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Leave Of Absence

Diane

Diane

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I played as a teenager, then only played once or twice a year if that until 10 years ago when I started playing regularly. I just had no interest in playing during that time and then one day a friend asked me to go to the range with him and that was that. Have you ever taken a leave of absence from golf? Did it last days, weeks, months or even years? Do you regret your time away? What brought you back?
 
I didn't play for the first time until I was 15. Played pretty regular while in HS, even played on the team my senior year. Kept playing, probably 12 rounds a year or so since we could only really play from about May-September, until 2002 when I moved to Texas. Didn't play again until this year, in February. Completely hooked again! :clapp:
 
Never took a break longer than a month. I did that when I had two months of rounds in the 70's until one afternoon I played a really easy course with some friends and was sitting at 99 coming down the par 5 18th. I hit my 101 shot sideways into a creek along the edge of the fairway and snatched my clubs off the cart. I told my friends I was walking in and they would find my clubs on eBay the next day. I thought better of the eBay thing, but didn't touch a club for a month!
 
I started playing around the age of 13-14. Played just about every weekend with my aunts and uncles then took a break of about 10 years before I started playing once or twice a year. I got back into it last season and really started playing again this season.
 
Only time I have taken a LOA is because of Injuries, thank god I wasn't playing well before the injury or I would have missed it.
 
Before my wife said she wanted to take up golf last summer, I hadn't played in five years. Didn't have the time and had other things to do. Now we are both into it and she's doing pretty well for her second year.
 
I started playing after HS and played for about 5 yrs. before I got so frustrated with it I quit. I didn't touch a club for 10 years except to move them out of my way in the basement. I always figured I would start playing again "someday". Last June a couple of my cousins took me to play and I've been playing every chance I get since then.
 
My leave of absense was the first 24 years of my life :) Started late in the game, kick myself daily for not beginning sooner... Ah well, I've got two youngins who are going to be ahead of the curve whether they want to or not!!! :)
 
I had lessons when I was 12ish, never got in to it. Played on the High School golf team, never got in to it. Then when I was in my early 20's I was working at CC and had Monday and Tuesday off work. The only people I knew that were off those days were the people I worked with, so we ended up playing for free at various courses on Mondays or playing where we worked on Tuesday. That was about 14 years ago and I have played steady since, there might be times I don't play as much(once a month or so), but never taken a "break".
 
My father was a junior golfer that was quite good when he was younger back in the 40's and 50s. When I was born in the early 70s he gave up golf because he said "families could go broke at the course". Picked up tennis and never really looked back. Then when I was about 21 and done with college picked it back up again. His first time out he shot 82. Not bad. Now he plays 4 days a week.

I played in highschool and quit while in college and starting my career. Did not start playing again until the year 2003 or so. I found that I missed it, but not too much actually.

Now that i am an adult (allegedly) I am not sure I could let it go. My wife plays and it is something that we both enjoy and can enjoy together.
 
I started playing golf at age 18 and then quit playing when I was 20. The reason for me was money. At the time, I just had too many hobbies and not enough money to afford it all.
At the time, I was into snowmobiling, ATVing, golf, hunting, fishing and mountain biking. At the time, golf was just too expensive and too frustrating.
In the past 10 years, I dont do a lot of the hobbies I used to. ATVing, fishing and mountain biking have fallen by the wayside and I only hunt about 2 weeks out of the year.
I also feel that Ive grown up and matured a lot over that time and I now understand the golfswing a lot more, so its much less frustrating because when my swing goes wrong, Im much more able to diagnose it and fix my flaws.
What spurred me to come back to golf was my love of golf. One day I was watching a golf tournament on TV with a girlfriend and I commented to her how I used to play golf and she asked me why I quit, I told her and it kinda made me think that a lot of the reason why I quit playing golf were no longer valid and a couple months later, after she and I broke up I was looking for something to fill my time and to take my mind off of my frustration with a failed relationship and golf was that for me.
I used to be really big into having, "nice things". You know, I always was driving fairly new trucks and every year or 2 I would buy a new snowmobile or new ATV. Now having new toys really isnt a big deal to me anymore. My snowmobile in 8 years old and my truck is 10 years old and as long as they are running right, I really have no desire to replace them with something newer. I guess in some ways I have rediscovered the joys of the simpler things in life. I get a lot of joy out of just knocking a little white ball around a golfcourse.
Its an escape from the day to day stresses in life. Its so nice to just get out on the course for a few hours, focusing on hitting a ball into some yonder hole because it allows me to focus on that and forget about the stresses with work and money and all the other day to day BS that we all put up with.
To me personally, golf is sooo rewarding when things are going well. No matter how bad your round is going, all it takes is 1 good shot to remind you why you love this game so much and thats what keeps me coming back.
Honestly, now Im not sure what I would do if I didnt play golf. My girlfriend has made it pretty clear to me that she doesnt like the idea of me owning a motorcycle and I dont want her to worry about me all the time, so that is pretty much out and owning a snowmobile, ATV or dirtbike isnt a big deal to me anymore.
Maybe Id get a little sportscar to tinker with and raise hell with on the weekends, but I dont see that being anywhere near as challenging or rewarding as golf.
 
I should have added that I didn't start playing until about 8 yrs ago.
 
I played a little throughout high school and college but never got to into it. I probably went 6 years until I touched a club again. One of my good buddies was the head pro at a course by us and got me into playing again when I was about 25. I still didnt get as into it as I am now until a few years ago but I havent looked back since.
 
Now that I think about it, I did have an LOA in my golf game....Of sorts. In the late 60s, early 70s, I lived in a little town "Seaside" on the Oregon coast. I worked part time after school, and on weekends at the little 9 hole course. That is when that schedule did not collide with baseball practice, and games. Since I could golf for free there I did play at the game, but it was not something I made time for. Golf was way down the list of sports I played back then. I remember meeting a guy named Jack Schlee who showed me some stuff, but at the time I had no idea who he was. I found out later he was a PGA pro, who spent a lot of time with Ben Hogan. (I did not even know who Hogan was back then) He would visit there from time to time, and had grown up in the area. About 1970 we moved back to Vegas, and I did not play golf again till the mid 1990s when my future son in laws took me to a par 27 muni. Been playing year around ever since.
 
Tried to learn in college. Got a Dunlop Max 100 box set (thanks Dad!). Couldn't hit the ball to save my life. Got so frustrated that I quit. As a student, I didn't have enough money for lessons or to play/practice regularly. Played maybe twice over the next 12 years, but only because my buddies wanted to play.

A few years ago, some friends talked me into going out for a scramble round. I got the bug and have been playing ever since.

My biggest regret isn't the loss of those 12 years. Instead, it's that I didn't start playing as a junior. Looking back, I would have loved to play in a team atmosphere, like on my High School team. (I doubt I would have been good enough to play on my college team, even if I had started younger.) Even if I still took those 12 years off later, playing as a junior would have been special.
 
Harry - My brother played on his middle school team, but not the HS team because the coach wouldn't allow his players to ski. Different seasons so the rule made no sense. I'm not sure if other schools had that same rule.
 
Diane said:
Harry - My brother played on his middle school team, but not the HS team because the coach wouldn't allow his players to ski. Different seasons so the rule made no sense. I'm not sure if other schools had that same rule.
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I grew up in Texas, so the skiing prohibition probably wouldn't have been an issue. :D
 
I had some garage sale clubs as a kid, but got my first set when I was in high school. Used to play with buddies, mostly just to drink beer.

In college, we could play for cheap (I didn't even consider the golf team, I doubt they had one), and again, it revolved around buddies and beer.

About the time I got married, I started to play a little, mostly scrambles, and hitting the range once a month or so. Started clubmaking.

My brother bought a house on a golf course a few years back, and I started playing with him more often (a couple of times a month)

My New Year's Resolution last year was to really focus on my game and improve.


So, never really much of a leave of absence, just an extremely slow start.

I did take about 6 weeks off last August, it was silly hot, and work was clicking along at 80 hours a week for me.
 
Played a little bit in high school & then continued for a few years before dropping it. Fast forward 10 years & I picked it back up for a few more years before dropping it again. Waited about 14 years before picking it up for the 3rd time about 3 years ago.
 
I've been back to playin for 2 1/2yrs after taking a 6~7 yr hiatus. I use to shoot low 80's now i'm in the mid to upper 90's :excruciating:
 
Harry Longshanks said:
My biggest regret isn't the loss of those 12 years. Instead, it's that I didn't start playing as a junior. Looking back, I would have loved to play in a team atmosphere, like on my High School team. (I doubt I would have been good enough to play on my college team, even if I had started younger.) Even if I still took those 12 years off later, playing as a junior would have been special.
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Same here. I wish I would have started playing golf at a much younger age. We had golf one time in gym class in highschool and it was fun, but taking up golf never really crossed my mind. Back in those days, besides girls, all I thought about was snowmobiling.
Who knows, I just might have gotten a college scholarship through golf and had ended up play professionally. Its unlikely, but if you're gonna dream, dream big!
 
OrlandoGolfBlog said:
My leave of absense was the first 24 years of my life :) Started late in the game, kick myself daily for not beginning sooner... Ah well, I've got two youngins who are going to be ahead of the curve whether they want to or not!!! :)
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You! I started at 52. I'm 53 now. I really regret not giving it a try when I was younger. Anyway, my LOA was 2 months to let my shoulder heal.
 
i played alot when i was a kid(elementary age) then in jr hs and hs it didnt seem too 'cool' to play golf so i didnt play too often and i regret every minute of it now... got back into it in college but because of the study load and working a bunch of part time jobs it was tough to play/practice... after school same deal too busy to play too often... and all those stops and starts havent been good on the game... im the type of player that has to play/practice alot to be "decent" and any time off just kills my scores...

long story short... my leave of absence was about 10-12yrs
 
I played a ton when I was a kid. Growing up about 150 yards from the first tee does that. I started at about age 10-11. All my hockey buddies would play golf in the summer, so I started because I wanted to do the same thing. It also helped that it was only about $150/y for a junior membership. I played as much as I could from ages 10-11 till I was 20. When I moved out of my parents house, to start working, my golfing all but stopped for about 6 years. I played maybe 3 rounds in those 6 years. It wasn't until I met my wife and said I missed golf, about 5 years ago, to which she responded "well teach me then", and now we live in a golf community and play at least 3 times a week (2*18, and 1*9)

In my 6 year hiatus, I gained about 40lbs (ha) and lost a lot of flexibility...I do feel like I am a better golfer now than I was back then though.
 
Started playing on a small par 3 course when I was 16. No idea how to hit a ball but I enjoyed the game. At about 19 I started playing once a month on big courses. Played on and off for several years, none of my friends played, calling it an old man's game. Moved to Florida at 28 and stopped playing for 4 years, then started and stopped again at 35. Stopped for 8 years (maybe a scramble 1 or 2 times a year). Job (and laziness) kept me off the course. At about 43 I said I'm going back and haven't quit since then (I'm 56, retired and play 3-4 times a week)..Wish I would have started younger and taken a few lessons.. My brother, 9 years younger, started in his teens and took a few lessons and now he's a solid 4 handicap and has played all over the world (he's a captain in the Navy). He's even played Cypress Point, shot a 76 and calls it the best course he's ever played... Needless to say I'm jealous with my 14 handicap and playing munis in northeast N.C. But I enjoy the heck out of the game...
 
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