How did you get into golf?

[jordan2240]

In the USA, golf is often seen as a game of the privileged.  It's one of the reasons some cite as preventing the game from growing.   Thinking about it made me wonder how folks out here got introduced to the game.  I'll keep my own story brief.

 

I grew up in a blue-collar steel town in Pennsylvania (not so ironically called 'Steelton').  My parents lived paycheck-to-paycheck as federal employees, but we (parents, 3 siblings eventually, and a grandmother) never lacked any of the necessities.  No one around me played golf, but my paternal grandmother, the one who lived with us, loved to watch it, which got me interested.  So I somehow acquired a 6 iron and some balls when I was in my early teens I believe (early 70s), perhaps a bday present, and would go to a nearby field and hit them based on what I'd seen the pros do.  Mostly hit worm-burners, but eventually could get the ball in the air.  Never had any formal instruction, but probably looked at a book or two.  My first time on a real course was with an uncle who came to the area to live after retiring from the military.  He thought I could rent a set of lefty clubs, but the course had none, so I played with just my six iron.  Don't think I even had a putter.  Eventually I acquired a used set from my boy scout leader (during the brief period I was in scouting) and started to play every so often with a classmate I met at the local public high school we attended.  Once I started working, I met a few more people who played, but I never really played with much regularity until I retired in 2015, especially once I started having kids in the late 80s.  Always play public courses, as country clubs never were nor are within financial reach for anyone in my family, and I don't like playing the same course all the time anyway.

 

So that's my story.  Perhaps others would share theirs.

[MattM97]

My mother to 12 year old me: "Do you want to go to golf camp with your friend for a week?"

 

Me: "Yeah"

 

-end

[mshills]

My buddy in 6th grade kept coming to school with what looked like a gangster’s roll.  💰💰💰💰

 

”Where’d you get THAT?”

”Caddying. You should come.”
”OK!”

[Esox]

1975, 16 yrs old. My23 yr old eldest brother took me golfing........... I was incurably hooked by 1978.

[jordan2240]

Let me rephrase my story - My grandmother liked to watch it, so I started playing it.

[Masse1369]

1989 my cousins, who were much older (my mother was an accident) came in town to visit for Christmas.  We had just moved on a golf course.  I was 9 years old.  The hole we lived on was a long par 5 with an island green.  I played the ladies tee which was 420ish with a 5 iron all the way down the fairway. Hit it on the island on my first attempt and took 3 putts for a 7 total.  I was hooked and quit all other sports almost immediately.  Still to this day I only play Golf, Golden Tee and shoot birds.  That's it. 😛   

[WilliePPQ]

Winter, early 1960's. 12 year old me being annoying around the house so Mother says "How about some time at the local YMCA for a few weeks"? Took group lessons with a bunch of other guys (either before or after pool time I can't remember)) then scraped balls into a net. Found out watching the King on the black & white was pretty exciting (except for Olympic in "66). Started hanging around local tracks with buddies to caddy and try to learn the game. Decades later and I'm still stumped but I keep coming back for more. 

[llewol007]

senior year 95, my classmate asked me if  I wanted to work at a golf shop that was located across the street from his house. I said sure

[mogc60]

1986, 12 years old, watching the Masters with my grandpa. How lame…wait what???  As Nicklaus charged so did my interest in playing golf. I played with my grandparents 2 weeks later. I was a very good athlete and I asked my grandma, how do I do this? She said grip it like this and hit it as hard as you can. Oh I can do that….

That was it I was hooked. I still vividly remember a drive I hit on the 4th hole that day that flew so straight and so far and at that moment I was addicted and needed my fix as often as I could. High school golf, college golf, 18 year club pro…hundreds of friends, thousands of associations with people.  Who knew a back nine charge by The Golden Bear would have caused all that. 

[PJE]

I grew up in a chaotic household. I saw golf on TV and it seemed peaceful and civilized.  I was about 8. 

 I wanted to play but my dad said golf was a dumb game. He told me when I was old enough to get myself to a golf course, play away. 
I got my license at 16, bought some clubs at a garage sale for a dollar, and that was it.
  I then got a job at the course on the driving range and I was able to buy my first real piece of equipment, a Ping Anser. I also played for free and during the summer, I played 18-36 holes daily. 
My dad saw how much time I was spending on golf and he relented and started playing.  He was terrible but we ended up having some pretty fun times on the course. 

[aenemated]

My dad was a pretty solid player - I actually don't know when or how he started; he was born into a family of dirt poor tobacco farmers in the 40s and joined the USMC on his 18th birthday to be shuffled off to Vietnam (three times) so surely wasn't till later in life - but some of my earliest memories are of playing putt-putt on summer vacations. Which quickly became all I wanted to do. He eventually started taking me to rounds he'd play with his buddies and would let me putt out short ones which I guess it where the interest really, really started.

 

I remember watching the '86 Masters and how stoked dad got that Jack won and I asked him "Can you beat Jack Nicklaus?" .. he assured me he could not. So I said I wanted to get good enough to beat Jack ... and dad got me my first set of clubs that very week.

 

And here we are. 

[SnowbirdTom]

Early '70s and barely into double digit age, neighbor was cleaning out his garage and tossed some wood shafted irons on the discard pile.  Piqued my interest as we lived within 1/4 mile of two courses.  My two younger sisters and I went up to the closer of the two courses' putting green to check this game out.  The course owner came out to check on the kids with mismatched clubs and not a putter in sight.  He told us as long as we stayed out of the paying customers way, we were allowed to "practice".

 

I was hooked.  The other course had an executive par 3 that cost me $3 to play all day.  Ended up getting a cheap partial set of Northwesterns, taught myself to swing and eventually made varsity team (1975) at the high school.  I was working full time, so I got myself some Spalding Dot retail store clubs.  High falutin'!!

 

Made friends with the two brothers who humored us and owned Plumbrook Golf Course. I played there a bunch.  Their goodwill more than paid off for all parties.

[Wooley12]

Golf came to my family when dad got a job as a caddy at Schyler Meadow CC when he was 12.  "Easier job than picking berries" he said. He got to be good enough to make the HS golf team. When I was 12 we lived next to a large park with an 10 hole RTJ designed muni that kids could play for $0.50.  I played a lot with my little brother and kids from the neighborhood until I met my wife when I was 15.  

Thanks dad

 

 

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Wooley12

[Esox]

22 minutes ago, SnowbirdTom said:

Early '70s and barely into double digit age, neighbor was cleaning out his garage and tossed some wood shafted irons on the discard pile.  Piqued my interest as we lived within 1/4 mile of two courses.  My two younger sisters and I went up to the closer of the two courses' putting green to check this game out.  The course owner came out to check on the kids with mismatched clubs and not a putter in sight.  He told us as long as we stayed out of the paying customers way, we were allowed to "practice".

 

I was hooked.  The other course had an executive par 3 that cost me $3 to play all day.  Ended up getting a cheap partial set of Northwesterns, taught myself to swing and eventually made varsity team (1975) at the high school.  I was working full time, so I got myself some Spalding Dot retail store clubs.  High falutin'!!

 

Made friends with the two brothers who humored us and owned Plumbrook Golf Course. I played there a bunch.  Their goodwill more than paid off for all parties.

I used to play a LOT at Plumbrook in the 80's and 90's, as well as tag along on pheasant hunts with my Dad across sch**nherr Rd before Strerling Township became Sterling Heights in 1968.

Edited June 12, 2022 by Esox

[Esox]

Weird, the software keeps editing out the road name. German surnames are offensive?

[St Jimmy]

When I returned home from the Army at age 21, I found out my father had been playing every Wednesday with his friends at work the past 20 years.  I never remembered him talking about golf or seeing clubs laying around the house.  He was obsessed with Putt Putt though, and we always stopped whenever passing by one.

He gave me a garage sale set of Northwestern clubs and I started going with him 3-4 times a summer.  

 

It took about 4-5 years for the "obsession" to truly kick in.  I went from a handful of games a year, to a handful a month, to a handful a week.  I started practicing like crazy in an effort to beat him.  We started a weekly game and it became our thing.  Even after he retired years later and moved away, my golf craze was about improving to impress and beat him when we met up.  Usually it was a week in the spring , summer, and fall.  15-20 rounds a year to battle it out along with constant photos of scorecards to brag about.  Every vacation I took involved meeting him somewhere to golf.  Yes, the wives and kids were there too, but they were at the beach or resort when we snuck out. 

I even started recording and editing some of my rounds to send him along with commentary, lol.  

 

Covid took him from me last year and I just haven't found the desire to play like I used to.  My rounds were cut in half last year, and this season they've been sporadic at best.  I'm at a turning point in my life where I'm wondering if I was a true golfer or just used that as a bond between my Dad and I.  It doesn't help that I'm playing the worst I have in a very long time either.  

 

 

 

*edit- I'm still buying gear tho!!  

Edited June 12, 2022 by St Jimmy

[Soloman1]

My first day in high school, I was 12 years old. I skipped a couple of grades. I was the same size as others, but just younger.

 

The PE teacher separated us by age and I was in a group of one - me. I had a terrible stutter and he proceeded to give me a rash of crap about my age and was thrilled about getting the whole class laughing at me. It was humiliating. I did my best to never say a word for the next 4 years.

 

I decided to play golf, since I didn’t have to talk to anyone. I didn’t need a team or anyone else to play against. Just me and the silence of a golf course and range. I was pretty good after two years Even in winter or rain, I propped my mattress up against the wall and hit balls. I was relentless and had some good fortune.

 

My father worked with a guy named Del Beman, the brother was Dean Beman, US Amateur champion in my sophomore year, future tour player and PGA Tour commissioner. My father and I got to play with them once. Dean Beman was so congenial and encouraging. He encouraged my to keep practicing.

 

I tried out for the golf team in my junior year. All the returning players gave me crap and laughed again at me. In the tryouts, I kicked every everyone’s butt. I still didn’t talk, but at least they didn’t give me any crap anymore.

 

Oh, I stopped stuttering the day I graduated from high school.

 

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Soloman1

[SnowbirdTom]

1 hour ago, Esox said:

I used to play a LOT at Plumbrook in the 80's and 90's, as well as tag along on pheasant hunts with my Dad across sch**nherr Rd before Strerling Township became Sterling Heights in 1968.

Well, you remember Rammler GC as well then.  I caddied there a couple years when the creek flooded the course and carts were not allowed. We got to Sterling Hts in ‘69.

 

sch**nherr?

[rd1959]

My father played a lot golf when I was growing up. He was good enough to consistently shoot in the low 80s but I was never really interested myself until I was 12. One day he came home with a very old hickory shafted club that was in rough condition. It was interesting to me because it wasn't at all like the Wilson Staff blades he played with. The grip was a wrap, a real wrap grip. It was secured by a small nail at the top of the shaft, then wrapped around the shaft and secured by another small nail at the bottom. The club head was badly corroded and I can't remember the brand but the word niblick was stamped into it.

  This was around 1970 and collecting wasn't a thing then so it just sat in the closet collecting dust. In 1972, at 12 years old, I started watching golf on TV with my dad and started to catch the golfing bug. We had two sweetgum trees in our back yard and I took that old club out and started hitting those spiny balls that grew on those trees. During the fall those balls would fall off those two trees giving me what seemed like a thousand of them. I would be out there hitting them over the back fence all day long on the weekends.

  Over the next couple of years my father didn't play as much as he used to and that old hickory shaft finally split so I would grab one of his modern clubs and do the same thing. Nowadays, somebody using mid-late 60s vintage Wilson Staff blades to hit those spiny little sweet gum balls might be considered sacrilege, but I was just a dumb kid that didn't know any better.

  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Edited June 12, 2022 by rd1959

[rd1959]

1 hour ago, Esox said:

Weird, the software keeps editing out the road name. German surnames are offensive?

It's doing the same thing to me. I tried using a completely benign word, that rhymes with tickly. Instead I had to use a word that really doesn't fit. Apparently Beavis and Butthead were the software developers.

Edited June 12, 2022 by rd1959

[jordan2240]

2 hours ago, St Jimmy said:

Covid took him from me last year and I just haven't found the desire to play like I used to.

So sorry that happened.  My dad will turn 89 next month, and I've often wished he was a golfer.  I golf with a guy who is 91, and I'm sure the bond my dad and I could have developed on the course would have been incredible.

Edited June 12, 2022 by jordan2240

[Esox]

5 hours ago, SnowbirdTom said:

Well, you remember Rammler GC as well then.  I caddied there a couple years when the creek flooded the course and carts were not allowed. We got to Sterling Hts in ‘69.

 

sch**nherr?

I play Rammler at least once a year, we have a work outing there. Rammler and Plumbrook are both pretty old courses. I think Plumbrook is almost 100 now? That creek is the Clinton River, gets salmon runs in the fall, steelhead, pike and walleye in the spring.

 

Edit, just looked it up. Rammler was founded in 1929. Plumbrook in 1927.

Edited June 12, 2022 by Esox

[SnowbirdTom]

17 minutes ago, Esox said:

I play Rammler at least once a year, we have a work outing there. Rammler and Plumbrook are both pretty old courses. I think Plumbrook is almost 100 now? That creek is the Clinton River, gets salmon runs in the fall, steelhead, pike and walleye in the spring.

 

Edit, just looked it up. Rammler was founded in 1929. Plumbrook in 1927.

Yeah, that one, the Clinton River.  lol  I remember the course pro was a retired tour pro named Max Evans.  He was old then, but a damn nice guy.  The owners at Plumbrook were Paul and Don Beaupre and they weren't very young either.  My indulgent treat after playing at Plumbrook was a burger and fries in the clubhouse diner.  Super crisp crinkle fries and a burger that I still remember to this day.  IIRC, it was about a $3 meal.

[JimmyC59]

Arnold Palmer.

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by JimmyC59

[Gdub17]

Played with my pops as a youth at city owned muni goat ranches. 

[Double Mocha Man]

Lazy, hot summer morning.  12 years old.  Hanging in the street with Larry and Richard.  Richard mentioned how he played golf with his Dad the night before, for the first time.  

 

We were bored with no plans for the day.

 

An hour later, a Mom who can drive was recruited, and with Richard's pilfering of his Dad's clubs we're on the first tee at a par 3 course.  Larry and I were hooked.

 

I never played golf again with Richard.  But Larry and I went on to play in high school and college on the same teams.

[Double Mocha Man]

8 hours ago, Soloman1 said:

I had a terrible stutter and he proceeded to give me a rash of crap about my age and was thrilled about getting the whole class laughing at me. It was humiliating. I did my best to never say a word for the next 4 years.

 

Good for you!  Can you imagine someone doing that today?  That PE teacher would be all over social media.

[cgasucks]

In the summer of 2000 the company I worked for at the time had a golf outing in a scramble format.  Back then I was totally clueless about golf and Tiger was the only golfer I heard about and didn't know what was meant by scramble.  I thought we were having scrambled eggs over over there.  

 

I cough a bad flu bug at the end of that day but got totally hooked at the time.  

[Roejye]

I wish I could say I was hooked immediately, but it was a much slower build for me. I remember it basically started with liking putt putt, then eventually finding a lynx 4 wood and 8 iron in our back porch, and I would hit those every once in awhile. Then Tiger happened and I went to one of his clinics and some first tee things. Eventually I got my dad's wilson k-28 blades and started playing sporadically. Filling out that set started me on my club ho ways, wedges from goodwill/garage sales. So many drivers, some from my dad, some from the $5 bin at my home course. I started out playing very infrequently, to once monthly, to once weekly, then getting a membership and playing as much as I can. Now I'm trying to find out ways to get my dad a new set of irons, without him finding out what's up and not spending a whole lot. 

[Hogan9]

Back in the early 60s a nine hole course was built in the small town in South Carolina where I lived. I took part in a clinic for kid's of the members. I learned the basics of the game and found I wasn't too bad of a player usually scoring in the mid eighties. I was mainly focused on football, basketball and track in high school but played golf occasionally between seasons. Once I was in college golf became more important and in the mid 70s it became my main hobby. I joined a club, got my handicap down to single digits and have been playing from 75 to 100 tounds a year ever since. I love the game and at the age of 72 I still  play three times a week.  I've moved up a set of tees (6900 to 6250 yds) and my index is 10.0. Like all players I'm hoping I can get that index down to a single digit this Summer.