I think most of us can remember the first time we hit a golf ball or grabbed a club and took a swing. Chances are it was because someone else put the club in your hands or told you to try to hit the ball. If you grew up in a household of non-golfers like I did then you certainly needed some prodding from someone else.
This question was thrown around the room at the recent North Carolina Golf Day before the coalition got on the bus and headed to the capitol. Some people got their first taste of golf because they were a caddie at a young age, others were exposed to golf because they worked at a course either in the clubhouse or out on the maintenance staff. A few of our group learned from family members. It was interesting to hear the different stories as the 12 members of our group shared their golf beginnings. My story was a bit different and it's due in part to the winter weather in Michigan.
January in Michigan is usually pretty cold. There's not much outdoor activity going on unless you are a skier, ice fisherman or you just like being cold. When you're in ninth grade physical education class the focus turns to indoor activities like swimming, dodge ball and calisthenics. There was one week during that January when the gym teachers had rubber mats set up on the gym floor and large tape squares on the walls that were our targets. We were told to hit the wiffle balls into the squares on the wall. After a few demonstration swings from our instructors we were turned loose to try to hit the squares. I believe my first club was a seven iron but I can't be sure. It took several swings to get the ball up in the air and even more to consistently hit the target on the wall. I didn't know it that day but by life was forever changed. A seed had been planted in my head that took a few months to germinate. That happened when the gym class got to go to the nearby driving range for a field trip once the weather warmed up that spring. I couldn't believe how much fun it was to hit balls at the range and how much farther they flew than the wiffle balls we learned with in the gym. That summer I bought a 3 wood at Montgomery Ward and practiced with wiffle balls in the back yard, I was hooked. Now, nearly 50 years later, I still love to play golf.
If I had not been handed that 7 iron and told to hit wiffle balls against the gym wall in ninth grade I probably wouldn't have spent my entire professional career around the game of golf. Who knows what I may have done for a living but I'm pretty happy with the way everything turned out.
When was the first time you were exposed to golf? Should we try to get golf as part of the physical education curriculum in public schools? How can we get more people to take that first swing?
This question was thrown around the room at the recent North Carolina Golf Day before the coalition got on the bus and headed to the capitol. Some people got their first taste of golf because they were a caddie at a young age, others were exposed to golf because they worked at a course either in the clubhouse or out on the maintenance staff. A few of our group learned from family members. It was interesting to hear the different stories as the 12 members of our group shared their golf beginnings. My story was a bit different and it's due in part to the winter weather in Michigan.
January in Michigan is usually pretty cold. There's not much outdoor activity going on unless you are a skier, ice fisherman or you just like being cold. When you're in ninth grade physical education class the focus turns to indoor activities like swimming, dodge ball and calisthenics. There was one week during that January when the gym teachers had rubber mats set up on the gym floor and large tape squares on the walls that were our targets. We were told to hit the wiffle balls into the squares on the wall. After a few demonstration swings from our instructors we were turned loose to try to hit the squares. I believe my first club was a seven iron but I can't be sure. It took several swings to get the ball up in the air and even more to consistently hit the target on the wall. I didn't know it that day but by life was forever changed. A seed had been planted in my head that took a few months to germinate. That happened when the gym class got to go to the nearby driving range for a field trip once the weather warmed up that spring. I couldn't believe how much fun it was to hit balls at the range and how much farther they flew than the wiffle balls we learned with in the gym. That summer I bought a 3 wood at Montgomery Ward and practiced with wiffle balls in the back yard, I was hooked. Now, nearly 50 years later, I still love to play golf.
If I had not been handed that 7 iron and told to hit wiffle balls against the gym wall in ninth grade I probably wouldn't have spent my entire professional career around the game of golf. Who knows what I may have done for a living but I'm pretty happy with the way everything turned out.
When was the first time you were exposed to golf? Should we try to get golf as part of the physical education curriculum in public schools? How can we get more people to take that first swing?
