We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Why did you start playing Golf?

J

JBJGolf

New member
Joined
Jun 30, 2013
Messages
1,152
Reaction score
0
So, for me it's an interesting story so I figured I'd ask others...

I played football when I was younger until I broke my hand and couldn't find a reason to keep playing and getting hurt again. So I stopped playing football and didn't really have a sport to go to. I wasn't (still aren't) a great basketball player and was a great 1st baseman but didn't have the speed necessary for High School Baseball. In 1996 my town was still on that line of racial challenges in some areas with Golf being one of them. I was never compelled to try it because it was a "white people" game.

Later that year Tiger Woods turned pro, I was infatuated with him. He was an American black man dominating at such a young age. It made me fee like golf was accessible to me too. I followed Tiger that first year and then he won the 97 Masters walking away after all of the tension around his participation racially. I saw that and said "im in"

My buddies were all affluent guys with the best golf gear, on the golf team and much better than me at the time... But I went to Kmart and spent my McDonalds paycheck ($5.25 an hour) and bought a set of clubs and some top flight balls. I went out and fell in love with the game. I joined the golf team and rarely shot in the 90's but had a great time.

Over the last twenty years I still look back at that minute when Tiger slipped on that green jacket and smile because I would've never taken up the game without it.

Now I get to go to Vegas and play in a THP Event and it all goes back to that moment in time.
 
My girlfriend at the time golfed. I liked seeing her in shorts and tanktops. So I stayed with it and became addicted.

Also, I ended up marrying her. Partly because I liked, and still do, seeing her in shorts and tanktops.
 
My best friend bought a set at a garage sale and we went down to the high school practice football field and tried to hit balls from one end zone to the other, through the goal posts. Joined the school team when golf season came up again.
 
Knee surgery made it difficult to play tennis as much as I wanted. I had always been pseudo interested in golf, but never started, until last year.
 
For relief from my first wife ...
 
My dad played golf when he was younger, in high school, and through his mid thirties so when I was about 6 or 7 he found a cheap left-handed youth set at Play it Again Sports and I've been playing ever since. Not as often or consistent as I'd like because travel baseball always got in the way when I was younger and now work gets in the way. But no one really plays as often as they'd really like anyway lol
 
As a rookie cop, 6 or 7 of us in the training unit decided to hit my local executive course. They were mostly from Queens or Long Island and made the 40-50+ mile trip to up my neck of the woods.

Don't remember what even prompted the idea but we laughed our butts off at the complete ineptitude of all our swings. Truly was a blast that became a semi-weekly event.

I never practiced but when a swing here and there would kinda-sorta go where I intended, that's it, I was hooked.

That was 1991, I still keep in touch with one guy, will always consider the rest friends as we all worked together in the same command for a few years. Only Glenn continued to play, some others sporadically, but none caught the bug like I did.

Another cop who I was a rookie with and who wasn't part of our golfing group, took up the game a few years later. Freddy and I worked as partners together for 6 years and have been regular playing partners since probably '94. Still one of my best friends and we play every chance we get.
 
I started when I was 16,played pitch and putt. Fell in love with the game shortly after


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I started when I was 14. My neighbor called up and said hey you want to go play golf on a par 3 course? I said what the hell why not. It was downhill from there. This was during the big TW craze.
 
I got fed up with playing Tger Woods on the Xbox and thought i'd try playing for real...... now im totally hooked. Only problem is you cant bash the circle button to increase your power in real life!
 
My dad would take my brother who is 7 years older than me, and it made me jealous. My mom bought me a beat up rusty 9 iron and I hit wiffle balls all day long. My dad saw my progress and took my brother and I to a local par 3. I was really hooked after seeing real greens for the first time. I was 10 the first time I played. Haven't looked back since.
 
I started when I was 18
g.png
 
I started playing when I was 34 and started because of work. Attended a couple of conferences with clients and they liked to play golf. Got hooked shortly after.
 
I started playing about 4 years ago when I started dating my wife. Her dad played and asked if I did so I said yes even though I hadn't really swung a club. I played a few times with him that season and over the winter decided I wanted to play and started playing as much as I could.
 
My dad and mom started playing in 1958 and took my older brother and me along. I was 5. I had one little club, 7 iron. Did not much other than play golf for the next 14 summers.
 
Last edited:
I started dated a girl who's father was a golf course superintendent. He happened to be one of the most respected ones in the state.
When we started to get serious with the relationship, I thought it might be a good idea to try the game, just to give my possibly future father-in-law and myself something to talk about.
Turned out that I loved the game.
 
Me and my best mate found some old clubs stuffed away in his garage. He had a huge plot of land behind his house that fell away probably 100 feet. It made for a great little par 3 hole. As a lefty, I struggled with using right handed clubs. Started off using them back to front, then the correct way with a lefty grip then finally with an orthodox grip. The more I played the more I was becoming hooked. Couple that with staying up late on a school night to watch Sandy Lyle then Nick Faldo win at the most beautiful golf course I had seen, and that was it. I was bitten!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I had some buddies I worked with and played softball with that kept asking me to play and my misperceptions about golf at the time had me turning them down.

a year or so later one of my navy mates who worked on my division asked me to play on his team in a work tournament...same work place and my other buddies. It was a 9 hole night tournament that included food and free beer in the price. Our team was him, me and our leading petty officer. I played and practiced for the 4-5 weeks before the tournament and got hooked in that time.
 
Some friends talked me into trying it and I loved it right away. I sucked (still do) but I loved it!
 
To spend more time with Dad. He loved golf, just playing golf and not wanting to win tournaments. He just loved it. I wanted to be part of his passion, so we took Mom's 5 iron and wood shafted mallet headed putter with us and I started playing golf with Dad. After many years of playing together, the day I beat him is etched into my brain housing group. I don't know who's smile was bigger, his or mine. Been lovin golf ever since.
 
At the height of the Tiger craze in 97 every dude, his wife and dog bought a new golf set. I just went for the ride. But somewhere along the way the solitude and the purity of a good shot hit me. I still wish I had more time to play the sport.
 
I hit the ball around a little bit in middle school and high school, but didn't play again until after college. I started playing in some scrambles and then regular rounds (the days of shooting 120s haunt me way too quickly when I'm chunking the ball down the fairway).
 
I first started playing golf when I was in my 40's. A couple of guys at Church asked to come out and play some golf with them, and I told them I have never played before and I don't have any clubs. One of them said he had an extra set of clubs I could use. So I played several times using borrowed clubs and was scoring about 116 back then. I never got serious about golf until about three years ago when I retired from work. I am now in my late 60's and usually get out to play a round at least twice a week. One day is league play, and the other is solo unless I get paired up with someone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top