Greetings from hot and muggy Florida

[Gator Hazard]

Hello everyone,

I have been passively enjoying this website and forums for a few months now and figured if I was going to fully embark on this journey in life called Golf I should join in and contribute.  My contributions will not be golf related for a long time to come I am sure as I have just started.  Here is how I came to start golfing (sorry for my long post but being an introduction I felt I could ramble a little bit):

Early in my life a school friend lived in a country club community as did others I went to school with.  Spent the night at his house when we were in the 8th grade or so and they belonged to the club so he suggested we go golfing.  Mind you I had never picked up a club in my life, off we went and it was disastrous, mostly I remember picking up the ball after being frustrated and walking with it.  I still enjoyed being outside and new that golf had many things to it that could be beneficial.  Later in college I would become friends with a guy who rapidly developed his game playing probably 3 or 4 times a week.  He would encourage me to try and I bought a used set of clubs with his advice (they were blade style golf clubs basically a beginner set with a nice bag that I got for about $130 off of one of his friends).  At that time I had no idea the difference between blades, cavity backs or anything.  I went to the driving range and would try and hit balls.  I found it frustrating and hence didn't play, and that in my opinion was the biggest mistake ( not getting lessons would of course be the second).

Time went by and I moved, brought the clubs with me and met another person who wanted to golf.  We went out and played twilight golf for cheap on a decent course and had fun.  Playing on a course I found to be far more fun than just hitting balls (well, trying to hit balls).  We hacked away happily for about 10 rounds, we followed the rules as we knew them and always let better players play through.  Moved down to Florida, had not played in a good 7 years so gave the clubs to a very good friend of mine.

Living in Florida when it came time to purchase a home for the family we were trying to stay in a specific area and had found a house we thought we would be happy with.  Our realtor said to us "I know you don't want to look at the Tampa area but I have 5 houses in the same vicinity with a comparative school district that I think you should look at for piece of mind before you put an offer in", we thought that was sound advice and went to see them.  The last of the 5 was on a golf course, says it is semi-private but anyone can play, and by the time we walked from the front door to the patio overlooking the backyard we instantaneously knew that if the bedrooms were big enough this was the house we wanted to call home.  The lot backs up onto one of the fairways right before the green, and standing out there ironically at the property line, a white post, a ball dropped no more than 5 feet from us.  My wife came out and said the rooms looked great and we put an offer in.  Well, we got the house, and then I figured if going to live on a golf course with reasonable golf prices might want to take up golfing, but was in no rush.  One evening we were walking the cart path at just after dusk and in the water hazard I could see something sticking up in the middle.  Closer inspection would lead me to believe it was the grip of a golf club, so in I went, my wife telling me she hopes there are no alligators in there.  I pulled out a club in relatively good condition and when I held that club in my hands, I knew that I needed to get some clubs and start playing again.

Since that time I purchased a set of clubs (more on that later) and started going to the range and played a few rounds.  I have purchased 3 lessons and need to use them but I just wanted to get out there and play a bit first.  I watched as many instructional videos on Youtube as I could, have used this forum for advice and tried to apply as much as I can.  I can say that in general I can make contact with the ball but its not always pretty.  We tried keeping score by the rules as we know them and I put up about a 135 the first time and a 141 the second time we played.

That's the beginning of my story, I look forward to participating in this forum and getting to know people on here (I feel like I already know many of you having read so much of your threads and responses).  I am a pretty open book and will answer most questions so if there is anything you would like to know just ask.

Regards,

Gator Hazard

P.S. yes, there are some gators on my course!

[oudrees]

Welcome to the site and back to the game.  I'm about an 1.5 hours north east of Tampa so I definitely understand the hot and muggy.  I moved down here about 4 months ago from Ohio.

[Gator Hazard]

Thank you David and good morning.  Yeah, one of the few names I considered was The Golf Sweater.  We played a 3pm tee time on Saturday, I drank 4 16oz bottles of water, one 32 oz bottle of Gatorade and four lite beers as well as a bag of grapes. I had to use the restroom once, and that was the precautionary "better take a whiz while I am here so I don't end up having to go later" on the 6th teebox bathroom.  That was it, I sweated the rest out and actually got mild heat exhaustion.  I will be better prepared next time with frozen towels, more water, Gatorade, and some trail mix and will forego the beers until the last few holes or after the round.

[oudrees]

Ya, I don't even attempt that tee time right now.  I either play at 7 AM or after 5.

[Gator Hazard]

We used a groupon for the course since it was out there.  We played the prior Saturday morning at 8:30am.  There is no driving range at my home course, just a chipping and putting area, so we basically teed off cold.  By the time we reached the middle of the fairway of the second hole the cart girl caught up to us and I already had a sweat ring down to the middle of my chest, by about 8:50 AM.  She made us bloody marys though .  I have a mild case of hyperhidrosis, so I could be anywhere doing an activity and I am going to sweat, but the humidity kills me being that I am originally from the southwest.  I can handle heat, but humidity is rough on me.  Going forward we are going to play more morning rounds and evening much as you, but we have a few more Groupons to use so probably will be in the afternoon heat again next few weekends.

[oudrees]

I'm a sweater also.  If I don't bring my towel with me from the cart to the green, I am normally dripping sweat as I try to putt.  Unfortunately, the courses I play don't have cart girls .  Just a retired ambassador driving around with water and sand.

[Gator Hazard]

Oh yeah, I have two golf towels on my bag to wipe my clubs and I carry a white towel for sweat wiping.  I typically have the sweat drip from the tip of the cap in putting stance thing going on.  Our cart girls are pretty hot and very nice (and we always treat them with respect).  Our clubhouse sucks however, and they need to put some money into it.  I joke that if I ever win the lottery I will donate some money to it so they can build a respectable clubhouse or renovate it.

[boogielicious]

Welcome to the forum @Gator Hazard

Thanks for joining.

If you have any questions about using the site, check out our "Using the Site" section , and Little Things New Users can learn.

Here are some great threads to get started and familiar with The Sand Trap

"What do you Do for a Living?" thread .

"What'd You Shoot Today?"

Reviews

"New Posts" page , too.

Swing Thoughts

So You Joined TST and Posted a Member Swing Thread…

Want to follow some bright people and some awesome members? Check out this article . Want to talk about more than golf or quickly find like-minded folks? Check out our Groups .

[14ledo81]

Welcome to the TST!!

[djfajt71]

Welcome Gator!  This is a great site with a lot of useful info and conversations, as well as the occasional highly entertaining debates!

[Gator Hazard]

Good morning and thank you everyone for the warm welcome.  I have been reading a lot of threads on this forum over the past few months after looking at a few different forums and found this one to be the best.

Thanks for the links Boogielicious.

[David in FL]

Welcome to the neighborhood! :beer: Don't worry about the length of time you've been playing. Newer players often provide a valuable perspective to a lot of discussions, so your contributions will be well received and more worthwhile than you might think... :-)

[Gator Hazard]

Welcome to the neighborhood!

Don't worry about the length of time you've been playing. Newer players often provide a valuable perspective to a lot of discussions, so your contributions will be well received and more worthwhile than you might think...

Cheers!

How's your weather looking?  Right now, just wondering if going to be able to get in a round on Saturday.  Ha-ha.  I am so over the rainy season, we had just started drying out a bit.

[oudrees]

The tropical storm isn't supposed to hit Florida till Sunday or Monday so Saturday should be good.  We haven't had rain for a few days here.

[Gator Hazard]

We are getting some right now.  Rain can be so different in just the Tampa area alone.  My wife works in St. Pete and said she was getting hammered on her way in to work today.

[rkim291968]

Belated welcome to the forum, @Gator Hazard !   100+ posts in 5 days ... I love it.

[Gator Hazard]

Belated welcome to the forum, @Gator Hazard!   100+ posts in 5 days ... I love it.

Thank you verry much @rkim291968 glad to be a part, seems like a pretty cool place.

[dave s]

Welcome Gator.  Where exactly is home for you?  I'm trying to pry the wife away from disgusting Ohio for a move to the greater Tampa area.  She's a player as well.

And most definitely, keep hydrated!

dave