids, etc. I still played every couple months with friends, work events, etc., but my clubs mostly collected dust in the garage.

During my away time, I played a ton of indoor soccer and pickup basketball and after aggravating my old football injured knee several times, with several months recovery each time, I gave up high impact sports and started golfing again around age 40.

I found that getting back into golf was easier than when I first started. However, I had no bar set from any previous success so I was basically starting from scratch. There was tons of golf content on the internet (lots of pitfalls there though), and golf equipment tech had improved a bunch and I could afford to buy my own shit. I was happy to be outdoors, getting exercise, and having fun playing a great game. After a couple years of hacking around I decided golf was going to be my game. I made a commitment to golf as a pastime, started taking lessons, and I’ve steadily improved since then. 

[RyanG94]

Back in February I took the game back up after 4 years out completely although probably 6 years since playing regularly (weekly)

 

I got a second hand set of decent clubs and headed to the range on the Saturday, hit 100 balls, got a bit of a feel back after thinning/topping the first 10 shots at the range. Went out on the Sunday morning with my mates and shot an 86, I was a 17 handicap before who didn’t practice much so it wasn’t too much to rediscover, I keep myself fairly fit etc and still have “some” youthful athleticism being 26. So I basically slotted straight back into my old game which was surprising. Since then I have had a few lessons, and piece by piece put together the bag that I want, and playing twice a week since lockdown eased has seen my handicap drop to 12.5

 

i found that, like others, dedicating time to the range then playing the course often, along with lessons has made playing golf so easy to get back into and play m playing better than I ever have. Amazing what a bit of dedication and goal structured practise can do. 
range sessions years ago was essentially just smash 50-100 balls with no thought process or analysis, now it’s a measured approach, based on what I’m trying to improve. 
Glad your enjoying being back out there 🙂