How Did You Start in Golf?

[bkuehn1952]

Early in 1961 - YMCA gymnasium in Appleton, WI, hitting whiffle balls off rubber mats.

[3putter]

2012, a year after I joined a new company, colleagues convinced me to come play with them while they played their league game. Why not, I've always been down to try new things, so I stopped by walmart and picked up a shitty set. I vividly remember my hands shaking as I tried to put the ball on a tee, but the fact that I sucked so badly created a crazy desire to see if I could ever play this game decently. I was so amazed watching my friend hit iron shots up in the air. I started studying the game, and started going to the range by my house then. After a month of hitting the range, I met one of the older guys I use to play basketball with, he introduced me to some other guys and they took me under their wings. I'm good friends with all those guys now, celebrated their golf achievements (Breaking 80) with them. I have made some incredible connections due to golf, and I really wish more of my younger friends played.

P.S. I actually just beat all of them together in the same round for the first time this weekend.

[inthehole]

Both my bro's played - I never had any interest whatsoever (down deep, I knew I couldn't aford the time for another hobby).      I  always heard from everyone you can't fish and golf, I always fished - I'm talking serious hardcore tournament bass fishing (amateur level only).      So, at 45 years old, my boss guilted me into playing a company outing & I loved it.     The hook set was immediate - LOL.    Played 100+ rounds the first 3 years I played, will probably get there again this year .... something attractive about golf if you are analytically minded.

[That is Good]

My dad was a club pro so of course he taught me the game and I'm addicted.

Not sure how old I was when I started playing all the time, sometime during my elementary school years.

[TIME 4 TEE]

Awesome to hear all of these stories!!!

[ditchparrot19]

I  always heard from everyone you can't fish and golf, I always fished - I'm talking serious hardcore tournament bass fishing (amateur level only).

Don't let anybody sell you that line. There are several Bassmaster Elite Series and FLW Tour pros who can really swing the sticks – legitimate single-digit types.

[MS256]

Don't let anybody sell you that line. There are several Bassmaster Elite Series and FLW Tour pros who can really swing the sticks – legitimate single-digit types.

I used to play a whole lot of golf with a guy that had 3 hobbies, golf, fishing, and duck hunting. The last I knew he was a 4 handicap in golf and is considered one of the better fishermen around here.

From the beginning of duck season until the end of it he duck hunted and did absolutely nothing else.

He sort of proves the theory false because he is a pretty good golfer. He also sort of proves the theory true because everybody always thought he could be a much better golfer if he put a little more time into it.

[saevel25]

My dad started to take me out golfing with him. Then we started to take our clubs with us on our trips to Myrtle Beach. From then I was hooked. I just loved playing those courses. It was like, before I knew it I really really loved this game!

[hacker101]

23 years ago when my wife and I moved to LA and worked at the same company it was expected we learn to play.

So we played every weekend and went to the range a couple times a week, we sucked but had fun. We did not know any one in LA so it was away to meet people.

Couple years later we had our first child, my wife quit and I slowly stopped, playing to about once a month until my son was born.

12 years in girl scouts, 10 in boy scouts there was never time. Until my son said two years ago he wanted to make the HS team. We have played ever since, every weekend at the least once, lessons and the range a couple times a week.

The best part is me and my son have a real bond because of this game and no matter or where he is we always will.

[Phil McGleno]

On the first tee. :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

[scorpion12]

I was maybe 21 or 22. We were crew resting in Torrejon Spain because our plane had a leaking pitch trim actuator. One of the other members on my crew, a flight engineer like me, asked if I wanted to play golf. Never done it before so I did... I liked it even though I couldn't hit the ball hardly at all. Tried to continue playing for the next few years... first set of clubs I had were Maxfli blades which I couldn't hit at all... replaced them with some clones of either Pings or Callaway... hit them better but never broke 100.

Through the following 20 years I played off and on... more off than on. This year I got new clubs and have been playing 9 holes after work. I still suck but I'm having fun and to me, that's all that matters. I like for my wife to come along but she has no interest at all in golf.

[jbishop15]

First swung a club and went to clinics when was five or six, and played my first nine holes when I was young, like 11 or 12. Was super against it because I thought it was super nerdy. Showed an aptitude for it, and my parents slowly got me into it.

[The Recreational Golfer]

Knocked a ball around the backyard with my Dad's hickory-shafted clubs in the 1950s. Took a series of group lessons when I was ten and the hook was set.

[cristphoto]

I started playing at about age 13. My parents saw an ad for a summer golf clinic that came with some lessons and a round of golf. I took to it right away. In the summer I would ride my bike about two miles to a local course and play. I would hit plastic balls in the back yard almost every day. Started playing tournaments about two years later and learned a lot. Played all my life and when I retired the pro at a local course was chatting with me during a frost delay and offered me a job working in the pro shop. It took over 50 years to finally get free golf.

[lumpuckeroo]

My Dad played some as a young man and I use to tag along, played in high school, but then stopped because of time issues.  Once I got into the work force, several friends at work golfed, so I picked it back up in my mid to late 20's and have been playing ever since.

[mdl]

Played a few rounds with borrowed clubs in high school.  Concentrated on baseball through college.  Then summer after college I had an internship in Pacific Beach (San Diego) right by the night-lit par 3 course there.  Bought a box set SW-Driver and played a decent amount there.  Then I mostly played adult league baseball and surfed for a few years.  Got tired of needing 17 other guys and a schedule or relying on the fickle, ultra crowded surf in LA to get my sporting on.  Started going to the range, played a few rounds, and have been obsessed ever since.

[Dave2512]

We moved to the burbs in 1974, our house was walking distance to a local course. My parents put me in the junior program and I played competitively in leagues and school programs until music, cars, girls and partying became my primary interest. Dabbled a bit in the mid 90's but just socially because my boss at the time was into it and my parents eventually moved to a private course so I had a way to connect with him. Not sure why I stopped again but somewhere around 97ish I gave it up and sold my trusty Eye 2's. I've always kind of bounced around with periods of self abuse and fitness and in the winter of 2011 I was full on raging health nut. When spring came 2012 I was looking to spend more time with the folks so I bought used clubs and pieced together a set. Can't say it was like riding a bike or anything but by the end of the season I was playing half decent so here I am.

[TIME 4 TEE]

Good thing now is our daughter is 7 and she loves it! Starting her young and her school also has a golf club / team starting this coming school year. ;-)