[George_Bahto]

Really wanted to be a baseball player and did pretty good for a while but as you rise in the minors you get to see how lacking you are compared to others - but it was good as far as I got.

As a kid my father made me get a job, as all good fathers should). Trouble is it was caddying at that goat-hill Montclair CC along the side of First Mountain here in NJ. I

t was torture but the pay was good at the time (like $5 a bag!!! - duh!) ...............  So I HATED golf! Dad used to play and of course I was his caddy (he was killing me).

I began playing golf at the age of 24 while in the Navy (a 4 year tour that interrupted what was left of my BB dreams). Cedar Point Golf Course at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station was my home course - there were 14 holes with some sort of water along the way. The course is at the edge of the Chesapeake Bay 60 miles south of Wash. DC.  Lots of time to practice and got pretty decent quite quickly.

Got out of the Navy age 25 - too old for ball and already had two youngsters   -    that was the end of baseball, the beginning of a lot of golf.

Ever notice dry cleaners play a lot of golf?  We sort of geared our work day around golf 4 - 5 weekdays. Fortunately I had my father in business with me (he was working for ME! - hah) - he was a big help watching the goings on after I left for the day and of course an understanding wife, even more important.

About 50-years playing on Charles Banks courses as my home courses (and never knew it until about 12 years ago!

45 years of dry cleaning to what’s going on in my life now?   Yikes!

gb

[Scott_Burroughs]

Most of my play starting at my youngest age (7-ish? - gotta ask Mom) was at the Circle H ("Hatch's") 9-hole par 3 course in Beaver Dams, NY with my sawed-off clubs.  They had an old-fashioned upright (bottle) soda machine where I loved having a Cherry Crush after a several nines (wish they'd bring back Cherry!) and reading the wooden Hole-in-One board on the wall.

There was also play (and one lesson) at Soaring Eagles in Horseheads, and once or so at Sing Sing (after the road, not the prison) par 3 course, which is NLE. A little older, I played at Chemung Valley (now named Willow Creek) in Big Flats, .

Don't you just love those town names?  Beaver Dams, Horseheads, Big Flats.  My Dad lives in Painted Post.

[Sean_A]

I am not sure exactly how I started.  It just seemed to be a natural sport to play if living in Michigan.  There are courses everywhere.  I spose I learned the game at Grosse Ile G&CC, my father was and still is a member, but I never had a lesson (still haven't).  Like Brian Gracely, golf was just another sport along with hockey (#1 sport), wrestling and baseball.  Did all four in high school, but after injuries on the diamond and on the rink, golf took over.  After finishing high school I dropped the game for about ten years.  I look back now and think it may have been a mistake.  I was just starting to get good during my junior and senior years.  

Ah well, went to uni and then travelled the world for about 3 years.  Next thing you know I am approaching 30 and I am married!  I took the game back up, but without a real sense of purpose.  I don't practice and play in very few comps.  I just enjoy a friendly four ball at stakes high enough to pay for drinks, if I win.  

Ciao

Sean

[Evan Fleisher]

Growing up in Miami...at age nine, got a set of cut-off left-handed women's clubs donated by someone living near my grandparents in Hollywood, FL. For my tenth birthday, my dad took me out for my first "official" round at the par-3 executive course at the then Miami Lakes Country Club (now the Don Shula Golf Club).  He shot something like a 67 and I shot a 119...I was hooked!

During the summers back then, my mom would send my brother and I over there every Saturday as they had golf for kids. We lived in the neighborhood surrounded by the "regular" 18-hole course...so we would put our golf bags on our pull-carts and then strap those pull-cart handles to the back of the banana seat on our Huffy bicycles.  We would then "tow" our clubs along behind us as we rode along the cart paths of the big course over to the par-3 pro shop.  It was something like $1 to play and they kept scores week to week to award prizes.  Mom always gave us a few bucks to head over to the 19th hole grill afterwards for a burger and fries...we always felt like "big shots" sitting in the grill having lunch with all the "regular" golfers...VERY fond memories.

I played a bunch of golf until I was in my mid-teens then kind of lost interest for whatever reason (skateboarding, girls, whatever!).  I did not pick up the game again until my sophmore year at Georgia Tech...just kind of woke up one day in the Spring of 1988 and said "I'm going to try and play as much golf as I possibly can for the rest of my life"...and here we are today!  

[tlavin]

My dad drove a Coca-Cola truck and used to leave for work around 5 a.m.  He would drop me and my two brothers at Hickory Hills Golf Club (public, muni-like 27 holes) where we would climb the fence and play until we got caught.  Then we'd call our mom for a ride home.  I can still remember my beige and white bag and the acushnet irons (3-5-7-9, natch!).

[frank_D]

...where did you start playing golf and where do you play now.

brother Donnie Beck

started NY
           SIWANOY (private)
           SPRAIN LAKE (public)
            LAKE ISLE (muni)
           caddied @ LEEWOOD (private)

now FLA
        GRANDE OAKS (private)
        COLONY WEST(public)
        BILTMORE (resort)
        HOLLYWOOD (muni)  

[Ted Kramer]

I played soccer in college at SUNY Oswego.
The guys on my team played golf and once the season ended all they wanted to do was play.

I had never played the game until my freshman year at college. So my first rounds of golf were played at a course way upstate in New York called Griffin's Greens . . .if any of you guys know about that course I'll be AMAZED!!!! We also played at another course in town called Battle Island . . .

-Ted

[Paul Carey]

I grew up near a nine hole "semi-private" course that was a part of a prep school.  It did not allow any women to play and had a minimum age requirement of 12.  My father had neither the inclination nor the money to play golf or to join a club.  I first played at age nine or so by sneaking on this course with clubs scraped up from a friends basement.  My first par came after knocking a driver on a downhill 100 yard par three and two putting.  After turning twelve I picked up trash three days a week at the course for free golf.  The free golf meant every daylight hour available when I was not picking up the trash.  

It has been along journey in the game.  I now belong to four clubs in three states and have played some of the greatest courses in the world.  

[Jason Topp]

Westwood Municipal, Newton Iowa

Played a couple of times with my mom's clubs at age 10.  The next year, I bought a membership with a friend for $40 and a Sam Snead set of junior clubs, searched in the creek for some balls and played nearly every day that summer.  I'll never forget how welcome everyone there made me feel.

[Eric Johnson]

Started golfing (for real) in 1990 while breaking into the greenkeeping world at Trysting Tree.  The TTGC greenkeepers had a evening game through the summer months which included some stiff competition from the OSU golf team.  That is when I moved from a "hack-flogger" to a 3 handicap.  

TTGC served as my home course until 1995, upon which I moved to Spyglass Hill.  Had the opportunity to play all the local courses during my 5 year tenure.  Not bad company on the Monterey Peninsula...not to mention SFGC, OC, etc.    

Returned to Oregon in 2001 working at Bandon Dunes for the first "evolution."  I have had the privilege of being Superintendent of Bandon Dunes since October 2003.  Not a bad set of courses to call home.  Rarely is it possible to return home (grew up in North Bend) to work in such a wonderful place.  

[Donnie Beck]

Interesting stories.. Thank you guys.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

My golfing days started at The Gymkhana Club on the tiny Indian Ocean island of Mauritius where I was living with my parents at the time..in fact 1975.
I had just got injured playing soccer and was  looking at a 6 month layoff, so I took up the game to relieve the boredom of the summer months.

Some 10 years later I am on a plane to Centenary College in Shreveport, La....and her I am living in Arkansas.
My first club membership was at Karen CC in Nairobi Kenya,a good course that at sometime has held the Kenyan Open.

[Jason Topp]

My first club membership was at Karen CC in Nairobi Kenya,a good course that at sometime has held the Kenyan Open.

I met a former Ms. Kenya in January.

[Tom Jefferson]

Started at a three par course in east San Diego called Colina Park, with my uncle, sister, father.  2nd round was at an even tinier (and historic landmark) Presidio Park, where I made the switch from lefty to right-handed.  Then junior golf all over San Diego County, including my first 18 hole tournament, at Rancho Santa Fe, where extreme first tee jitters led to a famous and long remembered whiff!!  High school golf at Torrey Pines and summers caddying at La Jolla CC, when Paul Runyon was the professional, and Craig Stadler a portly kid, playing all day, every day. Gene Littler (who I revered), Chuck Courtney, Phil Rodgers played there often.
College summers spent caddying at the Valley Club near Santa Barbara, and now, full circle, playing and working at Bandon Dunes, building another three par course.

[Cory Lewis]

I started playing at Winchester Country Club in my home town, Winchester, VA when I was 10 years old.  My dad introduced me to the game.  I recently saw video of myself hitting balls when I was ten.  It's amazing how simple things are when you are a kid.  Winchester was where I played my first 18 hole round.  The first course that I really loved playing was Pinehurst No. 2. I played it when I was 13 and probably shot about 120 because I kept four putting.  

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