Thank you to those folks that introduced us to golf

[Tommy Williamsen]

When I was about 13 in 1960, My Dad was stationed in Berlin Germany. I was beginning to get into some trouble so my folks thought I should find something more constructive to do after school than hang out with a bunch of guys and cause trouble. This was in the fall and baseball season was over. Dad brought me to the post exchange and bought me a set of Spaulding  Rbrt T Jones woods and irons. Every school day he would pick me up at school and drive a friend and me to the golf course the American’s ran and drop us off. He would then pick me up in time for supper. Some days Dad would play nine holes with me and we would play 18 on Saturday afternoons. Needless to say, I fell in love with the game and Dad and I had a father/son experience that brought us closer together. In turn, I introduced my son to golf and had the same joyous time playing together. Alas, my Dad died in 2009 and my son lives 1600 miles from my home in Virginia. But I have a lifetime full of memories and a sport that I will play as long as I can manage to swing.
Thanks, Dad. You’ll never know how much joy and misery you have caused me over these past 60 years.

This is video of the last time my Dad, son, and I hit golf balls. I have posted it before but thought I'd post it again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL0DZAa9abM

[Ira Fishman]

I introduced myself to golf. We had a group who played baseball at the park almost every day. On a whim, we decided to try golf as a break. I cannot remember how we found clubs. Several of us were smitten.


But I introduced my Dad to golf, and he became an addict. We had countless wonderful hours playing and reliving playing. He passed in 2017 just before my wife were leaving for our West Coast golf trip. If I knew how to post pictures, I would share one of me driving one of his balls into the Pacific from the 16th tee at CPC.


Ira

[Rob Marshall]

My Dad introduced me to the game too. I have many great memories of us playing. My mother would drop us off at the course when we were visiting my grandmother in Clearwater. We played a course that closed a few years ago. Airco, it was located next to the St Pete/Clearwater airport. I was playing Pine Barron's with him when he recorded his only hole in one.

[Jeff_Brauer]

While my Dad did play a bit, and once or twice took a day off work to take me to play a new course/adventure, my intro was via my next door neighbors, who were members at Medinah.  At 12, they took me with their son, my best friend, first to the range, then snuck us out there on Monday's.  On my first real golf hole, no. 1 on no. 2 (I still remember the pee and poo jokes) my buddy lined me up, stood back, and I shanked it into his ankle.  Gets up, lines me up again, shank it into his other ankle.  I carry him up the hill to the clubhouse, first round of golf postponed due to injuries.


Next time, we played a 3 hole loop on no. 2, then a 9, then a full 18. One spring day, with snow flurries, I actually played all three courses in a day.  At 12, the snow didn't discourage me....we had the place to ourselves!


And, the snack bar had menus with the course maps on them.  I usually snuck at least one home to study the golf course layout, so it obviously inspired me for a lifetime.  Very fortunate to have the neighbors and friends I had!

[John Emerson]

I was originally introduced by my old man also.  When I was young (pre-teens) my dad would, once in a blue moon, allow me to tag along with him, my grandpa and uncles in their 4some.  I couldn’t wait until the day I was able to hold my own instead of just hanging out and being “allowed” to hit a couple shots here and there.  After breaking several windows in the house from skulled chips, and a few whippings later, I got better and was allowed to play with them occasionally.  Baseball was my full time gig at the time, but golf was a strong second.  I never played on a team and never have taken a lesson, but I always played with my buddies, at the local muni, who were competitive.  This forced me to improve or I would be thrown out of their golf group as well.  Since they played almost daily, their improvement was much faster than mine.  I barely kept up as the years went on because of other sport obligations.  Once I started in working at golf courses I again improved quickly while my other golf buddies stayed the same or got worse since they had 9-5 office jobs. 
Without my dad, grandad, and uncles, and buddies I am not sure where I would be with the game. 
A caveat to this is that my parents always forced me to do yard work.  Mow, rake, plant flowers and trees etc...This was definitely the ground work for me being a superintendent and wanting to learn how to grow plants, especially grass.  My old man was adamant about stripes in the lawn and I never understood it.  Still don’t understand the whole stripe thing haha.  Now, I almost loathe stripes!!


My love and curiosity of architecture was stoked by my first time playing Idle Hour CC in Lexington Kentucky when I was 20.  I didn’t understand why it was different, but it Just was.  It was absolutely nothing like the muni’s I grew up playing and I wanted to know why.

[Thomas Dai]

Started as a youngster playing on municipal putting greens and pitch-n-putt courses at the same time my parents started to play and continued from there. Played with grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins etc too. Great times.
Only wish there were still plenty of municipal putting greens and pitch-n-putt courses around so that others could get involved in the game in the same way.
atb

[Tommy Williamsen]

Jeff, Medinah is a fabulous place to begin your golf career!!

[Jeff_Brauer]

Jeff, Medinah is a fabulous place to begin your golf career!!

Yes, it was.  And I was astonished to see how much it was trashed on this site when I first joined.  It seemed pretty magical to me.


I will also say it was a revelation.  At 12, I hungered easily.  I was really hungry at hole 8, and climbed on the tee, happy to see the clubhouse beyond for a quick cheeseburger.  It had never dawned on me that someone thought ahead enough to know I was hungry......

[Brock Lynch]

Tommy,


Great video of you three hitting balls together. Thanks for sharing. I was introduced to the game by my grandmother. She lived on the Illinois side of the St. Louis area. I visited her for a couple of summers during my high school days and she would take me out to play some great 9-holers in the area. Nana, as the grandkids called her, taught me how to play fast and she kept me in check when I got a little angry. I loved the challenge of the game and those 9-hole golf courses. Great memories!

[Tommy Williamsen]

Tommy,


Great video of you three hitting balls together. Thanks for sharing. I was introduced to the game by my grandmother. She lived on the Illinois side of the St. Louis area. I visited her for a couple of summers during my high school days and she would take me out to play some great 9-holers in the area. Nana, as the grandkids called her, taught me how to play fast and she kept me in check when I got a little angry. I loved the challenge of the game and those 9-hole golf courses. Great memories!

What great memories it must be to have played with your grandmother. Good on her.