Your First Golf Memory

[Canadan]

Do you guys actually remember your first genuine golf memory? Does it come with a lot of emotional ties with family or just something you decided to get involved with? Listening to @KrisMcEwen's Golf Origin Stories podcast (it's awesome check it out), it made me realize how much I enjoy hearing these stories.

So lay it on us.

 

[TCB2010]

yes, riding in the golf cart with my grandpa, he is the reason i play golf, hes always been a big part of my life.

 

[Mmaynard11]

Man I remember the first time my grandfather took me to the course like it was yesterday. The sun was glistening off the dew, the chatter among the clubhouse was of stories & laughter. This time he just wanted me to listen & look & enjoy the tranquility. I was 8 years old at the time & didn’t really understand what he meant. However 37 years later I still remember that day.

 

[#troy]

13 yrs old, dad takes me golfing for the first time at Dubsdread in Orlando. He literally holed out from 150 yards on the first hole, turns to me and says, "see this game is easy".

I played here and there a few times a year, but was a baseball player first by a long shot. Picked up the game after college, will never forget seeing Pops drop an eagle from first fairway.

 

[Canadan]

13 yrs old, dad takes me golfing for the first time at Dubsdread in Orlando. He literally holed out from 150 yards on the first hole, turns to me and says, "see this game is easy".

I played here and there a few times a year, but was a baseball player first by a long shot. Picked up the game after college, will never forget seeing Pops drop an eagle from first fairway.

hahahahaha I laughed hard at that comment. I would have been absolutely awestruck by something like that my first time out.

 

[JB]

I have a lot of them, but one that jumps out all of the time was when I was 12 years old and took a friend of mine named Lanier to the local executive course. 7 par 3s on the front nine and he had never swung a club before. He was/is a great athlete and was super into learning the game (this was many decades ago). The first hole he tees one up and grabs his terrible golf clubs and first swing (they had no range) hit a ball that went right in the hole. Literally a hole in one on his first golf swing at a course (he had been to the range before a few times).

We ended up playing a lot of golf together for a few years and then college took over and low and behold I looked him up 5-7 years ago. He ended up going full blown and is now a teaching professional specializing in children new to the game.

 

[Muchmore]

I don't have a specific memory growing up except how much my grandpa wanted to get me in to the game so I could play with him. Breaks my heart how I never listened and shrugged off this game when I was in middle school and high school. I play with him now but could have had a bunch more time with him growing up.

I do remember my first time actually playing out on a course though. Hole was dead straight and only like 290 yards. Now I'd been on a driving range plenty and could make decent contact with the ball but my swing was, let's just say not under control back then. So first time actually teeing off and it was a huge slice, like a 50 yarder, straight OB and I couldn't do anything but laugh. Good thing it was only a 9 hole course or my love for the game may have been short lived that day

 

[Canadan]

Man I remember the first time my grandfather took me to the course like it was yesterday. The sun was glistening off the dew, the chatter among the clubhouse was of stories & laughter. This time he just wanted me to listen & look & enjoy the tranquility. I was 8 years old at the time & didn’t really understand what he meant. However 37 years later I still remember that day.

My Papa was an absolute stick.... but I started golfing after he'd finished (he stopped playing when his body stopped allowing him to do what he wanted) which always kills me to think about.. So any time he and I would spend time on the course, I would absolutely thrive on the chance to show him what I have been able to accomplish with my swing.

Most times he'd sit there quietly watching for seven holes, and then offer very subtle thoughts after I would ask. Incredible times.

 

[mtbloco]

I do not remember a lot of the details, but I do remember my first golf experiences. As a kid I found some old rouge clubs from my uncles left to rust in the barn/sheds. I somehow got my hands on an old golf ball or two and would make a course around the farm. Just me and my imagination hitting a ball and chasing it. By the time I was 14 or 15, two of our family friends who were casual golfers so took me with them. Four farmers taking some time off to walk 9 holes. We played the same course in Norwalk OH. I have no idea what my scoring was like (poor) but it really stoked my interest in the game. My senior year I joined the golf team so that I could get free golf and learn how to play.

 

[BriMac]

My first loop as a caddie - 13 years old and made $30. It seemed like an excessive amount of money for a few hours of fun/work. Then got hooked playing the game with access to course on Mondays.

 

[JB]

On a related, but different note, I have no memories of golfing with my father growing up. Most that know me, knows how much he means to me, but he gave up the game as a low single digit the day I was born (it was a different generation and needs were different then). He grew up caddying and playing at a private course in Brookline, but couldnt get on THE Country Club, because they didnt allow Jews back then. That didnt change until the 70s, so played at a course next door.

He took the game up again later in life, and of course is now totally into it (some THPers have seen that part). His first round back after nearly thirty years away from the game he nearly broke 80. While he doesnt have that game anymore, his love of it now at 80 years old drives me to be able to play with him. A few years ago we held an event at his course (we have since held a number of them). Being able to stand on the first tee with all of the THPers while he watched and talked like a proud man about his course still brings me to tears. It is right now.

He got a lesson from a THPer once, that THPer learned where I get my stubbornness from. I got to present him on two occasions with a full bag of clubs that meant so much to him. In fact one time, I had the guy that designed the clubs present them to him. That was pretty cool and then take him golfing.

A lot of what you see here stems from what I have learned from him values wise, but more importantly a lot of the Experiences you see we do stem from the idea that I didnt have those opportunities and cherish them so much now. A golf memory is unlike just about any other kind and if I can help create just a small amount of them, I leave it in a better place.

 

[Canadan]

My first loop as a caddie - 13 years old and made $30. It seemed like an excessive amount of money for a few hours of fun/work. Then got hooked playing the game with access to course on Mondays.

That is awesome!! I always wished I'd caddied as a youth. Too busy being stupid wasting time with hockey and reffing haha

 

[Canadan]

Papa Babbitt is awesome. Listening to him justify a swing thought still cracks me up haha

 

[BriMac]

That is awesome!! I always wished I'd caddied as a youth. Too busy being stupid wasting time with hockey and reffing haha

A lot of my golfing buddies to this day are guys that I caddied with over 30 years ago. Such a fun time.

 

[Canadan]

A lot of my golfing buddies to this day are guys that I caddied with over 30 years ago. Such a fun time.

I have a good friend locally who has a Son who spent the last couple years caddying at one of the oldest clubs in the city. How cool is that for a future story to be told.

 

[Scott F]

My father was good friends with a guy who owned a driving range with a gun shop. I remember hitting balls there with a cut down driver when I was probably 6 or 7. After that I remember hanging around near the house in early afternoons hoping that my dad would come home early from work and take me with him when he went to play 9. I started playing with him and just a couple of clubs at age 9

 

[Duffer Seamus]

Well, since I started just five, six months ago: Yeah

First time I hit a ball, off a mat in my one neighbor's backyard, 7-iron. Took a couple practice swings, stepped up to the ball, swung, and hit it right down the middle of his yard about seventy yards. Pretty nice height, too.

First drive: 180 yards right down the middle of the fairway.

First game. Nine holes, finished in the rain and I did not care.

 

[RealPretendPsychic]

I had one of those little Fisher Price golf sets and remember smacking the ball around the yard and occasionally unwisely in the house. Growing up there was almost always a “golf course” set up around the house. The drywall can attest to my lack of control.

 

[Mmaynard11]

My Papa was an absolute stick.... but I started golfing after he'd finished (he stopped playing when his body stopped allowing him to do what he wanted) which always kills me to think about.. So any time he and I would spend time on the course, I would absolutely thrive on the chance to show him what I have been able to accomplish with my swing.

Most times he'd sit there quietly watching for seven holes, and then offer very subtle thoughts after I would ask. Incredible times.

Man the memories...my grandfather passed away before we got to enjoy to many rounds. I wonder what he would think about the Game today!

 

[Tenputt]

I played a lot of team sport stuff when I was young. My dad passed away when I was a teenager and I never really got to do much with him and nobody else introduced me to the game.

At 28 years of age, I was sitting for the bar exam to obtain my law license, after graduating from law school. It was a grueling, three day exam. At the end of the first day, my buddy who was taking the test as well, said, “Let’s go play 9 holes.” I thought, why not? At the end of the 9 holes, my comment to him was, “It’s a good thing I didn’t know about golf before starting law school. I never would have graduated.” Man, was I taken, right from that moment.

 

[Canadan]

Well, since I started just five, six months ago: Yeah

First time I hit a ball, off a mat in my one neighbor's backyard, 7-iron. Took a couple practice swings, stepped up to the ball, swung, and hit it right down the middle of his yard about seventy yards. Pretty nice height, too.

First drive: 180 yards right down the middle of the fairway.

First game. Nine holes, finished in the rain and I did not care.

While I definitely think starting golf later in life is far more challenging, I think the opportunity to appreciate the game is so much more impactful.

First round in rain is SO golf too eh?! hahaha

 

[JB]

Man the memories...my grandfather passed away before we got to enjoy to many rounds. I wonder what he would think about the Game today!

I only played with my Grandfather at his FL course one time. He played in MA, but they wintered in FL and I played as a 14 year old with him. I was awful.
I remember coming back to their condo and my father asking how did he do. My grandfather said "He would be a great Red Sox, because he has power to all fields".

 

[Canadan]

Man the memories...my grandfather passed away before we got to enjoy to many rounds. I wonder what he would think about the Game today!

the last time mine joined me for 9 to ride in the cart, he said something to the tune of "I surely can't see the ball with how far it's going, but you have a beautiful swing, Danny."

I'm lucky I didn't shank the next one with the amount of warm and fuzzies I was feeling hahahaha

 

[camden_kid]

Watching the majors on BBC in the late 70's and early 80's.

 

[Scott F]

A lot of my golfing buddies to this day are guys that I caddied with over 30 years ago. Such a fun time.

The guys I play with today are the same guys I played and caddied with back in the early 70’s