A "What If" Scenario

There are countless stories out there of pros (and non-pros) who learned the game because "dad (or mom) dropped me off at the club in the morning and we played until I got picked up in the afternoon."

I got to thinking about this a bit. Could you drop your 8-13 year old kid off at the course with $5 cash and that play out to their benefit? Would your club let you do that? Would the old guys there during the week watch them a bit and show them the game? Could an enterprising youth make that $5 last them all day? Could they conceivably make that $5 grow playing a quarter a hole? Maybe that is all cliche' and doesn't happen now.

What you think?

A few of us used to get dropped off in the morning at a local muni we had a season pass at with no money, just a bagged lunch and a bottle of water. Picked up whenever one of our parents finished work.

After we played some golf we would hunt for balls and sell them to people and use that money to empty out the vending machines.

Later in life, high school, at the same course we befriended one of the maintenance guys, we called him Mowmar, think Carl Spackler, and we would use our golf ball money to buy beers off of him. He actually ended up giving us most of the money back and told us to grab whatever we wanted if he wasn’t around.

Cant wait now to relive that next week when I play with one of those guys.

Dave, we need to play sometime. You're my kinda guy.

We used to drop our son off at a local course with a few bucks. He learned to budget that money and had a great time playing with the regulars. He's a club pro now and those same regulars speak fondly of, and ask about, him frequently. I need to talk to the course spdt now. lol

What a cool thread. Can't believe it hasn't gotten more response. I've got similar experiences to Dave.

Didn't really have a track within 20 mins of us, so really didn't get dropped off too much. However, once we started driving, it was literally Dawn til Dusk. A local private club back home (won't name it for obvious reasons ahead), allowed juniors to play for $150/year and walk for free. Carts were like $5. This wasn't your goat track, sleepy-eyed golf club either. It had 27 holes and was in great condition all the time.

Paying that $150 got you access to the members-only grill. This was a small area with about 10 tables and bar. The beer was in a glass fridge by the door with the sodas, water, and sports drinks.

Now - here's the great part: In the morning hours, no one manned the grill. To get a drink, you punched in your member number on the keypad to unlock the door to the seating area. You then grabbed what drink you wanted, THEN you wrote your member number down on a pad of paper and tallied how many drinks you took. The kicker was: you didn't say WHAT you took, you just did a total number of tally marks. No matter what the drink was, if it was in that fridge, it was $1. I gladly took about six bud lights out first thing in the morning as a 16-17 yr old.

The ranger/starter absolutely knew what we were doing as his station was just outside the door, but he'd just chuckle and never say a word.

Looking back: not too smart for a teenager to be slamming six beers or so in the AM (sometimes more in the afternoon) and then driving home that night. Then again, what 16-17 year old kid does smart things. ;)

Don't get back there much, but they've since done away with that setup and no longer have a members-only area. Pretty sure brewskis are 3-4 bucks a piece now.

Cool is not always hot.

Once in a while my Mom used to drop me off at local course for the day. By about noon I was pretty bored. Remember lots of putting/chipping and french fries.

Not now in our society.

When I was 12 or 13 I used to run through the back fields and woods and cross the creek into the local park. I'd take off and go fishing on my own down there too. My parents' house was about 1.5 miles on the route I took. They have a subdivision behind their home now.

I'm not terribly old but can already tell my kids will never experience the freedom I did growing up. When I was maybe 14 I was let loose with .22 to make the local squirrels pay up. At one point in time the Mepps spinner company (fishing spinners) would buy squirrel tails from you. I had it in my head I was going to get rich. I had a board in my dad's garage I would nail the tails to. It got hot out there and the tails rotted and he threw away my nest egg.

When I was about 12 I would get dropped off at the local 9 hole course. I would play alone or with whoever was around. The staff knew my dad, and my dad knew them. I knew if I screwed around I’d be done for. I was on my own out there most of the summer with no money - PBJ in the bag and drank the water out of the hose on #4 where the maintenance building was and the water fountain outside the golf shop. At 14 I was working there cleaning carts, pulling weeds, picking up trash, etc. I cannot imagine this being done today. My son is 3 and I cannot see a scenario where this would be ok - the police would be called at some time by someone anxious to make a point.

I was bitten by the bug when I went to the range with my dad one time. I must have been 3 or 4 at the time but I remember watching him hit balls and me trying to replicate that with my plastic club. Fast forward 10 years and now golf is the most important thing in my life. My uncle was a marshal at our local course and I ended up getting a membership there. I would get dropped off in the morning about 530 or 6 every morning over the summer. I was always the first person there and the last to leave each day. My very first full round of golf I shot a 124 and by the end of that summer I was already shooting low 80's consistently! I practiced a ton but learned so much more from some of the older guys that I was able to play with. I was in awe watching some of these 60 and 70 year old guys play the most boring rounds of golf you know straight down the middle off the tee, second shot into the green and either birdie or have a 3 inch tap in for par. They were super nice by bringing me along for the ride and heck I think some of them even enjoyed watching me improve over that summer. It was some of the greatest and most enjoyable times of my life!

Oh and I would usually take enough money to buy a sandwich and a few gatorades. Most of the time the guys I played with would pay for my snacks and drinks!

I have good memories of playing golf from morning to night in the summer holidays, sometimes pairing up with other juniors and trying to emulate the swings of out favourite golfers. Seve was the easiest to do, because all we had to do was hit a wild drive, though one lad was pretty good at copying his short game skills (never play him for money). Then for a laugh we'd try copying Eamonn Darcy's swing for a hole or two.

I have great memories as a kid where a friend and I would get dropped off/picked up at a golf course in the summer. Parents shared the driving and we'd typically walk 27-36 holes during the day. Since the course wasn't real busy, we typically spent the heat of the day in the ponds diving for golf balls or walking through the woods to find golf balls. Nobody cared, the few people that would drive up to the ponds, typically laughed and went on their way. Unfortunately, we were so bad at golf that we rarely had enough to sell many of them. We'd do stupid stuff off the tee trying to fly over water we knew we couldn't reach, etc. I guess at the end of the day, we knew chances were that we'd find the ball a few days later....Good times.

I grew up in the City of Philadelphia and back in the mid to late 60’s took up the game at roughly 14 or 15 years old along with a friend that lived around the corner. In the summer months we would take our clubs and walk to the bus stop where we would take 2 busses to the muni course where we had memberships for $50.00 for the summer. This course was approx 4,600 yards long with a par of 62. We would play as many holes as possible only stopping for a snack in the snack bar and the general wait to tee off a 2nd 18. My mother would then pick us up on her way home from work. If we were feeling really adventurous we would head to a different muni but that required 2 busses with a ride on the elevated in between. However this course had at least 2 par 5’s. Sadly We didn’t get rides home from that course. ?

Used to get dropped off at a local course with my brother and some friends. We’d just have our clubs and some water and walk the course the 3 or 4 of us. When we were almost done we’d call one of our parents to come get us. No chance I could see my son experiencing something like that.

Me and my buddies used to ride our bikes with clubs on our back to a decent local course. Unfortunately I wasn’t a savant and began a lifetime of poor swing choices! Haha just kidding kind of...

Dad got me a job at the course before I was able to legally work. So we played after work or while collecting pins every day