What did you shoot your very FIRST 'official' round of golf?

[Doug Siebert]

And how old were you, and had you had any lessons / practice elsewhere?

My first exposure to golf was the summer after I turned 11, my dad took my brother and I to "lower Finkbine" the University of Iowa's former 9 hole course that was NLE due to flooding, but they still mowed the greens and fairways on about five holes. I remember it was brown and rock hard - there were cracks in some of the greens! In hindsight it may be the firmest and fastest course I ever played I think we went out there 3-4 times that summer, no driving range or lessons - in fact I've never had a lesson, which is probably why my swing won't be mistaken for a tour pro's!

My first 'real' round was later that summer at a 9 hole course in Hillsboro Kansas, where I shot an 82. I don't remember how well I might have followed the rules, there could have been a mulligan or gimme here or there. I recall reaching a par 3 hole in two shots and having a par putt, which I three putted, but that small success stuck with me to the point I still remember that hole today, and may have been what made me want to come back. Next year he got a junior membership at a local 9 hole course and I'd go play 18 holes in the morning three times a week while he was teaching that summer, and made my first par and later first regulation par that summer. The end of the summer we were back in Hillsboro and I made my first birdie, topping a 5i to 15 feet and lucking in the putt and I guess I was hooked for life

[Tim Fenchel]

Dad taught me the game. Still OCCASIONALLY out drives me. In his heyday we was a 4.  I never got lower than a 7.


Started my career by breaking two of my mothers screen doors with his Wilson Staff 7 iron.  Been my favorite club ever since.


Played my first full 18 holes when I was 12. Shot 113 at the local dog track burnt our muni with a set of Northwestern irons. The scorecard is in a box somewhere.  Really hope it turns up someday.
 

[Kalen Braley]

I was like 25...I started late. 

It was at SkyWest in Hayward, CA and I think I shot about 120ish. 

I still recall playing with this older gentleman who could only hit it about 150 or so...he crushed me by about 25 shots as he stayed out of trouble and went right down the middle most shots.

[Jon Wiggett]

I had been playing for a couple of years by the time I did my first handicap round aged 7. Shot 94 off the yellows (members tees) at Dewsbury which led to the committee giving me a 24 hcp. Still recall the odd shot or two from that round.


Jon

[Jason Connor]

It was summer after finishing 9th grade, 1989.


I shot a totally legit 130 on a course that probably has course rating of 62 and slope of 100 (9 hole track played twice).

[Mac Plumart]

121. Piedmont Driving Club in 2007.

[Jason Topp]

71 - 9 holes

Small town Iowa course - age 10 or so.  They made my friends and me feel welcome and we were hooked.  It seemed to be more effective than many of the formal programs out there for growth of the game.  The place had a lot of kids and the high school team was always pretty good. 

[Steve_Lovett]

81 for 9-holes at the Lake Padden Golf Course in Bellingham, WA (age 9)


108 for my first 18-hole round at Jackson Park Golf Course in Seattle, WA (age 11)


Numerous 9-hole rounds at smaller Seattle-area public courses in between.

[Joe_Tucholski]

I started by hitting my dads clubs in our back yard.  He wasn't all to happy to find out I hit a number into the woods that were lost.  I then moved to taking the heads of my sisters Barbie's and hitting them around (the hair served as a parachute).

Eventually my dad took me out to the 9 hole golf course on the sub base in Groton, Goose Run.  No idea what I shot but I remember the guy behind the counter came out to watch, I was nervous and used my 5 iron that felt like a great shot (it got in the air).

[Colin Macqueen]

Joe, That is hair-raising stuff!!


Gentlemen,


After 2-3 years of bashing balls around Pitkerro and in the surrounding cow fields I advanced to the Burnside course adjacent to Carnoustie.  It was a gorgeous summers day, middle of the week and school holidays, and with Michael Docherty , a school chum, I set off to play 18 holes after coughing up the princely sum of sixpence. Armed with a potpourri of old golf clubs and too few golf balls battle commenced. As many on this forum know my first drive landed on the Aberdeen to Edinburgh railway line ... a result of what was my signature stroke for 30 years .... a carving slice. The day continued along these lines. A hunt for balls by the fifteenth or sixteenth holes, to ensure completion slowed progress, but two exhilirated wee laddies turned up at the 18th. proud as punch and sporting scores in the vicinity of, but less than, two hundred! Halcyon days!


Cheers Colin

[cary lichtenstein]

7 years old, the first score I can remember posting, was a 46 for 9 holes, but that was a few years later at a semi private club. My first handicap was 12 and that was the highest I ever was, 2 was the lowest, but I was really a 4-5 my last 10 years of playing.

[Pete_Pittock]

Keying on the word "official" meaning for handicap it was about 1972 at the Heron Lakes Greenback course. I had been playing for twenty years with my father and his friends, and I was given the same handicap as dad since our games were very similar. Joined the men's club. Doubt that I broke 80 very often, but that day all parts were working, my first (of two) GIR=18 and a posted 73, which meant that I can truthfully say that at some time I was a 1 handicap.

[MCirba]

.

[jim_lewis]

Age 13 in 1956. My boss gave me a mixed set of used clubs. Shot 54 for 9 holes at Dusty Hills CC in Marion, SC. Took me several attempts to match that score.

[Dave August]

May 1989. End of Junior year of college.


9 hole course in Lewiston, ME (Apple Valley, I think). Shot 64 and never had a lesson. It was a blast!


Never went back to that course - I joined the "golf team" and played a private course the rest of my college career, never once playing a match. Talk about a scam!!

[Rick Shefchik]

For some reason the number 156 comes to mind, and I honestly can't recall if it was for 9 or 18. I believe I was 7 or 8 years old, so it was probably just 9 holes.


I don't remember the first time I broke 80, but I'm going to guess that I was 17. I always have trouble with these memory tests; I don't remember how much my first full-time job paid, or how much I paid for rent in my first apartment. But I for damn sure know who won every World Series from 1946 to 1991.

[Rich Goodale]

I was 12/13 and played Woods Hole with my Dad.  I shot ~95, he shot 100+.  I think I shot 43 on the back 9.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Siasconset Golf Course on Nantucket , MA.
It was a 9-holer and I shot 57 when I was about 12.

[Michael Felton]

In 1990, my first round to give me my first handicap was 106 at Effingham Golf Club in Surrey. I was 14 at the time. Prior to that I had only ever played at a local par three course and if I went in a bunker, I'd have about 5 or 6 goes at getting it out and then throw it out.


My dad had got himself a membership at the local club when he came down south and he would play 2 or 3 times a year. He was a keen golfer when he was 17, 18 years old, but then started working and started a family (thanks dad) and golf kind of fell by the wayside. 2 or 3 rounds a year when paying annual subscriptions was making for a very expensive cost per round. He decided that he was either going to drop it or make something of it. He suggested that my brother, my mother and I get some lessons, so we did and the bug bit. That was April of 1990. That summer I played the aforementioned round to get my first handicap (35).

[jeffwarne]

152 Augusta Country club-age 11.First time I had ever touched a club.
I remember making a 22 on the par 3 fourth encountering my first bunker.(I'm sure that was a joy for my buddy)

Played as a guest of my next door neighbor-Told my dad about it that day and found out we were actually members! (my dad didn't play and we hung out at a nearby neighborhood pool)
Played every summer day after that.


I would play at 7 a good hour and a half before anyone else and never see a golf staff or maintenance crew worker-and no one cared-nor did it occur to anyone to care.
Now that's high treason punishable by death.


Dew lines are a great way to learn to putt

[Tim Gallant]

Needwood executive - 9 holes. I believe my score was somewhere in the 61 range (par 31). A moment I will always remember:


In those days, the exec had its own starters box because you couldn't see the first tee from the main pro shop, so it was there to discourage people sneaking on. We walked up the hill, and out from his shed approached an older gentleman to punch our tickets. I was 11 and I was playing with my older brother, who had been playing for a few years. We played the middle tees, and as we are waiting to tee off, the starter was chatting and asked more about us. We tell him we are brothers and that this is my first time playing. With a seriousness that came out of nowhere, he turned on us and said to my brother, 'You wait, one day your brother is going to kick your ass in golf.' I was stunned, and we both laughed a little. We played the rest of the round, and I remember my brother mercilessly teasing me because he said it didn't matter which club I hit because they all went the same distance. He beat me by a lot that day.


I worked my butt off and when I was 13, I beat my brother for the first time. It was, and still is the best feeling to beat your brother.

[BHoover]

My first round, when I was 13, I shot 60 for nine holes. I practiced hard that summer and shot 83 in one of my first 18 hole rounds later that summer.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure I've improved significantly since then!

[Dave McCollum]

No idea how you guys remember this stuff.  I played all sports, but golf was sort of regarded as an old guy’s hobby or for young guys who couldn’t play real sports.  Yet my best buds and I came from golfing families and we had access to equipment and, more important, a very cool golf club in a wild place where we hunted, fished, went swimming, and often camped out overnight often for several days at a time.  At some point we must have tried hitting balls to see how far we could bash them.  As a young man, I helped my father build a golf course (in the same wild place I loved) so, tinkered around a little, usually with good players, just to see how they liked our efforts.  I made a hole-in-one on probably something like the 2nd full round (9-hole) I played.  Made a 13 on the next hole I was laughing so hard.  That’s the only score I remember.  As for architectural interest, I helped build a course before I ever played one seriously.  Wow, are they hard to grow in in a hot climate.   

Then, for the next twenty plus years, I played only the occasional round when I visited my folks or some friend insisted.  I doubt that averaged a round a year.  Keeping score wasn’t relevant for my game, yet, given my competitive background, I’m sure there was some kind of match involving bets.  In my early 40’s, I even managed the family course for 5 years and never played.  My reason:  I knew if I ever started I’d become obsessed with trying to be good, just like every other sport I’d ever tried.  And, having lots of friends who were good golfers, I just didn’t have the time to hang out at a golf course that much.  Finally, at age 46, I think, with my kids mostly grown, I decided I was too old to ever be any good  (thus safe from addiction) and that I ought to learn the game for social reasons and because I was in the golf biz.  Took lessons, enjoyed practice on late summer evenings spent away from family, probably just hit balls for a full season before trying a round, and, of course, became completely addicted to the game  (not my score, that came later).  I think my first HC was about an 18 or so.  So, a long, boring tale, although somewhat different, about how I became a crappy golfer.

I do think it sheds some light on a couple my current beliefs:  I totally understand why the millennials don’t embrace the game (no time) and our support for junior golf (get addicted and learn early; it is so much easier than my journey).   BTW, at our course we have the same grumpy old guys complaining about the kids as when I was a kid myself.  Maybe not so many, but some things never change.   

[Ian Andrew]

Late April 1978

It was with my father because I had to pass his etiquette test to be allowed to play alone.
He travelled a lot on business, so passing was very important.

It was just 9 holes and I'm confident it was well into the 60's.

[Jonathan Mallard]

I still have the card. It 'says' 140.


Bear with me for this one...


It was with my grandfather who passed away today at 97. A WWII vet who took up the game later in life, played it until he was 90, and who passed it on to me.


I was 9 years old, had had no lessons, and after riding out to the course with him at ages 7 and 8, he took me to play my first round a year later. He kept his score, and made me finish every hole, but wouldn't write down a score higher than 9.


He took me to my first PGA tournament the next year when I was 10 in 1982. He made me follow some old guy who putted kind of funny compared to everyone else and told me to ask him for his autograph when he finished his round. The gentleman was a little gruff, asked me if I had my pen ready, I said yes sir, and then he wrote "Sam Snead" on my booklet.


I don't think anyone has, or will have as much influence on my life when I look back at all the things I've done that have emerged from my interest in this game.