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Your First Golf Memory

It was early in the 90's... 1992 or maybe 1993. I was in the USAF and was a flight engineer on a C-141B out of Charleston Sc. We were on a STAR mission I think it was... basically we were hauling stuff around from one base to another in Europe resupplying US embassies. We had landed at Torrejon AB in Spain for fuel. The base was in the final stages of BRACC - Base Realignment and Closure Commission... it was almost but not quite closed.

I was walking around the jet as I was supposed to do post flight when I see hydraulic fluid leaking from the jet's T-tail. It wasn't coming from the rudder pack I could tell. a crew chief took a look at it and said it was our pitch trim actuator leaking. We most definitely could NOT fly without that so we were hard broke for parts.

We closed the jet up and parts were called for. We left the flight line and checked into billeting. Nice digs there.

Seeing as we were there for a few days, there wasn't much to do. A couple of us went to the driving range. It was a just a mat or two, an empty field, and a righty iron and a lefty iron. There were a handful of balls. The base was closing and everything else had been shipped to other bases already. It was the first time I'd swung a club and I liked it.

The next day we went to the golf course and played. They had like 1 set of lefty clubs and a few sets of rightys for rent. About all I remember was the first tee... which overlooked quite a drop off to a valley below. Gorgeous view. Nice course... I sucked at golf that day.

I still suck at golf today.
 
RohammedAli said:
Yes, I remember it like it was yesterday. My grandpa took me to the range for the first time with his graphite shafted Tommy Armour clubs. RIP Grandpa.
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Now I'm the grandpa taking the grandkids to the range. Bought three kid's clubs: a driver, an iron and a putter. They love going "to golf" with grandpa.
 
Riding in the golf cart with my Dad and not being quiet. He passed in August, I still can't be quiet.
 
I have a lot of awesome memories from when I was a small child. The first real memory I have is almost getting a hole in one with a 3 wood because my ball skipped off a rock that was in a creek in front of the green. I was between 6 and 8. Still don't have a hole in one!

I had a lot of awesome times at that golf course! It was a par 34 with 4 par 3s. I would walk along with my dad slapping golf shots until the green and then go look for balls because almost every hole had water on it. We would then grab a can of Tahitian Treat out of the vending machine and head home.
 
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jimbo_raley said:
Riding in the golf cart with my Dad and not being quiet. He passed in August, I still can't be quiet.
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Sorry to hear about your dad, but man, I feel like that is every dad’s right of passage with their kid haha, to keep them quiet on the course at the RIGHT times at least.
 
jimbo_raley said:
Riding in the golf cart with my Dad and not being quiet. He passed in August, I still can't be quiet.
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How can you be quiet when you want to drive the cart? Sorry to hear about your dad!
 
Thinking back the first thing I can remember is buying a set of Golden Bear junior clubs with money I had saved up when I was probably 9 or 10 from Herman's Sporting Goods. I remember it had a golden putter with it.
 
I remember looking at a present under the tree from my grandparents, and legitimately having no idea what it was.
A long tube with a bulge at the end of it. Could not figure out what it was.

My grandparents bought my brother and I each a pitching wedge for our first club. I played the heck out of that club.
Sunday afternoons at the farm, pitching/chipping at tires and buckets.

Still have that old wedge, with it's original grip (probably 30 years old now).
 
When I was about 12, around 1971, my father took up the game. Slapped it around at local munis. We didn't have the closest of relationships but I took it up to spend time together. After awhile he lost interest in the game and gave it up. I took to it and have been playing ever since. Many years later I convinced him that we should enter a county four ball event. I played lights out, almost using my shots exclusively, and we won. Today he is 90 and still has the trophy we won sitting in his living room.
 
My first detailed golf memory is the day I bought my first set of clubs. I had been playing at golf for a couple of months with rented clubs when a friend of the family introduced me to the game. I knew from the first round that I was in love and needed to have my own clubs.
So.....
At 15, I took a big chunk of the money I had earned pumping gas after school to buy a car (folks said you want one? Earn your own money and buy it) and convinced my dad to take me to Pay-N-Pak because I knew they had some clubs there. I bought a black and red bag, a set of Spalding Championship clubs (1-3W, 3-5-7-9-SW, putter), a dozen Jack Nicklaus Golden Bear balls , a glove and a bag of tees.

I'll never forget that day.
 
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Mad_Brad said:
I remember looking at a present under the tree from my grandparents, and legitimately having no idea what it was.
A long tube with a bulge at the end of it. Could not figure out what it was.

My grandparents bought my brother and I each a pitching wedge for our first club. I played the heck out of that club.
Sunday afternoons at the farm, pitching/chipping at tires and buckets.

Still have that old wedge, with it's original grip (probably 30 years old now).
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I am so jealous that you still have an original-to-you club!!! That is really cool.

Is it on the wall?
 
Canadan said:
I am so jealous that you still have an original-to-you club!!! That is really cool.

Is it on the wall?
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It is either in my staff bag, or in the garage with the first set that I ever owned.
 
My first golfing memories were with my grandpa. He would set me on the floor and we would just roll a golf ball back and forth as early as 2 years old. My parents had kids at an older age and so unfortunately i didn’t get to have him around to teach me the game. But those hours of rolling the ball back and forth are the first memories I really have of anything.

My first time on the course was at a junior golf camp at the course my grandparents used to live on. I was about 10 and the only thing I remember is the first day the are teaching us some things on the tee box. One of my friends who thought of himself as a prodigy took a practice swing and busted the club pro’s son head wide open. Blood everywhere. Kids yelling and screaming. Great times.


Another memory, I only played competitive golf for 3 years in middle school growing up as I wasn't great and was more focused on other sports. We had some prodigies on the squad my 6th grade year. Two brothers that both played D1 golf. A girl who was a future two time state champ and D1 golfer who was actually a 5th grader at the time and they just let her play ahead. And my childhood best friend who is a scratch and played D3. my average score was a 52 on 9 and they were flirting with 39. We played a challenge match every week to determine order. I was right on the fringe of being on the 5 person competition squad most weeks. One challenge match I fired a 47. My best round of the year. I was happy to know I secured top 5. Well everyone else had their worst days apparently. I had shot the best of the team and the only round in the 40's. I was so happy. Told my parents I was gonna be the number one golfer. Before the match my coach comes up to me and says, "Listen Kid you played phenomonal the other day and I'm really proud of you. With that being said I'm gonna have to put you in the 3rd slot because I don't want to be accused of sandbagging :LOL::LOL: I didn't hurt my feelings as I was nervous, but I learned a great lesson about things being too good to be true that week lol.
 
I didn't really think about golf growing up, (apparently my Dad played a lot before my sister was born but gave it up until the kids grew up but I never remember him talking about playing although he did watch it on TV) but come 8 years ago I was staying at my sisters house for a week and on Sunday she asked if I would mind watching my nephew for a few hours so she could go shopping and my brother in law had something he wanted to do. Needless to say I did and a few hours later my brother in law comes home with 2 of his buddies to BBQ and hang out and apparently they went golfing... For the next few hours all I heard was smack talk about the round they played and golf stories, next thing I know I got 3 drunk guys encouraging me to hit golf balls into his backyard net. From that moment I was hooked. So that's my first golf memory.

2nd golf memory... After that day I was hooked; I signed up for lessons, hit the range and finally got to play my first round with those same 3 guys. Since it was my 1st round they said I needed to keep a real score so I had something to remember and I did and do a 136 (bastards counted every freakin stroke but don't worry the course wasn't crowded and we didn't hold anyone up) But... After that first 18 I remember saying and they quote me all the time "are we allowed to play again because I think I can do better" They all laughed at me but we went out and played again and I shot a 127 lol...

Golf and those 3 guys pretty much changed my life. One of them got me the incredible job I currently have and one turned into my best friend. And I still ask pretty much after every round if we can play again...

Golf Rules!
 
My parents didn't golf and I didn't know anybody who golfed when I was growing up. I vaguely remember going to a driving range with a couple friends a few times during summer vacations just because we were so bored, but none of us knew anything about golf or had any interest in it - it was just to try to smash balls as far as we could.

My first real golf memory - I was 23 or 24 the first time I stepped on a golf course. We had a really crazy supervisor at work who was a golf nut, and one day at the end of shift he came in the locker room and said "C'mon m*********ker, we're going golfing!". I said "I don't golf", and he said "You do now m*********er, let's go!". He had corralled a few of the other guys who were golfers, and we headed up to this goat track of a course not far from our office in jeans and t-shirts with a case of beer. I was hacking the ball all over the course sharing clubs with whoever handed one to me, and about halfway through the round, our crazy supervisor drove the golf cart off the course to a Circle K a block or two away to buy more beer. He was playing in the foursome in front of me, and on one of the holes I pulled my ball out of the cup and it was soaking wet. He was up on the next tee laughing his *** off along with all the other guys - he had peed in the cup after they all holed out! That day was full of his psycho antics - we found cigar butts in the cup, had to remove empty beer cans so we could putt, had him chipping balls at us on greens from the next tee, etc. It was a lot of beer, a lot of laughs and a lot of stuff that probably would have gotten us all thrown off any other course but this place.

I have no idea what I shot (it was undoubtedly well north of 100), but I had a great time and my obsession with golf was born that day. I bought a set of clubs at a garage sale a few days later and signed up for lessons at the local muni the next week. That was 35 years ago - I've had years when I didn't play much and years when I played a lot, but golf has always been a part of my life since that day, and those guys I played with that first day were my golf partners for many years. That crazy supervisor passed away about 15 years ago, but I still think of him once in a while when I'm out on the course and can't help but smile and shake my head. I could write a book about all the crazy stuff he did, and you wouldn't believe half of it.
 
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The earliest one I can remember is when my dad took me to a par 3 course. I dont know how old I was, maybe 10ish...younger, dont know. But the one and only thing I remember from that time was after we teed off, I was well short of the green and I put a tee in the ground to tee up the ball. My dad asked what I was doing, and then told me how I can only tee-up the ball once on the box and every shot after is on the ground.

I also remember he would always take me to the driving range as well and I would swing out of my shoes trying to kill the ball lol. Once I got a little older he finally told me to start trying to hit targets and playing games out there with me.
 
Funny now, but not funny when it happened.

I was probably 7-8 years old. I was staying with an older relative, who for work purposes (surveyor) lived out of town in the desert.

I was by myself, with nothing to do. I saw that he had a set of golf clubs.

I had seen golf played on tv, and had a vague idea about swinging a club, and hitting a ball.

So I grabbed one of his clubs, and a couple of balls and took off hitting balls across the desert. Hitting balls off rocky, undisturbed soils. Probably did this for an hour until I lost both balls..

When I was done, I put the club back in the bag.

About a week later this relative looked me up and want to know if I knew anything about this particular club that was pretty well scarred up. I owned up to it, and explained I didn't know any better, and apologized. Probably even had a few tears going on. He was a bit mad.

That was my very first encounter with the game of golf.
 
hitting massive slices on the range in Daytona- we had been drinking all day and my first time hitting. I wish I had that speed now.
 
Pretty much the first time I picked up a club *cough 30 odd years ago **cough. Dossing around in my mates garage when we found an old set of golf clubs. He had a large bit of land that was basically a hill, about 120 yards. We stood at the top of the hill and tried to hit golf balls down to the bottom. They were right handed clubs and I’m left handed so I hit the ball with the back of the club LOL. As I began to get more into it, I realized I had to use the face of the club, so started to teach myself to play right handed.
 
Everyone in my Fathers family played. I did not know this at the time since we never lived close to them for being an Air Force Family. I remember watching my dad play Softball, Football and pretty much anything else on base, but one Saturday morning he asked me if i wanted to go to the Golf Course with him. I was Probably 12 or 13 and we lived in Warner Robbins Ga. He played with some friends and i walked along. They let me hold the flag and he showed me where to not stand when others were hitting or putting. I was AMAZED at the game and started hitting balls at the park down the street....After we moved to oklahoma, i was allowed to go to the driving range. When i could keep a whole bucket between the trees and not slice one out, we went to the course.

Been playing ever since
 
25-ish years later, I remember sitting on the gym floor after school in 5th grade for my first golf "lesson." I can still remember the teacher's name, what he told us, and what we did on that first day - including marching over the football field and making sure we were spaced out enough to not kill each other. :ROFLMAO:

great thread - thanks for the trip down memory lane (y)
 
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Afizzle2100 said:
My first golfing memories were with my grandpa. He would set me on the floor and we would just roll a golf ball back and forth as early as 2 years old. My parents had kids at an older age and so unfortunately i didn’t get to have him around to teach me the game. But those hours of rolling the ball back and forth are the first memories I really have of anything.

My first time on the course was at a junior golf camp at the course my grandparents used to live on. I was about 10 and the only thing I remember is the first day the are teaching us some things on the tee box. One of my friends who thought of himself as a prodigy took a practice swing and busted the club pro’s son head wide open. Blood everywhere. Kids yelling and screaming. Great times.


Another memory, I only played competitive golf for 3 years in middle school growing up as I wasn't great and was more focused on other sports. We had some prodigies on the squad my 6th grade year. Two brothers that both played D1 golf. A girl who was a future two time state champ and D1 golfer who was actually a 5th grader at the time and they just let her play ahead. And my childhood best friend who is a scratch and played D3. my average score was a 52 on 9 and they were flirting with 39. We played a challenge match every week to determine order. I was right on the fringe of being on the 5 person competition squad most weeks. One challenge match I fired a 47. My best round of the year. I was happy to know I secured top 5. Well everyone else had their worst days apparently. I had shot the best of the team and the only round in the 40's. I was so happy. Told my parents I was gonna be the number one golfer. Before the match my coach comes up to me and says, "Listen Kid you played phenomonal the other day and I'm really proud of you. With that being said I'm gonna have to put you in the 3rd slot because I don't want to be accused of sandbagging :LOL::LOL: I didn't hurt my feelings as I was nervous, but I learned a great lesson about things being too good to be true that week lol.
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this is a hell of a roller coaster of a post hahaha!

Loved the story about your grandpa. That's really cool.
 
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links_slayer said:
25-ish years later, I remember sitting on the gym floor after school in 5th grade for my first golf "lesson." I can still remember the teacher's name, what he told us, and what we did on that first day - including marching over the football field and making sure we were spaced out enough to not kill each other. :ROFLMAO:

great thread - thanks for the trip down memory lane (y)
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Thanks for sharing your story!
 
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