Do you regret it?

bobmac

bobmac

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Is this familiar to anyone?
You learn golf as a kid.
Grow up, meet girls and beer. Give up golf.
Get married. Have kids. Kids grow up and go to school, too old/injured for football, so go back to golf again and wish you'd never stopped?
I understand the pressure having a familly puts on golf...no time or money but.....
What would your handicap be now if you hadn't given up?
 
I personally didn't start playing until I was in my thirties but my nephew started playing when he was about 7 or 8. Got down to 5 handicap by the time he was 16, Junior Captain for the club he was at. I played with him a few times, he hit the ball an absolute mile and had a swing to die for.
Then he discovered wine, women and song. He's now a 20 stone tub of lard that hasn't picked a golf club up in over 15 years.
What a waste
 
Yeah not half, I was off 9 and going in the right direction when I gave it up. Now I'm back I am a shadow of my former self. :(
 
What would mine be if I'd begun as a kid!!??
Didin't start until I was 28! Wish I'd begun a lot earlier.
Without my 5 year injury/family induced break I think I'd be nudging Cat 1 by now. Its taken me 3-4 years to get back to where I was when I stopped.
 
Very good question, but it's one we'll probally never know. I was off 18 when I turned 17 and got a job where I got Saturdays off. So I could play Sat comps. I lost 9 shots in the 1st year. Then I hit a brick wall got down to 6 but met HID's and stayed at 5/6 for years. I lost my job end off 2006 and plays loads of golf, I went from 4 down to 2 in a year (2007)Lowest I reached was 1.5, but went on holiday and missed out on last to comp's that year, so I will never know if I would of got down to 1. I'm still trying. My goal this year is 1 but we'll just have to wait and see. Fingers crossed
 
I din't start playing until 36 and wish I'd started earlier.Then might have had one of those nice flowing swings rather than my muscular lunge. :(
 
Didn't really start until I was nearly 40. Had a couple of false starts in my early 20's which only lasted for a few months.

Do I regret not starting earlier, maybe a bit, but I can't complain. My previous passion has enabled to see a lot of the world, met some great people, worked and lived abroad, and has given me some of the best and terrifying memories that few will have a chance to encounter. All the while getting paid for it.

No point in regrets in life, more missed opportunities perhaps. Perhaps golf is just better suited to my 'older' temperment now?
 
Picked up my first club at age 64! h/c officially 18 probably nearer 15.
You're concerned about breaks - I'm worried about the time when desire to improve is overtaken by deterioration due to age!
 
Is this familiar to anyone?
You learn golf as a kid.
Grow up, meet girls and beer. Give up golf.
Get married. Have kids. Kids grow up and go to school, too old/injured for football, so go back to golf again and wish you'd never stopped?
I understand the pressure having a familly puts on golf...no time or money but.....
What would your handicap be now if you hadn't given up?
Click to expand...

That's kind of where I'm at right now, although I originally started around 16. A mass cause of frustration at times, and even with the problems I'm facing, as dicussed in another thread, I still love the game and the challenge.

My 9 year old son is a lot luckier. He likes the game, likes to play and I'm fortunate enough at the moment to be able to give him the opportunity. Just joined him to my club as a junior, and he's having lessons, and we spend a lot of father/ son time either on the course or at the range, something my parents never offered me because they didn't do it. Hopefully, he'll be able to stick with it longer, as long as he doesn't get too sidetracked by girls and such, but we've all been there.....:D
 
I only started to play at 26, so I would like to know where i'd be if my parents were in a position to allow me to play golf. Football was all I knew from I could walk. I guess it is a cheaper option for parents, new pair of boots now and again, isnt as bad a the costs involved in golf with green fees/membership, equipment, balls, clothing, shoes etc!
We have a son, and I would love to put him in the situation where he can play golf from an early age if he chooses to as well as other sports, then make his own mistakes! My 2 girls have an interest and have been to the range, but I think they will lose it pretty quick as dancing takes over! lol
 
I wish I'd never stopped, but it wasn't due to lack of interest, it was lack of finances.

I don't like using the word 'regret', but if I had one it would be not having a lesson when I was younger. I played off 10 and know now that my swing looked nothing like I imagined it did.
 
Is this familiar to anyone?
You learn golf as a kid.
Grow up, meet girls and beer. Give up golf.
Get married. Have kids. Kids grow up and go to school, too old/injured for football, so go back to golf again and wish you'd never stopped?
I understand the pressure having a familly puts on golf...no time or money but.....
What would your handicap be now if you hadn't given up?
Click to expand...

I wish it did sound familiar. Sadly, I started at 23 and quit aged 27, so just the four years.
I started again at 37 and am yet to get back to where I was.
I was off about 8-9 before giving up....another year or so and I reckon 5 or 6 might have been possible.
Past that, no chance.... :)
 
I wish I'd never stopped, but it wasn't due to lack of interest, it was lack of finances.

I don't like using the word 'regret', but ....
Click to expand...


Hmmmm.

Took up the great game at 15/16 ish immediately got to 17 but gave up membership when I went off to collage at 18, when I was playing to about 12or13ish.

The women was good, and the beer was better.

Met up with the original Mrs aged about 20 and gave up golf totally for 12 years then joined a club for about three and moved from 22 to 17 to 13, when I settled down with the second Mrs H.

Then gave up again for 15 years until early last year.

First round last year I went out I played to 18, so I call that my society handicap, although I haven't managed to play to it since.

I once worked it out that in the period from 1982 to about 1996 I beered and womanised away about £80-£90 K. ( Since the second Mrs H I have been a good boy - honest. )

Given the fact that in the early 80s you could buy a flat for well under £30K, and in the mid 90s they were still well under £100K. In them days you need about a 20% deposit ( I know coz the brother of one of my boozing mates did it ), so in that period, I could have still had the odd beer, played loads of golf, and invested in property worth about £200K in those prices.

Which would now be worth well over a million.

As it happens all I did was get pissed until I settled down with the currant Mrs H, started up my own business in 2003/4 which went tits up and made me bankrupt in 2008. Since then I'm fighting to get the money side of things back on track and keeping the mortgage company remotely happy.

I had 15 years of wine women and song, gave up golf ( twice ) when I was showing signs of being able to break into single figures, but gave up for women both times. Lived for the moment and have absolutely nothing to show for it.

Or I could have lived a far more normal lifestyle, played golf regularly, invested in property, and now been comfortably off with no stresses, instead of working a 60 hour week to keep the wolf from the door. I'd be able to play at least a couple of times a week, and I'm absolutely positive I'd be in single figures

But do I regret it?

Once I worked out those numbers, too bloody right I do.

:(
 
Only about ten times a day. If i only had the equipment then that i play with now. The old McGregor Tourney Custom blades,and persimmon woods, how did i ever play with those. :D :D
 
My teenage years are well documented on here and the fact that my parents couldn't afford to pay for the PGA course will always be a case of what might have been. A regret? At the time, and especially for a few years after. I gave up golf around 18 or 19 and got into women, beer (too much as it turned out) and football (playing and watching). I wouldn't have missed all the nights out with my mates, some who have become true friends that have been there when I needed them most, the thrill of chasing the women, and the reality of the catch the morning after.

I know my dad regretted not being able to help me further but we got it squared before he died. Being a keen golfer himself he knew how much the game gets into your soul but in the precarious economy of the time and owning his own business which was tough on him, it was always going to be a no-goer.

I regret jacking it in though as I'd like to have seen what I could have done as a club member and in more open events. Could I have got down further to scratch or thereabouts? I regret going back to it in the my 30's and then playing badly and chucking it in again (although my mum was ill so I made the right call in going to look after her) and I regret that I have work for a living and can't play as much as I would like (although I give it a damn good go)
 
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