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Why Do You Golf?

ClairefromClare

ClairefromClare

Give 'em Helen!
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I'm amazed this thread doesn't already exist. It's really a two-part question:

1) What got you started playing golf?

2) Why do you play?

I get tired of listening to myself, so someone else can go first. Smallville?
 
1) When I was young a few of us kids were wacking golf balls around. Most were dribblers with a few worm burners here and there. Then I hit a 9 iron about 80 yards, high and straight. It was a thing of beauty right up until it went thru the neighbors window. Landed in their kitchen sink and the mon was sitting at the kitchen table............... Been hooked ever since ( except for a brief 15 year break from the game ).

2)I play now because I like being outside and I like the challenge golf presents. You play the course, your opponent, the elements and your self. Any of those three can kick you a** at any given time and you never know which one it will be.
 
I started because some of my friends in highschool played. My father was a great golfer as a kid and young adult but when I was born he gave it up. Didnt play for 18 years and his first time out after that stretch off he shot 85. I always wanted to be as good as my father and I believe I finally am. He was a great athlete, college basketball player, great tennis player, and he got me into every sport. Basketball was my passion growing up but my body gave way and could not handle it anymore. I found that I could create a bond with him on the golf course that I could not anywhere else other than business. I got a passion for it after college and it has snowballed into now.

I play because of the sheer joy I get being on the golf course and around the game. And now watching my wife to be take it up and enjoy it makes it even better.
 
I started by accident at about age 15 or 16. My best friend and I were walking around the neighborhood and came up on a garage sale. They were selling the older guy's golf clubs, and because my best friends mom was a stay at home mom (it was the 70s so that wasn't uncommon) he was able to come up with the 10 bucks to buy the whole set with bag. We took it up to the high school football practice field and started hitting balls. The one game we played was "Goalpost-in-one" where we each stood under opposing goal posts and had to hit balls between the two uprights. It could have been above or below the crossbar, as long as it was between the uprights. After a few days of this, and some begging by me, mom took me up to JC Penney's and we got a $40 golf set (clubs and bag) and shoes because it was decided that Jon and I were going to play on the golf team. I played my Junior and Senior years but never lettered Varsity (Had to play 6 Varsity Tournaments and I came up short each year). That's OK though, I pretty much sucked so it was not a disappointment! But we played a LOT of free golf! You would have thought we would have gotten better! Any that's my story and that's all I got to say about that.

EDIT: See, I don't follow directions and didn't realize there was a second part to the question! I kept playing because my best friends at the time kept playing, then as I grew older, it seemed that a lot of the new people I met played also. More golf partners! So it was like a vicious circle. I had to keep playing! Now my wife wanted to take it up so after a five-year break, we took it up together this spring. Looks like we joined the lifetime membership club because she loves it!
 
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Fresh air, exercise, something to do for someone like me that would like to pretend she's athletic but isn't. I really picked it up for something to do with my main squeeze...he honestly would crush me in any sort of basketball or baseball type games. But since it's a personal game, and all about technique over strength, it's something to improve and work on yourself...evens out the field a bit when we play together but I hit from closer tees, practicing together is fun, but it's about being the best you can be. And there are many levels you can play to, I would like to one day play club tourneys and look competitive out there, a fair goal I think.
 
1. Started back in HS as some friends' dads brought them into it, and they brought me. There was a cheap muni a few blocks from the house. I spent more time in the ravine behind the course looking for others' lost balls then actually golfing, but that was my start. Mom bought me a set of old Dunlop cheapie irons with early-era metal woods as my HS graduation present. (I still have the woods lying around and hit them from time to time -- little tiny heads that are very dense and whippy shafts.) I played very little through college, then gave it up until I was a lawyer in DC. That was about 10 years ago.

2. Why? Most of all, I enjoy the hunt for that ellusive full-swing shot that feels so sweet and pure off the clubface and somehow traces exactly the piercing parabolic arc through the sky that you intend. Add to that sensation the pleasure of being outdoors generally, enjoying good company, playing what is among the most exacting and challenging physical games we have yet to devise, steeped in history and tradition, with its mutual and self-imposed rules of good etiquette and sportsmanship -- it's really hard not to love it!
 
My grandfather has always been a golfer, and when he retired he did so right on the golf course. Unfortunately, my father was a terrible golfer so I never even tried. When I met JB I learned fast that Golf was a major passion of his. I have heard stories about being a "golf widow" and I didn't want to do that....so I got a set of clubs, I got some lessons, and well the rest is history. Now I get to share the passion with him, and to my surprise I LOVE it!

I play because I have never been athletic, I have quit every sport I have ever tried to play, and I have been terrible at everything I have ever tried to play. But with golf I am actually not half bad. Ok I am not great but it doesn't involve kicking, catching or throwing so I like that. I love the feeling when you take a swing and you hit the ball so perfectly you wish you had video taped it. I love the sound of the ball going in the whole, and the sound of the club striking the ball. Whenever I think about that pefect shot, it reminds me just how much I love the game.
 
I always ask myself this ? after each round, cause I'm bad.
 
Oh, real answers!

late 90's my nephew (we're close to the same age) and I were hanging out a lot, he golfed and got me into it. I was hooked, but never had lessons, etc, quit after about 4 years. Got back into it this year and was hooked once again after two chip-in's.

Not really sure why I play. Peace of mind and something productive to do. Likley the challenges and the fact that it isn't something you can achieve...ever, something you can always have to work on.
 
Good questions!

Good questions!

When I was a kid, I found an *OLD* set of clubs in the basement in a canvas bag. These were 1920's or early 30's era clubs: hickory shafts, rust spots. There was a niblick and a mashie, putter, etc. I think they had belonged to my dad's uncle or something. My dad had caddied as a kid but never been a player.

Anyway, I polished up the clubs and started trying to hit balls. I eventually took a (yes, exactly ONE) lesson in high school and bought a cheapie set of Nicklaus "Golden Bear" clubs and began playing, but I didn't really have any friends that played. I played off and on (FAR more OFF than on) for a couple of years after college and then set it aside.

About once every five years someone would invite me to play. I'd drag out the old Golden Bears and go shoot my obligatory 110 or 115 and put them back in the garage again.

Now I'm at the other end of life, 58 years old and semi-retired. (I own my own business so kind of work when I want.) I'm taking the game up again because I enjoy the exercise and outdoors, and because it IS a challenging sport that everyone can play on their own level.

As others have said: You play yourself, the course, the conditions, the opponent. And whether you're 80 years old trying to drive 100+ plus, or your'e 22 years old and can hit the ball 300 yards off the tee- there's plenty of challenge for us all: young, old, athletes, clumsies.

OK Clare- NOW it's your turn!! :D
 
1) I got into it during college, it was always a good way to get outside and hang out with my buddies. I never really took it too seriously. After a surgery and a couple of broken bones I decided too stop riding my dirt bike as much and started taking golf more serious.
2) I play for the challenge. Ive always been pretty good at most of the things I do, but with golf I really suck. Thats what keeps me coming back.
 
When I was in college at Texas, my best friend had decided to start playing and dragged me kicking and screaming to a local 9-hole pitch-and-putt. Borrowed "clubs" from the facility and sprayed balls everywhere into a couple of parked cars I think. Came home for summer vacation and played a course in Dallas and rented clubs. Sprayed golf balls into every single water hazard on the course.

Mentioned to my Dad that I was trying to learn how to play and he handed me a credit card and said "Go buy some clubs. I've always regretted that I didn't learn to play when I was young because it's so important for business." I went to the local Oshmans and picked out a box set of Dunlop Max 100s and a $15 anser style putter.

I tried for 3 years to learn how to play, but I didn't have the money for lessons (poor college student), so I quit. I played a couple of times in the next 10 years, but rarely. A few years ago, I got invited to a company golf outing with "the boys." I remembered what my Dad said, and I went out and bought another box set and started taking lessons. I also needed something to do when there was no snow in the mountains. Been addicted ever since. Six months later I started demoing clubs and invested in a full bag of clubs that I had hand picked.
 
1. I started because both of my parents had played since I was little. I didn't actually start until I was 15 (dad said golf would be bad for my baseball swing and in WI we play summer baseball instead of spring). After the first round I was hooked.

2. Getting back into the game now because I've hated to NOT play the last 6 years. The fresh air, the challenge, the exercise, and since I'm usually a "single", getting to meet new people everytime I go out.
 
Dad got me into it, used to take me to the indoor dome every weekend. I'd hit about 5 or 6 buckets in 30 mins. Used to just hammer away at the balls. Played my first Par 72 course when I was around 8 years old.


I love it, it's something new everytime you go out and play, it's not a competition against your playing partner, it's a competition against yourself. The game switches up everytime, and you strive and dig to shoot better and better and better every single time. You learn new things, and it's a great lifetime sport.
 
A game where there are no levels, or tryouts if u wish not to go competitive against others. A sport that ables you to enjoy the outdoors, have a good walk get to know others while playing. Challenging yourself by play a different course or tee box whatever. The game has so many opportunities of different play and its just tons of fun.

And it gets better and better each year
 
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1. We took the kids to Family Club Med in Florida for years. They love it. The resort has a golf camp and a course there, and eventually we gave it a shot. I totally fell in love with the game, despite a total lack of talent.

2. Golf is one of very few things in the world that requires my total concentration and forces me to be in the moment. Doesn't matter what else is going on in my life--if I'm playing golf, it's the only thing I can do. It's such a total change from my usual routine of being 18 places doing 23 things at once; I love it.
 
ClairefromClare said:
I'm amazed this thread doesn't already exist. It's really a two-part question:

1) What got you started playing golf?

2) Why do you play?

I get tired of listening to myself, so someone else can go first. Smallville?
Click to expand...

What got me started? Well my Aunts and Uncles all played. I was at my Aunts house one weekend, drug out some old irons and balls and proceeded to hit them in the back yard. For my 12th or 13th (it's been so long ago I forget) birthday I got my own set of clubs. I played my first round of golf about 3 weeks after getting my clubs. The day I got my clubs my uncle took me to the driving range and showed me the proper swing and all that good stuff. None of it stuck. He could and still can beat me with one arm tied behind his back.

I stopped playing for about 5 years. I picked it up again in the summer of 2007. I've only played 4 rounds since then but I still enjoy getting out and playing. Mostly I like playing just to be with the guys I play with. I usually golf with family so it's gives us time to hang out and catch up on things. It's time away from life. There's no need to worry about how the bills are going to get paid, or anything like that. It's a release from life for a short period of time.
 
I didn't have any interest in golf until after high school, played baseball, football and basketball. When I got into the work force I realized pretty quickly that getting hurt and missing work (Aflac) was bad. So picked up golf as a recreation that would be challenging and I could play for many years.

I got frustrated by a lack of progress, lack of time and lack of available funds so I quit. In June of 08 a couple of my cousins kidnapped me and took me golfing, been hooked since.
 
1) I had garage sale and gimme clubs as a kid, but didn't play a real round of golf until high school. My buddy grew up in a golf family, and we'd go play, mostly as an excuse to drink a lot of whiskey. I got a set of real clubs when I was in college, and played a little there at school, mostly then for the beer (they didn't ask for ID at the course, and beer was cheap) After college, I played a few scrambles a year, and farted around with it a little. A few years ago, building clubs started to gain my interest, so did the design of clubs, and layout of courses, and I began to play a little more. Last new year, I resolved to improve my golf game. I dropped several strokes off my handicap, and now here I am, a hopeless junkie.

2) I love being outdoors. It's also an excuse to hang out with folks I like (my dad, mom, brother, buddies, sometimes even wife will play) I love the feeling of being in the middle of the fairway, and hitting a good approach shot up to the green.
 
My dad and brother were excellent golfers when I was young, but I was not allowed to play because I was a girl and girls figure skated :-(

So I grew up skating (hating it) and my brother golfed.

When my brother moved away from home whyen I was in my early 20's, my dad realized he needed a golf partner and so I got clubs, shoes...the whole thing. He tried to teach me and I hated every minute (I think maybe I had some issues back then).

20 years later, I got dragged into real lessons at work - the company was paying for golf lessons and my team insisted I try it again. Real lessons were the trigger - I fell in love with the game.

Now, I'm so addicted I need a 12 step program!
 
Golfgal said:
My dad and brother were excellent golfers when I was young, but I was not allowed to play because I was a girl and girls figure skated :-(
Click to expand...

Boooooooo!!!!!


(Different kind of Boooo, BooGirl.)
 
My dad always golfed but I never got into it. He had an old set of clubs in the basement that he was going to get rid of. I mean old, McGregor Nicholas clubs from the 80's. I decided to use them. Got hooked instantly.
 
mytime said:
My dad always golfed but I never got into it. He had an old set of clubs in the basement that he was going to get rid of. I mean old, McGregor Nicholas clubs from the 80's. I decided to use them. Got hooked instantly.
Click to expand...

That's funny, my first clubs were 1978 models! I consider '60s clubs old!
 
ClairefromClare said:
1) What got you started playing golf?
Click to expand...
I saw it on TV and it looked like fun. My neibor used to play a lot of golf, so I asked him to teach me and, as they say, the rest is history.

2) Why do you play?
Click to expand...
I play because its fun, because its a challenge and because its a nice way to unwind and get away from all the stresses of life for a little while.
Plus, its good exercise and its a good way to get a nice tan.
Towards the end of last summer I had a lot of people comment to me how fit and how good I looked and they kind looked at me funny when they asked me what my secret was and I told them, "golf".
Thats when I told them, "you try walking 18 holes of golf while carrying a 40 pound bag and swinging a golfclub 80-100 times during that span of 18 holes, not to menton practicing an hour every day. Golf is a great form of exercise and its a great way to relax (as long as you dont take your game too seriously).
 
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