How did you start playing this wonderful game?

[rick637]

My uncle offered up a set of Ram golf clubs, I really wasn't interested in them... brought them home and got some lessons for my 25th birthday.  During the one of the lessons I hit the ball on the screws with a 5 iron and that was that end of story.  From then on couldn't get enough of golf.  I much prefer practicing to playing, slow play ruins it for me... so I stay mostly on the range playing here and there.  I like to tinker a little too with shafts and what not... I just really love the game and love that even at 41 I feel I am an improved golfer and just getting better with time.  At 25 it was all about the driver, at 41 it is all about the approach shot.

[saevel25]

My dad took me and my brother out a few times when we were growing up.. I just got hooked on the game from there.. It was probably the lions den or the elms up in Stark County, Ohio. Those were shorter courses, then i knew i was hooked when we started playing golf on our vacations to Myrtle Beach. I just loved the golf courses..

[ryebread442]

When I was young, my dad would go out every Sunday morning to play with my uncle and a rotating duo to round out a foursome. My uncle made a pretty impressive-looking trophy and they would all play net golf. Lowest net won the trophy, defending champ got to come back next week, and if you forgot to bring it, you were out of the running for that round. He usually got home around noon and I would always ask him who won (usually, not him) in addition to listening to his stories.

Fast-forward a couple years, when I turned 13. I decided that I could probably muster enough strength to move the ball down the course, so I asked for a set of junior clubs. I got hooked fast.

[phillyk]

I couldn't even tell you how I began to play this awesome game.  What i think is that when I was very young, like 3 or 4, maybe older I had a plastic set of clubs.  A driver, iron, and putter with whiffle balls and a fake golf hole, and I'd hit'em around in my backyard.  My grandpa was my inspiration to start, because he put the clubs in my hands and taught me to swing the club.  Once I reached 5th or 6th grade, I had my first set of clubs, joined a pre-high team, got 2 new sets by the time I reached sophomore year in high-school and I still have those irons now 7 years later.  I feel like golf kinda just kicked off officially, though, in 7th grade when people thought I would gain potential to be top in my high-school.

[kevin.chan]

I started pretty late at the age of 27. My GM gave me a used wilson staff iron and ask me to take up golf, mainly for business. I totally have no clue about the game and dislike it . After hitting a few rounds at the range , I find the game does not as simple and boring as it looks . My game was bad and my wife suggested why not taking up some lessons ? It was the best investment in the game and I toon about 10 lesson and it cost me like 150us then . 14 year down the road , I m playing the best game of my life now and even started gym to get better

[be_right]

My high school baseball coach took the whole team to a 9 hole course at the end of a season.  He said this was the game we'd play for the rest of our lives.

He gave us a 30 minute lesson and talked a little about etiquette and sent everyone out.  It was a great time.  Thanks Coach Walters; I may have never played golf if not for you.

[ShawnPennington]

Id never even had a single thought about the game of golf, and then last summer three days before my birthday my wife had picked me up from the airport and we were driving home, and the past golf course that is 2 miles from our house.  Randomly, my wife says "Hey why dont you go over there and get those old guys to teach you how to play golf!"  And I remember thinking to myself, "Why the hell would she ever say that?"  It was completely random, out of the blue, and out of the context of the conversation we were having in the car.  Then I thought, "She must have got me clubs for my birthday."  Which would have been a really odd gift, but maybe she was just trying to get me interested in something else.

So for the next three days I started reading about golf online, watching the golf channel, looking at equipment on Dicks.com etc.

My birthday comes and guess what.....NO GOLFCLUBS!!!  At this point i was so disappointed that I didnt get them, and had become completely hooked already without even holding a club in my hand....i went out the next day and bought a set of beginner Maxfli clubs.  And since I have become obsessed with the game, im still not any good by any means....but im working hard at it....and just last week i went out and got fitted for clubs!

[aconder]

I first became interested in golf around the age of 10, by watching golf on TV.  My dad did not play, but liked to watch golf on TV - that is probably how it started.  My uncle played a lot at that time and he gave me a stack of old Golf Digest magazines that he was getting rid of.  I still have a few of those magazines from the late 80's and it is a lot of fun to go back and look through them (oh how the game has changed).  I spent a few months going through those magazines and around that time bought my first club which was a Fuzzy Zoeller Powerbilt 8 iron.  I found some old golf balls and just spent the year beating that 8 iron around the back yard.  There was nothing but a corn field behind our house, so once I could hit the ball out of the yard and into the field may dad thought it was probably time to buy me a beginner set.  I was probably around 11 when I go that set and I started playing at a local municipal course that was a short, straight-forward course and perfect for beginners.  I would just go out every day in the summer and approach a two-some or three-some and ask if I could join.  Most were accommodating and the rest is history.

Now my dad plays and has for probably the last 20 years.  I have a 5 year old and 1 year old son.  I hope that both want to play and I can't wait to hook them on the game.  My 5 year old already has his own set and loves going to the driving range (I hope it's a good sign).

[bluecollar01]

I grew up in southeast Texas and as you can imagine high school football is KING.  I never really thought too much about golf and when it was ever mentioned, my father would say that you'd have to be nuts to go chase a little white ball all over creation.  During college I ran cross-country, worked and chased girls.

Fast forward 12 years, and an overweight business executive gets invited to play golf.  After learning that I'd never played, I was quickly uninvited.  I thought about it a bit, and decided I'd buy some clubs and go to the driving range with a buddy.  From the word I go, I never had any trouble making contact with the ball (first club I swung was a 4 hybrid)... direction was another story.  A straight push every time.  Out of the 90 balls I hit that day I only managed to hit one right down the middle.  I connected solidly with the 4 hybrid and drove it 192 yards according to my friends range finder.  From that moment I wanted to get better.

I'm still working on controlling the ball and have made great strides after slowing my swing way down.  Definitely wish I would have started earlier in life.  With the winter's here in the mid-west (I now live in Omaha) I've only played a total of about 6 months — almost exclusively on pitch and putt courses but I'm really looking forward to playing "real" courses and learning the game.

[JohnLund]

My Mom introduced me to the game at the age of 10. I am not sure I have forgiven her yet. I grew up playing in windy Victoria on Vancouver Island. I still hit a low ball half a century later. Cheers, John L

[JohnLund]

My Mom introduced me to the game at the age of 10. I am not sure I have forgiven her yet. I grew up playing in windy Victoria on Vancouver Island. I still hit a low ball half a century later. Cheers, John L

[pumaAttack]

When I was probably 10 or so, my dad said if I could hit 10 wiffle balls in a row without missing he would take me out on the real course.  I then proceeded to hit the 10 balls and was on my way to playing some real golf!

Just little executive courses but I loved it.  Haven't looked back since.  Except for college, didn't play much then.

[snofrog]

My mom was a school teacher and had summers off . Her best friend worked at the local course and would visit with her during the slow hours of the weekdays . I would take a short club from the lost and found , grab a ball from the ditch in front of the first t and play hole 1 and 2 then back to one for hours on end . I would also search the ditch along 1 and the pines along 2 for other lost balls to feed future trips to the course . if someone got up to the t I would just move off to get out of the way . thats how I started golfing

[briggek8717]

My Dad started golfing when he was 35 (I was 5), and I used to walk along with him when he played.  I'd go look for balls occasionally, and he had made a fold down seat for his pull cart that folded down onto the wheel for me to sit on when it was in between shots.  Around 8 or so, he'd pack a club or two for me in his bag and let me hit a few times on the course.  By 10, I was playing normal rounds.  Once I turned 16 or so, I don't think he has ever beat me since.  :)

[hesitantly]

I was 45 years old, playing tennis a lot.  Then a friend asked me to play in a golf tournament at work.  Said I didn't really need to know how to play, so I did.  I beat the three guys in my group, and loved it.  I decided it was much more fun to casually stroll up to a ball and knock the stuffing out of it, instead of running my butt off to hit a ball over a net. Goodbye tennis; hello golf.

[zipazoid]

As a kid I was a frustrated athlete. Tons of willingness, but just wasn't very good in a number of sports -

- Too small for football

- Too white for basketball (3 inch vertical leap, heh)

- Couldn't throw a baseball accurately

When I was 10, I, ahem, 'borrowed' my dad's 5-iron and went to the local park and hit golf balls & was hooked.

Also, a few years earlier when I was 6, I was introduced to the game accidentally -

http://zipsclips.blogspot.com/2010/09/brady-lake.html

I created a golf course out of the front yards on my street -

http://zipsclips.blogspot.com/2010/09/firwood-avenue-country-club.html

And when I got to be about 15, my dad decided we were gonna have a little fun -

http://zipsclips.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-dad-pimp.html

[Zorro]

My dad was a "muni-player" who loved the game. He got me over to the local private club when I was 12 to take the "caddie class". My brother had been the caddie champion two years in a row a couple of years before and he also made what was decent money in the eyes of a little brother! Of course that was 1967 and what was decent money then was is a long way from what it is today. My game was also a very long way from his! Had a blast though and played the course on Monday mornings when I could get outa bed, and even played on the HS golf team as a sophomore. Then hockey got in the way, and then girls, cars, etc. Got back to it when I was 28 and I have been lovin it ever since.