PA-PLAYA
I started playing when I was about 12....I'm 72 now, so it's been 60 years, give or take. I watched a show called All Star Golf on TV, and Sam Snead kept winning week after week, so he was my first "role model." Next, I snuck up in the attic of the garage (something we were NOT supposed to do, b/c it was chock full of junk, and kind of dangerous to get there b/c of a rickety ladder!), and retrieved my dad's old starter set of clubs in a canvas bag. He had a few Bobby Jones clubs with painted steel shafts, (so they looked like wooden shafts) and a couple of wooden shafted ones thrown in. From there, I started hitting balls around the yard, even tried to create a putting green using one of those old reel mowers to cut the grass closer! Then I would go to the public library and check out one golf instruction book after another. Eventually, my dad realized that I was serious about the game, and offered to take me to the local nine hole muni to play my first ever round on a REAL golf course. I'll never forget the exhilarating sight of my first really good drive up there in the sky that day.....I was hooked! Back then kids could play that little nine holer for only 75 cents a round, so I found a bunch of my buddies who liked to play, and we spent a lot of time there from then on.
Even though I played baseball every summer through high school, from that time on I've never missed a season of golf. I worked at golf courses during summer breaks for 20+ seasons, coached my high school's golf team, dabbled in club making, and changed clubs about a zillion times! Since retirement I've played twice a week with my regular group, and come close to shooting my age, which is my current goal! I've loved every minute of it, and wake up every morning trying to figure out how I can include something related to golf in my day! Hope I can keep playing well enough for it to be fun for whatever years I have remaining!!!
Great thread, BTW....I've enjoyed reading the stories of the other members!!