How Did You Get Into Playing Golf? Your First Game.

[Sean_D]

16 hours ago, Nave said:

I enjoyed reading your story. How did your tournament go?

It was a very trying/taxing day, and as a friend would say... I built a lot of character.

I have been recovering from strained back muscle the last couple of weeks and resting, icing, stretching... Whatever it took to be ready/healthy for this tournament.I live in Northern California and the temps have been hovering around 55-60 degrees with a lot of rain in February and the beginning of March. My tee time was at 9:00 AM and to get to the course by 8:00 I had to leave home around 6:45. For some strange reason, I woke up at 4:00 and couldn't get back to sleep. When I got the the course the temp was 35 degrees and the tourney was put back a hour for frost. The forecast was for rain at around 12:30, With a tee time at 9, I thought I would be on the 13th or 14th hole by the time it started raining. We teed off at 10 and it started raining, hard, at 11.

I found my cart before my partner and went to the range to hit balls and warm up. When I got to the first tee, the guy who I thought was my partner, actually didn't read the last names on the placard and was the wrong guy. So I quickly went around the course searching for the correct "Troy" and didn't find him. When I abandoned my search and figured he was probably waiting for me at the first tee, I learned there was a mix up and I wasn't playing with Troy at all. Troy had called the tourney organizers and corrected a mix up of his (not putting his preferred playing partner in the online entry form) and the placards didn't get corrected.  So we get that all sorted out and finally start playing golf.

On the third hole, a short par 4, I go to hit a 3-wood off the tee. Right as I make contact with the ball, I feel my back tweak. My back is now in some pretty good pain. So much so, that even the bumps in the cart path (which we had to stay on all day) caused my back to hurt. Fortunately, one of the guys in my foursome is a physio and works with golfers recovering from injury. He had this plastic fish hook looking thing to work the tightness out of my back muscles and he also stretched me out when we were waiting on the group on front of us. Another partner had ibuprofen and let me have some.

All-in-all.. I ended up shooting a 106 (4-ball net) and my partner and I ended up posting a net score of par 72 (T-15 overall). TO say my partner carried me is a huge understatement. This was the first 100+ round I have shot in 6 months.

If I ever wanted a painful day of golf in high wind and freezing rain... then my wish was granted. They can't all go this well... Can they? For as bad as things were, I got to play at a course I had not been before and met three great guys. Somehow, it ended up being a positive experience. My golf season opens in full force in mid-April with a golf trip on the 14th and league starting the week after and four more tournaments scheduled this summer. The sad part is I am going to have to avoid my golf clubs for at least two weeks for my back to heal... and just as the sun is starting to come out.

 

Edited March 11, 2019 by Sean_D

[Double Mocha Man]

Look at it in a positive way.  Your back can go hang out with Tiger Wood's neck.

[Hardspoon]

One of my regrets in life is that I didn't start playing golf until my late 20's.  I had always wanted to try it; a random friend-of-a-friend took me out to play a round at some crappy Philadelphia municipal course and I was completely hooked.

I don't remember much about the early rounds, except for making a par in the second round I every played!

[Cartboy]

Grew up poor, far from being a Country Club brat, but was athletic, and if it was a sport, I did it.

Started on a lighted Par 3 course.  Joined the golf team in high school to avoid track in the Spring.  Lettered three years, conference medalist and went to State.

50 years later, I don't play basketball, baseball or football (All-State), but I do play golf.

Still have never joined a Country Club, but have worked at golf courses as a retiree for 12 years.

 

[3jacker]

I guess as far back as I can remember I've been around golf. My dad used to take me after work as a small kid.  I remember riding on his pull card (sitting on top of his bag) so I must've been very small.  I remember rolling down the hills from the tee boxes, getting too close to the water hazards, chasing birds and whatnot while he played. I do remember trying to hit balls with his clubs, the handle sticking up underneath and beyond my right armpit.  Then I recall a little later, attending summer golf clinics each year.  I loved them, hated the rules part, bored w/chipping and putting, loved the range sessions.  I didn't seriously begin playing until I was about 13 and advised that the Jr. High School I was in (Middle School for you youngsters) started a golf team.  Not sure it was even my idea to go try out.  From there, it was a series of 9 holes after school over a month or two to get enough scores in to qualify.  I remember shooting in the 50s initially, then getting it down to mid 40s.  A year later, low 40s and then occasionally in the 30s.  

As a naive  youngster, of course I extrapolated this progress and calculated I'd be beating Greg Norman in a couple years at the rate I was going.

In high school, I stayed around the mid 70s on average, with a couple of hormonal-induced slumps thrown in here and there. In/after college, played enough to get to scratch and maybe better but also enough to figure out how much better some folks were (one of them was also shooting mid 70s against me in high school and his name was Boo).

Edited March 12, 2019 by 3jacker

[woodzie264]

No good story. One of my fraternity brothers got me into it as I was graduating undergrad. Having an addictive personality, I fell in love quickly...golf is easily the most addictive thing I’ve ever done (and I’m not so sheltered). As the first person in my family to really  take it up as a hobby, I’ve gotten my dad, brothers, and several friends into it. I definitely regret not starting as a youth 

Edited March 13, 2019 by woodzie264

[Salem Golfer]

My brother was a golfer (scratch) and went out every weekend to play multiple rounds each day. He wanted a playing partner but I thought it was a stupid game (I had never played) He took me to the driving range to hit balls (I think more to laugh at me trying to hit them) but I used to play baseball in school and figured it was the same, just bent over a bit.. I started hitting balls at the range each day after work with his old set of clubs (titanium big bertha driver and a set of KZG blades)

After a month or so I was hitting the ball over the fence at the end of the 250yd range, they said I couldnt hit a driver their any more.. :P  I started playing golf with my brother the next weekend, I shot 120 (was lieing on the card, so probably more in the 140s) After 2 months he told me that I should not have started with blades and he only let me use them because he was using his good set. I purchased a set of Nike CCi forged irons and a used taylormade R7 driver and 3 wood. 

I played 9 holes after work 2 to 3 times a week for the next few months and was finally shooting in the low to mid 70's ( I was trying to be able to beat my brother at his own game) We went out to a course that was just shy of 7000yds and I shot "to his amazement" a 73 but the #&*(^)%$ shot a 67! 

7 or so months later I was still trying to beat 73... but I always made 1 more bogie more then birdie. My legs and lower back have been hurting since I was 15 (at 19 I had surgery to rip veins out of both legs and again at 34) but after 3 vehicle accidents my neck (and the rest of my back were just as screwed up. But what made me quit golf was the pain in every joint of my body that came when I turned 42 (my mother had the same thing) 

For the next 10 years I never thought I would pick up a club again and was mostly bed ridden and one massive doses of either Norco or Percocet. Last year the Dr. took me off all pain meds because of the idiots in congress yelling about the opioid epidemic.... grrrrrrr

I figured it was time to suck it up and try to play golf again so I started going to the driving range, I could hit a few balls and then had to sit down... This went on for a couple months until I could finally hit straight again (not as far as I used to but was still carrying the ball 265 or so with my driver, Im getting longer as I keep playing.  Shot a 92 the first time out, 87 the next and got lower with each round. August 31st I finally shot a 73 again.. and 10 days before my b-day I finally hit a 2 on a par 5 (still trying for that hole in 1...)

Well that's my how did I get into golf and "up to date" thread... LOL

 

 

[Nave]

14 hours ago, 3jacker said:

calculated I'd be beating Greg Norman

Seems like many of us used the same calculator 🙂

[Cartboy]

Like a lot of people, I knocked around a golf ball, sandlot style, just like I knocked around a baseball, or shot hoops, growing up.

Golf got serious when it was the alternative to Track as a Spring sport in high school.  I made that decision after the first (indoor) track meet.

It POed the football coach, but I lettered in golf three years.

If I stayed in track, I still probably would not have finished the 440.

Edited April 10, 2019 by Cartboy

[Groucho Valentine]

I don't really remember how i got into playing golf. My uncle plays, but he isn't an avid golfer. But the first time i did play i broke 100. Still have the card. 😎