Who introduced you to golf?

[rhnh7063]

Started playing last year. I was a big tennis player and a martial arts instructor until my knee got destroyed in a car accident. They rebuilt it, but since then it's never been the same. I'm still a real active person, so I decided to give this game a chance. Bought a $200 set of no-name clubs, took a few lessons, played my first round, and I was hooked. I just wish I'd started a long time ago.

[Golf_Beauty]

I started playing about 2 years ago. My husband and I ride motorcyles together, but you can't really have conversations and "together" time when you're both going 125+ mph around a track or hitting the curves in the backroads. :drinks: So he asked if I wanted to learn to play golf. Sure, why not? I played sports (volleyball, tennis and track) all through school and still play tennis. How hard could it be, right? I hated it!! :crazy: I couldn't hit the ball to save my life. And if I did manage to connect it went spraying everywhere. I gave up and said I would never do it again. I'm not a quitter so I picked it up again, determined and steadfast. I'm glad I did: I broke 90 with an 89 score a few months later. :birthday: So technically I've been playing for a year and half, love the sport and am playing every chance I get. ;)

[pinseeker]

For me, it was to make some money with my friends and I when we were 14/15 in the mid 1970's. I grew up in Bethpage, LI. We would cut thru the jr High fields/sumps and cross the expressway onto Bethpage Blue. We would make our way to the only two lakes on the 5 courses. Green course and nbr 8 on the Black. We would wade thru and pull out balls to sell. We always liked hanging around the courses and clubhouses even though the park rangers would chase us off.

We would go over to the driving range. They always had a few old drivers to borrow and we would get a bucket. We all boasted that we could play and hit it farther than the rest which except for one of the guys we really could not do.

By that time it just grew into something fun to do. We would either sneek on or make enough money selling balls that we would pay to play. The funny thing. At that time, the Black was the easiest to get on since no one would want to play/walk that course. The wait times for the others could go as long as 5-6 hours. First come, first serve. This was before they got electric carts in 1979/1980. I think today you cannot use carts on the Black.

Then they also used 15-18 year olsd as course caddies. When I turned 15 I caddied those courses. I just loved being out there. Best time of my life.

[BEND OF THE RIVER GC]

At age 9 (1976) we lived right next to a golf course in upstate NY. My older brothers (teenagers at the time) told me that golf was for "sissys" and would only introduce me to baseball, football, etc....I started playing at 18 WHEN I WAS LIVING IN DUBLIN, OHIO. I HAVEN'T STOPPED SINCE!

[Huskypride28]

I started playing about 2 years ago. My husband and I ride motorcyles together, but you can't really have conversations and "together" time when you're both going 125+ mph around a track or hitting the curves in the backroads. :drinks: So he asked if I wanted to learn to play golf. Sure, why not? I played sports (volleyball, tennis and track) all through school and still play tennis. How hard could it be, right? I hated it!! :crazy: I couldn't hit the ball to save my life. And if I did manage to connect it went spraying everywhere. I gave up and said I would never do it again. I'm not a quitter so I picked it up again, determined and steadfast. I'm glad I did: I broke 90 with an 89 score a few months later. :birthday: So technically I've been playing for a year and half, love the sport and am playing every chance I get. ;)

What kind of motorcycle do you ride? I've got a CBR600 f4i and love it. I'm always torn on a nice day to ride or play golf.

[WriterRay]

I played my first few rounds in Mobile, AL when my dad would take us to a local muni course. I was 13, and more into baseball back then. BUT...then we moved to Texas, where I met a guy my age who was a junior champion and absolutely ate, drank, and slept golf. So I got the bug bad just by hanging out with him.

 

Any guesses who that guy is? He is none other than Slicefixer, best golf teacher in Texas, in my opinion. I mention this because I just got back to South Carolina after spending a couple days with "Slice." The man will HELP your game!!

[TNSooner]

My Dad wanted me to play so badly that he moved across town within about 200 yds. of the first tee in a little one horse, one stoplight town just west of OKC...

 

He always made it a point to tell all his friends that he wasn't worried about me and my brother when we got older. While all my high school buds were out raising hell and smokin' dope, my brother and I were across the street working on our putting under a mercury vapor light...

 

I was 4 when I got my first club and haven't put them down since...

[CowtownTexas]

Started playing when I was very young and played almost daily during the summers. Gave it up when I was 13-14 to concentrate on lifting weights and football. By far the dumbest athletic decision I ever made.

 

Took the game back up in college and got serious about it at that point. Work got in the way for a few years, but I now play 2-4 times a week depending on the season.

 

Golf has made me some great friendships over the last few years and I can't imagine what all it holds in the future. I have a goal to play as many top 100 courses as I can before I die. Still have almost the whole list to go, but I don't know that I ever appreciated golf until I hit my late 20's or 30.

 

I've been extremely fortunate/lucky to get to play with some of the best players in the world and can't imagine another sport where that could/would happen. Golf is truly the worlds greatest game. There is no other sport like it.

[Golf_Beauty]

I started playing about 2 years ago. My husband and I ride motorcyles together, but you can't really have conversations and "together" time when you're both going 125+ mph around a track or hitting the curves in the backroads. So he asked if I wanted to learn to play golf. Sure, why not? I played sports (volleyball, tennis and track) all through school and still play tennis. How hard could it be, right? I hated it!! :D I couldn't hit the ball to save my life. And if I did manage to connect it went spraying everywhere. I gave up and said I would never do it again. I'm not a quitter so I picked it up again, determined and steadfast. I'm glad I did: I broke 90 with an 89 score a few months later. ;) So technically I've been playing for a year and half, love the sport and am playing every chance I get. :hi:

What kind of motorcycle do you ride? I've got a CBR600 f4i and love it. I'm always torn on a nice day to ride or play golf.

 

A '96 Yammy YZF6 (just sold it, actually) and a '99 Suzuki 'Busa. I know what you mean, although right now, the 'Busa's in the shop so I always choose to play. :vava:

[Eazy_B97]

Started playing last season at age 20. I played 2-3 rounds when I was 16, but they were more tag-along or forced rounds (hockey banquets). My Dad got back into the game 2 seasons ago, and I was hitting balls at the range with him to keep him company. Last season I picked it up to actually start playing, got some clubs and worked on my game. Still doing the same now.

[sync71]

When I was 5-8 my dad had an old set of clubs with wooden heads and wut not and I would take them into my backyard like 2 times a year and attemt to hit them..He didn't golf he had stopped around the time I was born during that

time I went to the range once or twice..Then before I turned 11 in April of 2003 I heard 2 of my friends talking about golf and it sounded like a lot of fun I had always thought it was kind of retarted..and I had always skateboared since I had been like 6.But I saw a left handed junior set of northwesterns for 50 dollars so I bought them with my birthday money then I was allowed to play once a week at a local 9 hole course (because of green fees) The next year I got a membership for the next 2 years at the same course and play everyday in the summer..then this year I went to the massena country club which is an 18 hole course obvisouly and since April when I first established a handicap it has went down from 28.1 to 27..My goal is to get below 24 this year..that is how I started I wish I had started when I was like 1 or something like that.

[Albatros]

When I was 16, a freind took me out golfing. I played baseball when I was young and into college, so I got out there with my baseball swing and played the right side of the course all day. But on hole 5 or 6 I drained a 50 foot double breaking snake - and I was hooked!!!

[RSchaffer29]

I saw Tiger Woods on tv, then I asked my dad to go to the driving range

[divot46]

My first recollection was my dad taking me to a 9 hole , sand green course in his hometown (the course is still there and operating with sand greens). I was probably about 5 or 6. Can't imagine not playing now. Thanks dad!!!!

[rge]

I first got exposed to the game as a kid of 10, Being the youngest of a small brood of 9 kids, most of whom played. I would just tag along and create mayhem on the course. Never picked up a club again until I was already 30 and working for a company whose boss loved the game and encouraged company golf outings. I picked up the game again and fell smitten with it. Never looked back and got my wife to love the game just as much. It's a great feeling when your wife is the one that wakes you in the morning and says "wake up sleepyhead, it's time to whack some balls. One day we decided to take a month and a half long road trip and stop at any golf course we passed. managed to play about 30 courses in that short stint from TX-NY-TX-CA. I just loved seeing the different types of courses from various areas in the US. I hope to be playing this game with my wife alongside till its time to lay sod over me.

[kiwidave]

I blew my knee out playing rugby. The doctor told me as it started to heal after surgery to start walking but to stop every couple of hundred metre's for a minute or so. May as well be hitting a ball as well so golf seemed logical, now I'm hooked

[pingjas]

My dad got me a set of Hogan Jr. Radials for my 9th birthday. Driver, 3 wood, 3,5,7,9,PW, and a putter, with a bag. I thought I was the coolest kid. By the next summer I was playing tournaments. Of course, I had to update my clubs even at the age of 10. I got a set of Ping Eye 2, Ultra Lights, perfect clubs for a kid. It's twenty-two years later and I remember it as if it where yesterday. Also, still have the Ping Anser my dad gave me. It's over 30 years old.

[agoodgolfer]

I have a couple uncles that played when I was a kid. I have a picture from when I was about 6 when one of them took me for the first time. I took a junior clinic when I was 10 from a local Pro my uncle went to school with, but I still didn't catch the bug until I was about 14. I spent almost the entire summer before highschool at a local par three course. Played a couple time sa week and was hitting balls when I wasnt playing. I probably spent 20+ hours there a week the entire summer. By freshmen year I was shooting in the mid to low 80s on the golf team - I've been hooked ever since. Now I'm stuck in college, trying to work my way through school, and barely get to play. Too bad you don't realize how good your life is, until you've moved on.

 

Chris

[Trxjw]

I started out on the range with my Dad when I was about 8 or 9. I never really had much interest in actually hitting anything other than the driver. Other than that, I pretty much played every sport other than golf. Primarily soccer and hockey. I picked it up in high school again when my school decided they were starting a team and my soccer coach quit and was replaced by a real.. unpleasant guy. First match I played was the first time I had ever set foot on a course. I shot a 60 for 9 holes. :crazy: Thankfully by the end of the season I was pretty consistant around 40 for 9.

 

After a while I really developed a passion for the game and I try to work on my game as much as possible. My Dad is still my favorite playing partner and we play every chance we get when I'm home.

[RPC]

MY YOUNGEST BROTHER GOT ME TO GO AND PLAY WITH SOME FRIENDS WHEN I REALLY DIDNT THINK I WOULD LIKE BUT I WAS HOOKED AND THE REST IS HISTORY :crazy:

[spk74]

My dad tried to get me interested when I was ~8, but hitting wiffle balls around our suburban backyard didn't interest me the way other sports did. A few years later, my family moved out to the country just outside Muirfield Village...and I witnessed my first Memorial Tournament.

 

That summer, my grandma gave me a short lesson and took me to play 9 holes with my dad's clubs. I watched a few betamax videos she had (one with Nicklaus) over and over in her basement, subscribed to Golf Digest, and quickly decided I needed a set of Ping Zing's like those pictured inside the front cover. My grandma laughed when I told her... "oh really?"

 

Soon thereafter, my great uncle built me my first set of clubs (cast blades w/ arthritic grips & a healthy dose of lead tape). Now armed, I spent many afternoons hitting balls around our 7.5 acres (occasionally into the nearby soybean field), and playing a 9-hole schmourse called Twin Oaks (most commonly referred to as "Twin Jokes")...which has since been consumed by Tartan Fields (Wendy's/former LPGA). I really enjoyed playing the game, caddied briefly at Muirfield, and eventually got another job picking balls.

 

But, in college, my roommate got me even more interested in the game...and re-awakened my fascination with golf equipment (he's a junkie). I'm not sure if he realized it, but I took competing with him very seriously (his family belonged to Muirfield CC, and I felt like I had to represent former caddies everywhere).

 

My real turning point was the summer after my junior year in college...when I returned to Dublin and took classes @ The Ohio State University. As a full-time student, I was able to play the OSU Scarlet Course (Alister McKenzie). Wow. Just like every other course I'd ever played, each hole seemed like a chapter in a book, only this book was interesting and memorable...from start to finish...no matter how many times you played it.

 

I became hooked, to say the least, and I my appreciation for the game has been growing monotonically ever since.

[flognut]

Very sadly not until 12 years ago at age 25. I started because all my friends did and have been addicted ever since. I can only wish i had started when my Grandfather tried extremly hard but unsuccessfully to get me into it at age 9. It just couldnt boot hockey and baseball off the top of the list of interest. Who's knows the different path i could have been on in life, instead of this deadend crappy %*&$# job.

 

oh well

[Ian_123456]

i started liking golf when i played the old FPS golf games for computers and then i saw tiger win the masters in 97 and i thought he was so cool because he hit the ball so far and ive been hooked ever since

[chesterrc]

I had played with my dad sometimes when we went on vacation, and that was always fun. On top of that, I always liked sports where I had to get something to some sort of target (shooting, archery, baseball, football, basketball, ect). A family friend let me know that he was trying out for his high school golf team in Florida one summer, so I figured I would do the same. I tried out for the team, and on the first hole of tryouts I had to ask what number club to hit. It was pouring rain and I ended up hitting my first shot backwards into a greenside bunker on another hole. I really didn't like golf then, but it was fun socially. I had never fit in with any groups, and saw this as another way of finding a place for me. It wasn't. My first year on the team I was a junior and Last place JV. It sucked, and I was miserable the entire season.

 

My senior year I decided to try out for the team again thinking it would be different. It wasn't. I started out on track to be 6th place varsity (I was shooting mid to high 40's for 9 holes) but then my mom got diagnosed with cancer and I was told it was terminal, so I stopped caring about golf because it brought me nothing but frustration, anger, and the belief that I had no place in the social landscape.

 

One of my three buddies from the golf team was putting on a golf tournament for a senior project to raise money for cancer research (his dad passed weeks after my mom was diagnosed), and I was lucky enough to be able to help him out with it. Putting on the tournament really restored a lot of faith in myself, opened my eyes to some of the social complexities of our world, and really got me interested in golf equipment.

 

Now I work in a golf store. When people ask me if I play golf I tell them "I like to watch the ball go up, and then go down." They all laugh, but really thats why I like to play.

[expunge]

Super Bowl Sunday 1990 my Step Dad took me to the driving range and that was it. You know that commercial where the girl holes it from the bunker then you see her buying the clothes, taking lessons, getting a new bag with her name on it, yeah, that was me, but you know...a guy.

 

I went to the range every chance I could get. I used an old set of Wilson blades that was missing the 9 iron so I learned how to hit an open faced 8 iron like the 9. After a year I went out and got a set of Northwesterns (Which I thought were the coolest) and played with those. Went to the local 9 hole with my brother and played at my course as much as I possibly could. Then High School rolled around and got into football but still loved golf. By the end of the football season I was toast so I didn't want to have anything to do with golf. After 1 year in HS playing football I decided to do both sports.

 

I loved playing competitive golf. That was until I found out we were playing this team that had this "kid that was good" on it. I got out of my last class 30 minutes early that day to get onto the range and I see this kid from Western High school standing there hitting balls over the back of the range. Didn't bother me too much. I set up on the chipping green and worked on my pitch and roll. Then he takes out his driver and I notice a crowd behind him. He's hitting the ball as far as any PGA pro would have on any of their best days. Straight as an aarow too. I finish up my warm up on the green and my coach comes up to me and says, "Ian, nobody else wants to play him so you get to." I asked who he was. "Oh, that's Tiger Woods" my coach exclaimed.

 

I walked up onto the first tee and there was literally 100 people standing behind the two of us. I hit my drive down the middle about 225. Tiger walks up and fly's his driver to the green on the 305 yard par 4. I looked at him and said with a smile on my face, "How about we play best ball?". He laughed and we picked up the sticks and I went out to have the most fun of my golfing career that day. The next few times we played together we as much fun as we had that day. I almos hit him when I shanked a drive off of the 3rd hole in a tourney. Can you imagine if I would have been the guy to injure him? I would have been shot in my sleep.

 

He shot a 2 under 33 and I shot a 2 over 37. After that day I was hooked and wanted to "be Tiger Woods". I still have my scorecard he signed for me. I was supposed to turn that in but, "oops" I didn't. Ever since I played with him until I was a junior in HS I was hooked on the game. Played, thought and obsessed with it every minute of my life.

 

So, that's how I got hooked. People don't have to believe me. But there's no point in BS'ing about something like that. I know it happened, I'll have that memory forever and it is one of the coolest memory's ever. My brother tells everyone that I played with TW when golf comes up in conversations.

[dac]

first swing with a golf club was when i had nothing better to do in early high school. i thought it was hard, and the stupidest sport in the world. tried to pick it up again later (3 1/2) years ago, basically so i could play golf with clients, then got hooked. i love golf.

[lolita]

Hello Everybody ...

 

I start golf a year ago. My best friends play 3 times a week, so I just walk with them and look for mising balls.

In my home (Lithuania), I never new that we have few golf courses, and the worse I never heard of golf ever.

But now I live in Canada almost 2.5 year, and I loved.

I am happy beginner, I can hit only 150 yards, but my goal is to hit sright, and I do that very well.

Next year I will be ready to take lessons, and hopefully one day I can call my self a good player :0).

All my friends are saying that I can be very good, I am tall, probably smart too, I gess so :0).

Always willing to learn.

And for others good luck on your goals and just be happy golfer ... !!!

Sorry for my English.

 

Sincerely,

Lolita

[flaun]

Played a little bit with my grandfather when I was 7-10. Was much more interested in baseball and video games. My pops isn't much of an athlete but I loved playing baseball. Played through HS, but didn't have the stuff to play in college. Met my wife in college, and along with my wife came her father, an avid golfer.

 

Started playing with him as a way to bond a little. Unfortunately, he passed away from lung cancer (smoking) in 2004 . Everyone thought that I should get his clubs since we played some together and they were about 10 years newer than mine. During a vacation to Mazatlan, thought that I should play one of his favorite courses (Estrella Del Mar) in memorium. Been hooked ever since.

 

Still playing the older Cobra's I got from him and finally shooting in the low 80's. Think that he would be proud of my game at this point ;)

[Evil R1]

I started playing last Spring. I never really thought much of the game. To me it was Hit the Ball, Find the Ball, Hit the Ball, basically a total waste of time and money. My wifes whole family plays golf and used to try and get me to come play golf with them.

 

While I was in San Diego on a business trip, a few of use broke away one afternoon and played 18 holes at Coronado Golf Course and I had a blast. I didn't take it very seriously and it was just fun. The next day we broke out again one afternoon and played at East Lake Country Club. I didn't give golf much thought again until 4th of July weekend last year, my father-in-law took me out for a round and I had a great time, but it also awoke the competitive side of me. Soon after I started taking lessons, buying equipment, and also got my wife involved. My wallet will never be the same again

 

Thanks,

[300yard+]

started back in 96 my cousin let me hit his 5 iron callaway at the range and was hitting that thing 180 yards farther then him and more consistently.