How did you get started?

[atrapasuenos]

One day my dad told me that he bought a set from a friend and he will start practicing golf, I laughed, because I told him that it was a boring sport, for old people, etc. So he told me one day, I'm going to the range, come with me and I accepted.

At that time I was playing football so I told to him, don't blame me if I break a ball or your club, he said, ok I want to see. So he told me how to grab the club and how to do the swing. I made my swing.... I didn't hit the ball... So he start laughing and from then I start thinking, "how I can't hit the ball"... and tried all day.

For my fortune, I believe, one of those shots came out perfect and from that shot I became addicted to this game.

Greetings!

[mapa94]

My coworkers invited me to play a round a few years ago. Even though I had trouble making solid contact I had a blast. My wife's grandparents were avid golfers and her grandfather gave me a set of Ping Eye irons (his backup set) after I expressed interest in the game.

I've been hooked ever since.

[CosmosMpower]

Started playing with my dad in high school, joined the golf team. Quit after college and started playing again a year ago. It's good to know how to play golf for business relationships down the road.

[ks8829]

My best friend, Kurt played high school golf and took me out to the driving range and introduced me to golf, he took me out a couple of times and let me borrow his 5 iron, I would go out and hit a bucket of balls on the range and finally I borrowed my brother-in-laws Wilson blades and started going out to play 18 holes, I was hooked and 24 years later, I am even more passionate about golf and play at least once and sometimes twice a week.

[-BAMA-]

started about the same way you did pikapp...

my dad has been a scratch golfer since he was in his 20's... won a crapload of tournaments but never attempted to get his card due to other restrictions...

he got me started when i was about 3 or 3 with a 7 iron he cur down and regripped.. i would play with him every sunday up untill i was about 12 or so.. then completely lost interest in the game.

started back when i was about 16 or so.. but played with my buddies instead of my dad because i couldnt handle getting my hind end beat so bad by him.. (it was usually something like 69 to 120)... played like that every weekend up until i graduated high school and quit for about 5 years because i was going to college full time and working full time and got married early (when i was 20)..

i just recently started back playing, maybe about 7 months ago.. still trying to find my swing and im back playing with him and he's helping me every step of the way. he still gets on to me when i miss a 5 foot putt or duck hook one off the teebox.

whoever said golf was like riding a bycicly oobviously lied.

[padre]

Several years ago I was in a traveling job and passed various golf courses on the road.

Over time, I found myself thinking, "Man, I wanna be out there!"

Turned out my driving partner was thinking the same thing, and we pitched in together for a joint lesson on a range a few blocks from the office.

He never picked up a club again, but I became instantly addicted.

[billysandy]

Grandad has been playing for 40years+ and my Grandma died so a way of keeping him company was by starting to play golf with him casually when i visited with an old set of clubs i found in the garage. I didn't enjoy it that much at first because i had no driver and my clubs were over 30years old. Just before i broke up from school that summer my friend invited me to the local driving range to hit a few balls with his quite nice clubs. I begged him to let me try his driver and from the first hit, i realised golf was going to be what i could take up in the summer. It was a Callaway FTI (which is now my driver too) that i tried and my first go with it was a 220yard 3/4 swing high and straight. Got my first handicap after joining a club a few weeks later which was 18!

[squaddie]

I found golf interesting but never had time to pick up the sport. Nobody in my family played golf and neither did any of my friends.

After graduating high school I had tried to play one round of golf on my own, at a public course on Galveston Island in Texas, but didn't have any guidance on what to do. As a result I lost all dozen golf balls by the 13th hole.

Fast-forward 20 years later, now in Connecticut: I bought one of those Nintendo Wii's after getting one for my mother, and picked up the Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 title. After getting pretty good at the video game I thought, "Heck, why don't I try golf in real life sometime?"

I then found out I lived within five miles of two public golf courses, one with a decent driving range with chipping and putting areas.

A few days later someone left an old Warrior driver (10*, 300cc) in the apartment junk room. The tan-leather grip was stained and worn, but the rest of the club appeared to be in good shape, so I took it back to my apartment. I thought to myself, "Well, why don't I just go try this driver out?".

From that point forward I was hooked. I still have the old Warrior club, and will take it out to the range next time just for fun.

[Blades4me]

In talking with golfers, I hear so many different ways that they got started in game, ranging from father got them started to just decided to take the game up on their own.

It was my father's favorite sport, (he was on the golf team in college) and we were members at a nice golf club in Salt Lake City, (Willow Creek CC), so I really had no choice. I was a good jr golfer, but only played from 13-17 and quit cuz I thought it was a pu**y sport, (this was the middle 60's), and I was way into ski racing. Now I've blown up my body. All I had left was fly fishing so on a lark I went and hit a bucket of balls. Thought, "damn, I can do this" and its been at least 3 days a week for the last 7 years.

I bet my father is looking down at me and laughing his a** off.

[Range King]

Hi,

I was always skilled in the more technical aspects of my sports: tennis, basketball, soccer. But since I am a heavy guy, my physical ability never matches my technical abilities. So I thought, maybe try golf. You can become good, without having to go to rehab afterwards. Took a lesson at the local golf course, loved it, bought 3000 range balls and used them in the following two weeks. (That was last august/september). Ever since, I am so hooked...

This summer she worked as a beercart girl at a local course.....

Enlighten me: Is it what I think? A girl with a cart is driving around on the course and selling beer? Is this common?

[I <3 Titleist]

A broke down Titleist 690cb PW and a good cigar on the sports field next door to my house.

[PiKapp23]

Enlighten me: Is it what I think? A girl with a cart is driving around on the course and selling beer? Is this common?

Yes, a beercart girl is exactly what you say. They have a cooler cart on which they carry drinks and sometimes even snacks. They are fairly common on US golf courses, especially nicer courses and during the summer. Some courses seem to really go out of their way to get really nice looking girls and the girls are often dressed in ways that accentuate their looks and figures (for bigger tips, I'm sure).

My friends that I play with are from Wales and England and they had never seen such a thing back home. Needless to say, it's something else to like about American courses.

[Fourputt]

Nobody in my family ever played, so I think it all started when my cousin and I were fooling around in his front yard with an old ball and a 2 iron that had belonged to his grandfather (this was in 1957). It was the first time I'd ever touched a golf club, and I hit one from there across the street into the woods, lost our only ball and that was the end of it. I was 11 at the time, and I never played again until my late 20's. That stint was short lived too, although I did buy a decent (for the time) set of clubs. I really got back into the game for good in the mid 80s when I was about 40 and my back wouldn't let me run the rivers any more in my kayak.

Until last year I was still the only golfer in my family, but now my brother (the athletic one of the family) has finally decided that golf is appropriate as he gets close to 60. We bought him new clubs last year and then we went and played the next day. In his first round in 25 years he shot 86.... I hate him. That was abit of a fluke though, as he is still hanging around at the bogey level a year later.

[MI Rob]

No one in my family plays. I have always had an intrest in it, but finally decided to go out and play last summer with my girlfriends step dad. He really wanted me to come out one time and ever since i did, i have been hooked. I try to play 2 or maybe 3 rounds a week.

[Razorhog]

Being invited to play with my good friend last year and hitting some good shots...the good ones just keep you coming back for more don't they? Like a moth to a flame....
One common theme I see in this thread is fathers...if you are lucky enough to still have yours around, play some golf with him. Never got that chance and it hurts.

[Kltdefer]

Like many it started with my Dad bringing me along to his golf outings. It was a rare occurence - maybe 1 or 2 times a summer.

What really got me into golf was caddying - a local private course hired local boys (14-18) for a summer of caddying. I did it for 2 years.
The other big influence on my golfing was being a junior member at a local course. After the first year, I was able to work at the course for playing priviledges. Cart boy, range ball picker, short-order cook and many other tasks....it was lots and lots of fun.

Currently I bring my lil boys to the driving range tor a local pitch n putt course to play. Its alot of fun.

[PEZGolf]

I can still remember about 50 years ago when my Dad brought our family to an outing with some of his friends and their families. Besides horseshoes, volleyball, etc., one of his friends brought a 5 iron and some plastic golf balls. I liked trying the game, which my Dad had never played. My uncles talked him into playing the next weekend, and I tagged along. I was really impressed with the apple and pear trees, and ate some of the ripe fruit.
Within a year, we were going to a pubic course where the green fees were good "for all day". We would walk, carry our bags, and play from sunrise to sundown---90 holes!! We were "hooked".

[Range King]

Yes, a beercart girl is exactly what you say. They have a cooler cart on which they carry drinks and sometimes even snacks. They are fairly common on US golf courses, especially nicer courses and during the summer. Some courses seem to really go out of their way to get really nice looking girls and the girls are often dressed in ways that accentuate their looks and figures (for bigger tips, I'm sure).

I will ask from my home club managament, if they want something like that. Then I will hire some girls, buy some carts and eventually start a fast growing franchise here in europe.