How were you introduced to golf?

[TJ Hall]

What brought you to start playing golf?  Was it family, a coworker, a friend or something else?

For me, it was my dad.  He ended getting an old set of clubs from his in-laws and started swinging.  After a few years of playing, he got me a couple of clubs, allowing me to practice at home (plastic balls), the range and the course (just hitting a few shots).

He then got into building clubs and built me a set of odd numbered irons.  Then added the rest when I got bigger.

Continued playing with him throughout the years and haven’t looked back.

What is your story?

[Rob Person]

A buddy at the PD a few years ago asked me to join him in some stress relief after a trying week we had shared.

I inherited a set of old, but in really good shape clubs, from an uncle that passed. 

After that, I was hooked.

Before that I only spectated

[EasyPutter]

I had my first experience when I was too young to appreciate golf, looking through the hedgerow at the bottom of my grandfather's house at Wolstanton Golf Club in Stoke-on-Trent.  As kids we went to Putt-Putt on our bikes to play miniature golf.  High school gym class had  golf elective chosen when possible learning to hit practice balls.  Army posts have driving ranges and putting greens I would play on because I knew how to do those things.  Lived next to the 3rd fairway of Fountains Green GC on Fort Dix.  At Fort Leavenworth saw a flier for Learn To Golf in 3 Lessons, by the Head Pro and went to the classes.  Very little new information was learned but it included etiquette and on course experience.  I was hooked and have been an obsessed golfer ever since.

Many along the way could have enabled my interest as I started asking about golf in high school.  It was 35 years later I did it myself and made golf my game.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

Well, I worked for a company that had a golf league. If you played in the league you got to leave at noon on Wednesdays. If you didn5you had to stay and cover for the golfers which included putting in extra time.

One year of that convinced me to take up golf. Purchased a set of clubs, took lessons, and purchased clubs and I was ready for the next season. As they say the rest was history. Hey, I might have sucked for a while but I wasn't at work. 

 

[Erin B]

1 hour ago, TJ Hall said:

What brought you to start playing golf?  Was it family, a coworker, a friend or something else?

For me, it was my dad.  He ended getting an old set of clubs from his in-laws and started swinging.  After a few years of playing, he got me a couple of clubs, allowing me to practice at home (plastic balls), the range and the course (just hitting a few shots).

He then got into building clubs and built me a set of odd numbered irons.  Then added the rest when I got bigger.

Continued playing with him throughout the years and haven’t looked back.

What is your story?

You’ve heard my story if you’ve read my reviews and tests but I was interested in golf when I was in High School, but my dad said it was a waste of land. I played my first round of golf in Albuquerque NM at Kirtland AFB. I was 23. I was hooked! Here I am 29 years later. I got down to a 2.2 before I broke my back on active duty. Now, 4 back surgeries later, I’m nearly back into single digits. It’s been a journey!!

[Coulter]

My Dad is a Baptist preacher and the church I grew up in had an older couple that was retired engineers that still got out and played golf as often as they could. The husband had a pretty severely hunched back and it really impressed me that he was able to go out and play still. They took me out a handful of times when I was 17 to teach me and gave me a mismatched hand me down set (I still have that set) if I decided I wanted to keep playing. 
I really enjoyed the game but found that it was too expensive for me and let the clubs collect dust for almost 11 years. 
Almost 5 years ago now I was paired up with a new journeyman Electrician on a job 10 minutes from my house that is about my age and grew up playing golf. He had a buddy that recently acquired a commercial membership at one of the local REALLY nice courses 5 minutes from the job site and about once a week would take me with him to play. It was free and I already knew I enjoyed the game so I thought why waste the chance? 
The rest is history as they say and now I’m absolutely hooked! I still talk to that friend on a daily basis and count him as one of my best friends. In fact just a couple of weeks ago he needed a new wedge so we took a dive into the most wanted wedges of 2024 from the main site and he ended up with the callaway rtx 54.

[TJ Hall]

I love reading these stories…quite a few different ways of coming to the game!

[rkj427]

Well for me it started a long time ago when I was about 12 years old. I have a twin brother, and we had a younger brother who was only 15 months younger than us, and here The Detroit News, a local newspaper which we all delivered put on a free golf lesson clinic at Chandler Park Golf Course, a city owned course in Detroit. We rode our bikes there, carrying clubs and took the lessons and played for free for the 4 years they ran this program.

Played on the high school team, and that was pretty cool for me, as they played and practiced at a private club, and the conditions and competition made me a better player.

As time moved forward, we would play with our dad on weekends as well. This was a regular routine up until we reached about 40 years old.

Life sometimes throws you a curveball, and for me, some of the changes included giving up the game for about 10 years, and then after we got back to playing regular rounds again, my younger brother passed away about 15 years ago.

My twin brother doesn't play much anymore either, so my regular playing partners all consist of people that I have worked with through the years or met at the course and have become friends with.

 

[cksurfdude]

1 hour ago, rkj427 said:

I have a twin brother

Oh boy.. there's TWO of you

My sympathies about your younger brother, sad.

[cksurfdude]

So I grew up skiing and sailing 'cuz that's what my Dad liked to do. Years later my parents divorced, my Mom resettled in CA and ended up remarried and living in one of the earlier golf community developments (Rossmoor outside Walnut Creek) - her husband was an avid golfer, and for her real estate business she decided golfing there could be helpful.

She was always trying to get me to take up golf but I thought it was a stupid game. After she passed away and I went to clean out her condo, I looked at clubs in the garage and decided to box them up and ship them back to my house .. 'yeah maybe someday I'll give it a try'...

Later that Summer one of my good surf/windsurf buddies is over and sees the clubs sitting in a corner of my garage - says 'wait here', runs back to his house, comes back with a few foam practice balls and gets me hitting a wedge into the side of the (detached) garage! 

That was at the tender young age of 53 ½

Edited Tuesday at 03:06 PM by cksurfdude
..typo, always a typo

[rkj427]

50 minutes ago, cksurfdude said:

Oh boy.. there's TWO of you

My sympathies about your younger brother, sad.

It DID make for some interesting happenings while growing older............................

also, thanks for your response. 

Here is my twin, Ray and then the "baby" of our family, my brother John from earlier this summer at a "Special 7" party function we had at a park here to celebrate anyone who turned 7, or 70 this year.

Had about 70 extended family members attend, as we had 5 turn 70, and 1 turn 7.