How did you start?

[act0fgod]

I'm guessing this topic has been discussed but couldn't find a thread.

 

I don't know exactly how it happened but somehow when I was in 4th grade or so I got into my dad's clubs.  Our house backed up to the woods with a stone wall and as you can image for a kid who loved baseball hitting a ball over a wall was awesome.  My dad didn't play that often and when he eventually did he wasn't happy to learn almost all his balls were gone.  I got in some trouble...something about not understanding they cost a dollar a piece and hitting them over a fence into the woods was the opposite of what you were supposed to do.  After that I didn't stop using the clubs but was smart enough to understand my dad didn't want me losing his balls.  I needed something round and with drag so took the heads of my sister's barbies...worked great.

 

Eventually my dad got tired of my sisters screaming, so he started taking me out to a 9 hole course.  I remember the first shot I ever took.  My dad thinks the best club to hit based on distance and ease is a 5 iron (when we play he still regularly hits a 5 iron off the tee).  The guy who was working in the shop came out for encouragement and I hit it so solid, in the air, right down the middle (sure it probably only went like 50-100 yards).

[IndyArcher]

I was on staff at a church and the lead pastor played every Monday. I soon joined in and started spending at least one afternoon/week on the driving range to get more comfortable with a swing. Started playing with students when I could. Just really learned to enjoy the game and it became my recreation/relaxation when I needed to get away from people which was my focus 24/7 it seemed. 

[Jraallen]

I don’t remember when I started exactly but I think I have a vague memory of my dad and grandfather cutting this wood down for me with a hack saw in the garage (34” putter next to it for scale). Played here and there with the two of them growing up but didn’t really start taking it serious in any way until maybe 8th grade.

[bigred90gt]

I played once in high school with a buddy of mine when we were at his grandparents for a visit, and once just after high school with another buddy. Both times I borrowed clubs, as I wasn't a golfer. 

 

When I was 23, I had spent 3 months in New Jersey working on a project. When I got home, I had taken a week off work to catch up on everything that was neglected in that time. My uncle called me one day and asked if I wanted to go play golf with him. I explained that I didn't have clubs, and he said he had a set he bought for his son who wasn't interested. I reminded him that I'm left handed, but turns out so is his son so the clubs were lefty. I was out of excuses, so I went, lol. Within a week, I had bought my first set of clubs, and played pretty much every week from March 2003 until some time last year when frustration got the best of me and I quit for several months. I've started back again, but now only once or twice a month, and that love for playing all the time is certainly gone. 

 

My uncle passed away probably 5 or 6 years ago, and I still miss getting out on the course with him. 

[Hawkeye77]

10 years old and my Dad would take me along occasionally and he didn’t play often.  Cut down and rusty few clubs, including a 10 iron for a putter, grungy little canvas bag - loved it!  Eventually got a little taller but my first set was from Austad’s (mail order) -Kathy Cornelius woods and irons and the obsession was locked in. Finally got my first men’s set at 15 for Christmas (no longer short but I could still hide behind a telephone pole) -  cool Nicklaus set I treasured. 
 

As of last season at 87 he had to declare himself done and the last time we played together the summer before he only played about half the holes - back issue was taking its toll. I learned to love the game, he always enjoyed it and so lucky to have it in common, and in common with both my grandpas and my wife and daughters.  

[Hawkeye77]

6 hours ago, act0fgod said:

I'm guessing this topic has been discussed but couldn't find a thread.

 

I don't know exactly how it happened but somehow when I was in 4th grade or so I got into my dad's clubs.  Our house backed up to the woods with a stone wall and as you can image for a kid who loved baseball hitting a ball over a wall was awesome.  My dad didn't play that often and when he eventually did he wasn't happy to learn almost all his balls were gone.  I got in some trouble...something about not understanding they cost a dollar a piece and hitting them over a fence into the woods was the opposite of what you were supposed to do.  After that I didn't stop using the clubs but was smart enough to understand my dad didn't want me losing his balls.  I needed something round and with drag so took the heads of my sister's barbies...worked great.

 

Eventually my dad got tired of my sisters screaming, so he started taking me out to a 9 hole course.  I remember the first shot I ever took.  My dad thinks the best club to hit based on distance and ease is a 5 iron (when we play he still regularly hits a 5 iron off the tee).  The guy who was working in the shop came out for encouragement and I hit it so solid, in the air, right down the middle (sure it probably only went like 50-100 yards).

LOL, I remember our useless golf practices in 9th grade for HS golf. We’d line up at a big wide open vacant area near the HS and, “get out your 5 irons.”  WTH. I wanted to warm up and practice with an 8i but wasn’t good enough to justify any suggestions to the “coach”. Once the course opened we just played golf thank goodness. 

Edited January 24 by Hawkeye77

[Scootre]

I remember my dad and grand dad coming home (we lived with my grand parents while our house was being built in the adjoining lot) from playing golf when I was 3 or 4. Something about the multicolored scorecard with the picture of each hole fascinated me I guess.  Sometime in the next year while at a driving range with my dad and a couple of his cousins I messed up and got hit in the mouth with a driver. I guess I had been teeing the ball up and stepped in as my dad's cousin was taking a practice swing and he caught me.  Knocked out my 2 front teeth. I remember being in this sky blue painted bathroom bleeding everywhere. Despite ALL that I still wanted to play golf. 

My grandad drove me to Myrtle Beach (about an hour and half away) to find some clubs that fit me when I was 6. He bought me a junior set and I learned to play hitting balls from my front yard, to their yard (about 70 yards from one side to the other). He put up a "flag stick" that was an old fiberglass cane fishing pole and white handkerchief in their yard.  I eventually got to play on a golf course and played in my 1st junior tournament when I was 9 or 10. 

[MtlJeff]

When i was 23 i wanted to take up a sport i could do alone and try to be competitive at....since adult sports leagues mostly are awful. I had played a few times with friends just as a fun thing to do prior to that. No one in my family had ever played golf

[david.c.w]

8th grade.  Dad's "clubs".  Leather bag.  Twin Lakes executive in Santa Barbara.  Baseball grip lasted until 23.  

[caniac6]

My grandfather had some old wooden shafted clubs, and my brother and I used to whack balls around his yard. My father used to take us to the driving range, and we played putt putt when we were 8&9.

[596]

2009 age 54

 

My banker calls on a Monday and says we have a tee time this Friday. 

 

I've never played. Drive 2 hours to Phoenix. Buy a box set of clubs, bag, shoes, balls and whiffle balls. Figure I could learn in our back garden with the whiffle balls before Friday.  

 

Been all down hill since 😂 

 

[act0fgod]

3 hours ago, caniac6 said:

My grandfather had some old wooden shafted clubs, and my brother and I used to whack balls around his yard. My father used to take us to the driving range, and we played putt putt when we were 8&9.

That reminds me of another stupid kid thing.  My dad had his grandfather's hickories.  To see if they were actually wood shafts I sawed into one.  I would kill my kid if they did that.

[Jgolfer99]

I was in a summer vacation ice hockey camp in the Midwest at 11 years old.  The schedule M-F was morning skate, lunch, and afternoon dryland activities which rotated from gym workout time to playing outdoor sports.  One of those outdoor sports was golf at a local 9-hole par 3 course.  I had seen and heard of golf, but never had anyone I knew who played nor was I exposed to it in any other way.  On the very first hole I hit three balls (mulligans allowed) off of the tee box - (2) were thinner than bad ice to the right and my third shot struck pure contact and I advanced it toward the green. 

 

From that very moment, the feel of a pure ball strike, the smell of the grass, the sound of the birds and trees rustling in the gentle breeze, the beautiful walk in between shots with nothing but my thoughts, the view of the picturesque green course, trees and flowers had me completely hooked.  From then on until today (late 30s) golf has been my love, passion, and mental solitude.  At points when nothing else was "there" for me, golf always was.  

[PJE]

In my dad’s world, there were three sports a kid could play: baseball, basketball, and football. 
My parents didn’t get along and as a result our house was chaotic. 
People joke about golf claps but when I was about ten I saw a tournament on TV and I thought it was about the most civilized thing I’d ever seen. 

I asked my dad if I could play golf and he said it was a dumb sport mostly played by rich men and spoiled kids. He said if I wanted to play, I’d have to wait to get a driver’s license. 
Fast forward a few years, I got my license at 16 and about a week later, I went to a garage sale. I bought a set of clubs for $1, and drove to our town’s muni. The next year I got a job there hand picking range balls and played 36 holes free every weekday during the summer. 
Over 50 years later, I’m still teeing it up. 
The funny thing was after I started playing my dad saw how much time I was spending at the course and he started playing too!   We had some fun times on the course. He was terrible by the way. 

[MattM97]

At like 10 or 11 I did a week long golf camp just at a local muni with a buddy, a good way to get out of my parents hair for a week. From there played a bit until like grade 10 or 11 then focused on other sports as those were leading to other things. Fast forward to 28 my Olympic dreams are dead and I'm kinda lost, the friend I did the golf camp with way back and another buddy as me to join a charity scramble cause they needed people and the charity I knew well. Go out buy a random assortment of club, play a round or two before the tournament, 2nd hole was a par 3 which I birdied and I was hooked. 

[whiteout73]

The summer when I was 12, my parents signed me up for a golf league, made up of guys I knew from school, bowling and baseball. I enjoyed it enough that I joined the high school team a couple years later, and our family joined the 2nd best private club in town (only two existed).  I ended up being the Captain the last year of HS, then played a couple years in small-time college, and have been playing obsessively ever since. 

[Ferguson]

It was shortly after the 1976 Augusta Masters, I found my sport. 

 

As a young kid I tried all sports.  I was good at baseball  and basketball but nothing excited me. In a family of 5 kids, everything was on the table - we had every sporting good item in the garage, except golf clubs. My dad encouraged each of us to find our individual sport.

 

After watching the Sunday back 9 and seeing Ray Floyd win, I was inspired and asked my dad about trying golf.  A neighbor was selling his old set and he got them for me.  Wilson Blue Ridge clubs with a navy blue Voit bag.  I consider myself self-taught.  That first summer I practiced almost every day. That fall, at a local Municipal course, I finally got up the courage and played nine holes with two other juniors - shot 47.  Never looked back.

 

Shortly thereafter, one of my older brothers and youngest brother took up the game. 

 

Great game.

 

[Roody]

It was around 30 years ago, a few months after I met and started dating my wife-to-be. I asked her one day "hey what does your dad like to do? I wanna try to suck up to him a little if I can". She said "he plays golf a lot". A few days later I joined up with a couple of friends and we went over to one of the 9-hole executive courses. I didn't even have my own clubs, I would just walk along and borrow clubs from the friend's bag. I had no clue what club to hit, and my friend would almost always suggest 7-iron because "you seem to hit that pretty well"

A couple days after that I stole my kid brother's garage sale set (old Spaldings, Wilsons, all with very slick and worn-out grips) and played my first round with my future father-in-law. I probably shot 190 that day and took about 500 mulligans, but I loved it when I would manage to hit a "good one". 

A couple months later I bought my first "modern" set of irons, a used set of Cleveland VAS's. The guy in the shop told me "these are the ones Corey Pavin used to win at Shinnecock". I didn't know any better at the time, I just figured if a major-winning pro used them they must be good for me too! Those were some ugly-arse golf clubs. 

[johnrobison]

25 years ago at the age of 32, I decided to play in the company annual golf tournament. I showed up in baseball cleats and 2 batting gloves, struggled to make contact, and had a blast! One of the young ladies (who eventually became my wife, and then my ex-wife, and now a good friend) was there and pretty damned good at golf. She told me that if I wanted to keep trying and also maintain any dignity at all, she would connect me with her mom, who used to play on tour and made a career as teaching pro. So that's what I did and it became my obsession.

[buckrogers71]

Was a 3 sport athlete (pretty good baseball player), was cut from the HS baseball team freshman and sophomore years, decided to give golf a whirl. Best move I ever made. That was 1987. 

[jda]

Rode our bikes with the crispy leather bags/clubs that were in our garages (parents) to the local 9 hour military course.  It was like $4 to play as much as you wanted and the old men who gave us grief LOVED it when we gave it back.  We were bored and golfing was the answer.  Started to take hundreds of balls out of the woods to clean and sell that got us newer clubs.  I was probably 13?  We could play for less than $1 an hour, get exercise and stay out of trouble - wins all the way around.

 

Our parents were happy that we were having fun, but they did not do much with us since they could not afford it and had to work and could not go.  We broke almost all of the old wooden woods in time with just regular use and age.  Learned how to nut a blade, read a putt and roll a ball on greens that could get really bad.  We used to take a shoulder-mount VHS camcorder to record our swings and look at them when at home.

 

My first new club was a Zing 2 putter and a TM System 2 driver.  Driver broke on the first swing with an obvious defect and the golf store did not want to warranty it since I was a kid - my Dad had to go and give them hell and he came out with extra tees, ping 1 iron (we thought that it was tight until we learned that nobody probably wanted it) and some balls as an apology.

[act0fgod]

15 hours ago, johnrobison said:

I showed up in baseball cleats 

Ha, I'm hoping you changed out the cleats before going out on the course?

[johnrobison]

5 hours ago, act0fgod said:

Ha, I'm hoping you changed out the cleats before going out on the course?

I did not. I was completely clueless 🤣

[bayrat88]

When I realized I was the slowest, shortest kid on the lacrosse field in 7th grade. That combined with my hatred for running.

[SnowbirdTom]

About halfway down this very page...
 

 

[bayrat88]

On 1/30/2025 at 7:40 AM, johnrobison said:

I did not. I was completely clueless 🤣

Talk about aerating a green, the super must of loved you!

[3_Jack_Par]

My earliest memory involves golf -- I was about 4 years old, and I was swinging a putter in our basement, and my 2-year old sister came up behind me. I didn't know she was there, and I brained her with the club on the follow through, resulting in a few stitches. I felt terrible about that one.

I grew up playing basically every sport, and baseball was my first love. My parents had a couple sets of clubs in the garage, but didn't really play much, but I liked to mess around with them in the yard hitting some wiffle balls when I was bored, and I eventually nagged my dad enough to get him to take me out to play. The first time, he took me to a local driving range to teach me how to hold the club (instead of a baseball grip, interlocking, which I still use today), and then out to play 9 holes using my mom's clubs, which just had the odd-numbered irons. I had decent hand-eye coordination from baseball, so I could make contact most of the time just starting out, and I hit enough solid ones and I was hooked. I kept playing other sports throughout high school, but golf became the game I thought about and enjoyed the most. My dad also became obsessed once we started playing more and more, and plays about 3-4 times a week now that he's retired.

Edited February 10 by 3_Jack_Par

[johnrobison]

21 hours ago, bayrat88 said:

Talk about aerating a green, the super must of loved you!

🤦‍♂️ I'm definitely not proud of myself

[NRJyzr]

Played a number of sports growing up, especially baseball.  Moved to softball as an adult.  Said I would never play golf, ever.  Friend of mine reminds me of this periodically.

 

In 1995, I married Wife 2.0, who came with two boys.  In 1997, younger stepson began hanging around with neighbor across the street, who was actually his older brother's age.  Said neighbor was into golf.  Had a junior set they loaned to my stepson.  

 

He wanted to go to the driving range to practice hitting balls, so I'd take him there and watch.  After a while, he asked if I'd want to hit a couple shots, so I hit about 4 or 5 balls.  Over the course of the next 12 months, that got to the point where I would split a jumbo bucket with him.

 

Still said I had no interest in actually playing.

 

The boy had started caddying at a local course.  They have a caddie tournament each year in late summer.  He wants to practice by playing the local par 3 course.  None of his friends could go.  My wife asked if I would go with him.  We'd gotten him a new set of clubs, he'd outgrown the junior set (he was 5' 8" at age 13), sparing me the joy of hitting the much shorter clubs for a full nine holes.

 

And I got hooked.  Wound up buying my own clubs just a couple weeks later.  And here I am.

 

Sadly, the boy doesn't play any longer.  He's developed significant back issues, in part related to his height; he's now 6' 8".  After several surgeries, not really in the cards anymore.

 

Interestingly, my wife also got hooked, possibly in part due to her baby boy picking up the game....

 

 

[bobfoster]

My father. When I was 8 years old. Introducing me to golf is one of the best gifts (among many) that he ever gave me.