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How did you start playing golf?

• fairground11 1,211 Posts

  Thu, May 2 2013 5:26 AM

  in 1990 i went to work as a croupier at the princess casino in Freeport in the Bahamas.

  they also owned a hotel and 2 golf courses,the ruby and the emerald if anybody remembers them,(think they got wiped out in a hurricane a few years back).

  for members of staff we only had to pay 10 bucks for cart hire which were compulsory and no green fees,i think for the tourists it was about 25 bucks for cart hire and about 50 bucks for green fees.

  i bought some 2nd hand clubs for 60 bucks and got 18 months use out of them playing at least once a week but often 3 or 4 times,when i left i sold them for a 100 bucks

• andwhy67 2,816 Posts

  Fri, May 3 2013 2:49 PM

  Started by chance when i was 11, the first club i was given was a hickory shafted 5 iron. I grew up not far from a private golf course and spent many hours in the bushes looking for balls that i used to stand in the car park and sell back to members.

   I remember when i was younger times were hard for us and a lot of people financially, and mum got a job cleaning at the club. That is where i got my first caddy job on a saturday morning for a Mr Charles Cartwright, we hit it of straight away and caddied for him every other weekend, and i remember at club tourneys after 18 holes he would bring me out a sandwich and drink while he dined with his friends and then another 18 holes in the afternnoon.

  I used to jump the fence some evenings and play as many holes as i could before it got dark, played in the rain, snow and got chased off many times.

  I'm 45 now and haven't played golf for over 10 years, was a genuine single figure player and just woke up one morning and 'lost the desire'.and not played since, but love watching it on TV, and last year found this game by chance.

  Maybe i'll start again sometime?

   

   

   

• gr8flbob 592 Posts

  Fri, May 3 2013 5:17 PM

  [to tune of YMCA's In the Navy ...]

  In Spring of 1970, age 25, as part of my final tour of duty in Hawai'i at Fleet Intelligence Center Pacific,  I was sent to cryptographic equipment school, located at Mare Island CA (north end of San Francisco Bay). It was for 4 weeks, and weekends I boogied as far as I could get and return in 48 hours, lol. TGIF and hasta la vista.

  Weekday late afternoon and evenings, no homework (classified and all locked up), so what to do? A shipmate turned me on to a 9 hole course on-base, and every weekday (Mon - Thur) we'd play a twi-lite 9. Think St Andy's with rolling hills, and VERY reliable southwest winds (as part of the strong air stream coming through the Golden Gate in the afternoons). In nearby passes trees grew bent over towards the NE because of the strength and consistent direction of that wind!

  Rental clubs and the shop's cheapest balls ... get 'er done ... and the evening meal was there at the course concession stand: a bowl the best chili con carne I'd tasted til then, perfect french fries, and an Anchor Steam beer or 3.

  Learn by doing, with both useful and horrible advice from whomever I was playing with. It's taken more than a few years to un-learn some of that stuff, lol. But, I am still a good wind player; love the challenge of keeping it in play.