How did you start???

[Franco!]

14ish.
So 3 years ago.

[GaijinGolfer]

I started playing when I was 19, played for a couple years and didnt really have the time to devote to being good at this sport, so I gave it up.
I just recently started playing again.

[Kabal]

I started playing when I was about 15 (when I got a job). Once I began university I started playing 1-2 rounds per week - club memberships last 3 years (I'm 22 currently).

Best decision I have ever made playing this game.

[maycam10]

well i piddled around a couple times with my uncle in North Carolina but we have a team at school and i mentioned i was interested to a friend and they made fun of me saying that i could never be serious enough. So I joined the team to prove to myself that i can succeed in anything that i put my heart into. so ive been playing for 5 months about...... and now its my life basically

[JYB]

i started this april after wearing golf clothes for a four seasons resort shoot.

[NorCalGolfer]

i started when i was 10. i wanted to play every sport there was when i was younger. I played all the way up to my junior year of high school and would have kept playing consistently if i hadn't of heard of this drug called marijuana. haha. i regret every year i didn't play golf. i just started playing again consistently 2 years ago. I'm 28 now so you can see the long layoff I had. It was almost like riding a bike though. I still have a few swing kinks to work out, but I've just started the "stack and tilt" last week and can see that things are starting to look up. Much more crisp contact, but that's another thread.

[FlopShotArtist]

When I was about 9 I was at my friends house and his dad offered to take us to the driving range. I took out his 7i and just hacked away. Even though 99% of my shots never left the ground, I loved the feeling when I struck the ball perfectly. I went to the driving range about once every month after that for about a year. Never got any better and pretty much forgot about the game until Jan. of this year. I started going to the range once a week, and got my starter set in May. I then slowly upgraded by bag and now have a bunch of clubs that I'm comfortable with (for the most part). I played my first round this April on Spring Break and shot 112 with 5 clubs (adult RAM driver, Nike Eagle Silver 3W, "Mid-Iron", PW, and Putter). I now go to the range/practice green about 5 times/week and play 18 once a week. I've improved greatly since I started, mostly due to being good at baseball, so I have a natural swing.

Wow, that's a big wall of text.

[jmoc]

My Father was an excellent golfer and took me out a few times, but never had the patience to teach me the game. I did not play again until I was in the Air Force and then only a couple of times, but the few brilliant stokes I stumbled into remained in my memory. Money kept me from the game, but when I move to Wichita I took up the game as the green fees were only $16 per round (now $20). I love this game, to quote Patton (again) "God help me, I do love it so."..... jmoc

[atrapasuenos]

Evreything started when my dad bought a complete set from a friend of him so he can star playing. One day he take me to the range, In those days I was playing football in high school I was 19 years old, so he told me to try to hit some balls. I said to him that I will swing that hard that maybe I will break the ball or the club LOL, so he told me, ok try.

He show me how to hold the club the basics of a swing and here I go. I took my stance, check my grip and then I swing.... I didn't hit the ball LOL. So I tried and tried and in one of those attempts I hit one perfect, straight, perfect trajectory and that shot create the addict to golf that these days I am.

Regards!

[juanjohn]

From the time I could walk through my sophomore year of College I was a baseball player but chronic hamstring pulls and strains made me turn my focus towards school. When I went home this summer break my dad let me pick a full set of clubs out from his "collection". So I've been playing since the beginning of May. I think he knew I would get addicted and would rather have me wasting my time playing golf instead of doing more destructive things since I've never really had free time before.

[GUAM_golf]

Well I started playing some golf back when I was ten, and took a few lessons at a local course. I mainly started because my dad was big into golf. But after that summer I didn't really play much golf. It was about 2 summers ago when my cousins in louisiana got big into golf and so did I when I would visit them. Playing almost everyday or at the range. $15 green fee at Barksdale Airforce base by Shreveport (not a bad course either). Finally I am able to go out on my own time
and consistently shoot in the 80s.

[cwcaesar]

I saw a golf tournament on TV years ago and I was really impressed that these guys could be so accurate from so far away. I mean, these guys were hitting balls inside of 10 feet from over 100 yards away. That made me want to give the game to try. I lived in Florida at the time near a bunch of courses, but my parents said that we couldn't afford it. I never actually got to try the game till I turned 15 and lived in Tennessee. I finally convinced my mom to let me rent some clubs and give the game a try. Well, I guess the rest is history. I still love this game despite having shot a 175 in that first round.

[Fraser]

It was around 1996/1997 and my mother was invited to play in some corporate event locally, after a couple of decades of no playing, and so went to the driving range. My brother and I tagged along and hit a few balls, thought it was a good hobby to get into during the summer and gradually took it up from there.

Had a few lessons but generally find that just getting out on the course is good practice for me....might explain my lacklustre handicap though!

[Bigbuckley]

my uncle got me my first set when i was about 8. the first time i ever swang the clubs was on the course. i would be suprised if i broke 150. i then started to go to the range a couple times a month. it was not untill last year i stared to get serious about it. so i have been playing for about 8 years.

[whip_it_out]

Started at 8, my dad got me into it, then quit around 9. then got back into it before i turned 11, because i missed spending all that time with my dad, and he really loved to play (and still does), and when i wasn't playing he couldn't play as much. Now been playing for around 3 years, and i dont think i am ever going to quit.

[ks8829]

my best friend was on the high school golf team and took me out to the driving range, later I went to the range on my own, bent his 5 iron, borrowed my brother-in-laws wilson blades and the rest is history, 24 years later, I still learning the game and loving it.

[southwestgolf]

my father was a golf coach and my mother played golf for many years. So for me was natural.

[ericm]

I got my start at a young age, 8 years old. My father and grandfather were both interested in the game and it quickly became a good way to spend time with both. Golf was love at first hit for me and became a fixture of my youth that has continued into adulthood.

Good thread.