Who/What Brought You To The Game?

My dad went to law school when i was about 5 years old. In law school he fell in with a bad crowd and learned the fine art of skipping class to go play golf (he claims new attendance requirements were put into place because he and his buddies always managed to pull Bs or better but never went to class, I don't know if I believe the story, but there it is). Once he really got into the game and decided to buy decent clubs, he left his Price Club specials in the garage where my older brother and I found them and took them to the school playground next door and hit rocks with them.

I didn't really play my first actual round of golf until high school. I tinkered with the game a bit, but probably never played more than 10-15 total rounds. I gave up the game entirely for about 10 years until my brothers and I decided it might be a good way to spend quality family time together so we started playing regular sunday rounds- 3 brothers and dad. I've been hooked ever since.

Fred Couples. 

He's one cool cat.  I figured if I played his game I'd soon have his swagger.  So far, so good.  I'm way slinky and smooth.

It was at this point in the story that I reached for the phone to call my wife and tell her to get our kid off the computer!

Nah. Aske dragged me to the range and it was boring that he'd hit and I'd watch. So I hit too.

My dad used to take me along as a kid when he wasn't playing with his regular group and didn't want to play as a single.  I didn't like it very much because while my friends were playing baseball and soccer, I was stuck hanging around with old dudes for 4 hours.  Plus, even though I had plenty of lessons, it was frustrating as a kid.

I swore off golf in my late teens, but picked it up again in my late twenties playing with buddies and have been hooked.

My grandparents got me into golf.  They lived in Wisconsin at the when I was young so we didn't see them enough.  But when we did they brought clubs and we would all go play.  My grandfather gave me his old set of Hogan apex irons as my first set when I was around 12.

My father and brother are not golfers, but I'll never forget Christmas eve when I was 13 playing a round with my father, grandfather and brother.  There was some snow on the ground and the ponds were iced over.  It was the only time I've ever played golf with my father and brother. 

I loved it immediately and got my friends into it too.

So "the dude" says, yeah man we can walk around for 4 hours get ripped and smoke some jays along the way, and all you gotta do is hit this little white ball once in awhile.

And I says "no way"

And he says "way"

And I says "nooooooo wayyyyyyyy"

And he says "yeahhhh wayyyyyy"

Thus my love affair with the game started at 17. And it only took about ten years for me to realize why my swing was twice as fast as Nick Price's on a slow day, marijuana is a grade three accelerant, in certain combinations and proper atmospheric conditions you can actually...

... awwww never mind.