How did golf come into your life?

[Red_Eyes]

prompted by a conversation on the course last week and another thread here, that I don't want to hijack, I am interested in how people get the golf bug and when golf came into their life.

To set the scene I am now 44 and only started playing 'seriously' in May.

My first contact with golf was 'Arnold Palmers Pro Shot Golf' This was a game where there was a model of Arnie on the end of a club which you operated by means of a trigger. Arnie clubs were interchangable. You had two balls, ahem, a polystyrene one for tee shot and fairway and a marble type ball for the green. plastic bunkers and foam greens were included. You could even change the pin position. Great game

Just googled, you can still get it! >>>here<<< Not meant as an advert. If it breaches anything pm me to edit.

My next contact with golf a nearby golf range at Fishley Park north of Pelsall, Staffordshire as was then. When indeed as 15-16 year olds we did indeed go tractor bashing.

 

[barb]

I got the golf bug about 4 years ago,
my husband and I were supposed to going diving but due to a sudden change in the weather, the dive was called off and as we had both taken a day off work we were at a loss for something to do. My brother in law suggested going with him to the local pitch and putt and giving it a go, we relunctantly agreed (typical sterotype feelings, old persons sport etc.. no offence meant to anyone

 

[OldWindy]

Like most sports, saw it on the telly gave it go, abandoned it then saw a renewed interest when I needed to get away from it all!

 

[Deleted member 1147]

I played pitch & putt from about the age of 5.
Joined my uncle's club at 11.
Gave up for several years aged 17.
New employer let me join him for charity events, entertaining clients.
Now I'm mad on the game again.

 

[TonyN]

My old man has played it all his life with his mates. They used to play a pitch and putt every sunday for a laugh but it eneded up going on for about 15-20 years. Eventually I started going along on sundays when I had no football game pre season or training. My old man taught me the basics but I refused to grip the club correectly and played cack handed. I really loved the short game and even had 2 holes in one (at the same hole) when I was about 13 b ut that was a serious as it got. Before that there used to be a huge field outside my ront door when I was growing up and I would nick the old mans 7 irons and best orange balls. Stand at one side of field and fire at a board up against a tree at the other side!

It wasn'y untill last OCT i really decided to give it a bosh. When I moved in with H.I.D at her parents house, her dad and brother invited me along to the range and the 9 holer attatched. I went round in about 60 (par 31) and loved. I started using the range 3-4 times a week, started upgrading all my gear and then eventually (March I think) had lessons and changed my grip from right hand at the top to left. So glad I did and gutted I never did it earlier.

 

[andiritchie]

played for age of 11 up until 17 where i played off 8,jacked it in ex girlfriends wishes then beer and women take over back again now at 24 been playing for 2 years and i back off 8 again with a girlfriend who plays

 

[TonyN]

How fortunate are you Andi

I been nagging my mrs to start but she wont. She did just look at the tele and say i could be doing that, i did tell her she would have to take up the game first!

 

[andiritchie]

yeah there pros and cons to everything though tony,if i want a game with the lads she asks why dont you wanna play with me swings and roundabouts

 

[TonyN]

lol haha, Hmm maybe i'll just leave things as they are!

 

[viscount17]

as a kid I lived near a golf course (Hollingbury in Brighton). my brothers and I had a couple of clubs between us and for balls we either found them in the gorse or 'found' them. none of us took it up, you didn't then, golf was for bank managers not bus conductors kids. (my kid brother did later but by then he was an RAF pilot)

move on several years and RN Phantoms are moved to RAF Leuchars. (I can hear the hackles rising already!) They had a deal with St Andrews whereby we could get cheap rounds on a Wednesday afternoon so I borrowed a half set and went round (after all I played hockey, how different could it be?). The guys I was with could both play and couldn't be bothered with my hacking (it was different!) so that was that.

step on 35 years, now I'm in Malaysia finishing up a job early. Two of the three permies are keen golfers and belong to a local club (the third had been persauded to take lessons) and invited me to join them for 9 holes while dodging the thunderstorms. Duffed the first shot, creamed the second, - that's all it took. Came home, bought the clubs.

 

[Basher]

The 2006 Ryder Cup was my undoing.

Had no interest whatsoever in the game. The missus and my son watched the competition avidly. Come the final two days and I was settled in the chair watching myself!
After the competition, my son decided he wanted to play golf (12 yrs old, expected really)
The wife pushed it more than I did.
Ended up down at DG where he bought a set of clubs.
I thought, in for a penny, in for a pound. Bought a complete beginner set myself.
Hit the range several times a week, had a few lessons. Eventually joined my club with my son last year. Absolutely smitten with the game, even when things are going badly. Just wish I could get on the course more on a weekend - competitions almost every weekend throughout the summer, many of which are no goers for me as my handicap is too high.

A brilliant game/sport, just wish I'd taken it up years ago.

 

[medwayjon]

I used to ponce about at the range and pitch and putt as a youngster.

Never picked up a club after that until last year. Basically a guy I know was always talking about golf and decided to take the plunge into golf and I have not looked back since.

I LOVE GOLF

 

[theeaglehunter]

I started playing pitch and putts with some mates about 2 years ago for a laugh, then about 18 months ago I made it a bit of a routine thing and went every 2 weeks or whatever to one of 2 small 9 holers and started getting gradually more serious, before gradually getting the odd round in at a few 18 holes courses about a year ago. And I have been playing 'seriously' since January when I joined my first club.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Think mine is pretty much covered in the magazine this month

 

[mickytwodesks]

My brother took me to play 9 holes at a local munci a couple of years ago and even though i took probably 10 shots a hole i just loved the game.

I purchased a Ram beginners set of clubs in Feb 2007 and with a mate from work i headed to the range to practice hitting some balls. As i showed no golfing talent whatsoever i decided from the very outset to have lessons and i'm blummin glad i did. Gutted i didnt take up the game 20 years ago!

 

[Red_Eyes]

Think mine is pretty much covered in the magazine this month

Shameless plug.

Though I will be buying it tomorrow. So worth it.

 

[DCB]

Being Scottsh, i was born with a mashie niblick in my hands!

Like most lads up here, I started knocking a ball about around 7-8 years old. I got my first mixed bag of clubs, leather bag (weighed about 5lb dry and 10lb when wet)and a few pickup balls. I had three hickory shafted clubs in that first "set" I did indeed have a mashie niblick, it has a face the size of a dinner plate.

I was in my late teens before I bought my first 2nd hand set of Greentree Trevino clubs, 5wood & 4,6,8,PW & SW. I really thought I had arrived with these beauties.

I still remember my first full round at Silverknowes golf course in Edinburgh, I shot 129 on a nice summer afternoon, I managed an 8 at the long par 5 18th hole (600 yds).

Never looked back since, a great game to play evemn if it always seems to get the better of you.

 

[cm_qs]

Went with my mate to the school football pitch when I was about 15 to keep him company whilst he practiced. He was a junior member at the local club and was playing off 11 at the time. I had never held a club before in my life.
He gave me an old Wilson Staff 8 iron, showed me the basics of how to hold and swing it and a handful of hacked up Dunlop 65i's.

Within 10 minutes I was hooked. We used to play from goal to goal with the aim of hitting one of the goal posts instead of a hole. To this day, I still play the vast majority of chip shots, bump and runs etc with my 8 iron as that was the only club available to me and i learned over a period to play a variety of shots with it. Old habits die hard I suppose.

 

[andiritchie]

very seve like craig

 

[cm_qs]

very seve like craig

The only fair comparison that can be drawn between me and Seve is that, since I hail from north of the border, some people seem to think that English is a second language to me too!