As part of the discussion about growing the game, I'm curious to know when everyone on the board picked up the game. My impression is that it's pretty common for people to pick it up later in life. Just want to see if the TexAgs Golf Board supports that theory.

For the purpose of this thread, I would define "taking up golf" as the earliest age where you started playing with any kind of regularity. Example: I played once or twice as a younger kid (just a few holes) and a few times in high school just horsing around with my friends. Took a golf class at A&M and played maybe five or six rounds while I was in college. Started playing at least once or twice a month when I was in the Air Force, so I'd say that was the age where I "took up golf."


For me, I took up golf at 24.

10? I was in golf summer camps in 4th or 5th grade.Basically my parents dropped us off and we got 30 minutes of practice then played 18 holes.

14/15? Summer before my freshman year in HS

Grandpa gave me some hand me downs, and bought some golf shoes, and sent me off to a week long junior golf day camp. It's all been downhill from there.

11 or 12

50

26?... In my younger twenties I would rather buy a case of beer than a round of golf. Luckily now I'm able to afford both AND partake in both at the same time

28

In May of 2010 I took my very first swing with a golf club. It seemed like the ball went 50 yards straight and 100 yards right. Been hooked ever since.

29

Played as a kid but didn't really focus on the game and getting better till college and really till after. I'd give myself a 23 age

13 or 14. I would go out every now and then with my dad before, but only hit one or two drives.

I only picked it up after everyone besides me had a growth spurt and i couldn't keep up in basketball anymore

I was 12. My dad bought me a set of clubs at a garage sale. I cannot remember the brand but they had fiberglass shafts.

8. Stopped at 18.

Started again from 26-28.

Then again at 35.


Good question. About to get my daughter into lessons. She's 5.

my brother bought my first set at garage sale for $1 when I was about 8...started playing 9/18 holes year or so after. First tournament when I was 12.

16, when I finally realized I wasn't that good at baseball. Really glad I picked up the game when I did, but I wish I would have started younger.

23, which was 3 years ago. Wish I would've started much earlier. Lowered my handicap down to a 12 from a 20 starting out. Played college baseball, batted left handed, play golf right handed. Only clubs at the house growing up were my Dad's (righty). Basically self taught.

You and your kind (naturally gifted athletes) make me sick.

Picked it up when I was in college, so 21. Played semi-consistently throughout college, stop for three years afterwards, then picked it back up last spring. Wished I had learned when I was younger just so I'd have the baseline in it.

Played maybe 1-2 times a year starting around junior high. I really took it up after graduating college, so 22.

18-Starting the spring of my senior year in highschool. Needed another outlet of competition after sports ended. I've been unbelievably addicted ever since the first time I hit a crisp iron.

25ish. Struggled for about 18 months and started to figure it out breaking 100, then 90. I've leveled off around 82 and just haven't broken through to keep it in the 70s. Getting a little mifffed that I can't shave those last 3-4 strokes off and know it is all mental.

Need that last little spark to get me over the final hump. Don't play or practice enough to shoot low, just want to push under 80 more often.

I know that even at 82 I'm still ahead of the vast majority of golfers, but with athletic ability and chipping/putting skills, it pisses me off that I can't string it all together.

11.

And I still suck.

6 - played sparingly with my dad through high school as i was in football and baseball. He taught me a great swing and it set me up to improve rapidly afterwards. Played 5 days a week summer after high school and went from shooting 95 down to breaking 80 a few times that summer. Continued to play every now and again in college and didnt get worse or better. Only when i started working shift work when i was single did i drop my handicap down from 10 to 2.7 and broke par a few times along with some 72's and 73's in some tourneys. Married, got a dog, bought a house and im right back to 75 to 85. Not getting worse but with no time to practice im not getting any better.

6...played on high school team...wasn't good enough to play college...but at A&M I would play with the Aggie golf team...I could hit it just as far...but not as straight...

6. Played all my life. Got really competitive and started playing my best once I gave up on my baseball dream after 2 years of Jr college. Flirted with the mini tours for about a year then realized I better find something I could actually make money doing. Been a golf course Superintendent since graduating in 06.

Took up golf when I was 27.

I never played prior to that because I played four sports growing up....football, basketball, baseball, track and field. Golf was a sissy sport, according to peer pressure.

It took a friend who played football at Baylor to get me to go out to the golf course, he was good at both sports and is a club pro now. While I wasn't great at the 4 sports mentioned above, they came naturally to me, I never had a problem making the team and I was fairly decent at some of them. Of the kids who were cut on the first day of tryouts, I never understood how some guys could be as bad and inept as they were. When I picked up a golf club for the first time, I became that guy. I'm a lot better at golf now than I was, but still not "good". It was and still is the hardest thing I've ever attempted. But I love it.

5

35

Started fooling around with my mom's set when I was 5 out in the pasture. Dad took me to the course when I was 8 to play my first round, shot 93. Have never shot over that since. Played junior golf in Houston during the summers with the HGA. Played high school golf won some tournaments, but played baseball in College. Now I'm 40 and wish I would have taken the golf route in College, lol!

32

6 or 7?

8. Bc my dad played.

18, summer before my freshman year at TLU. Became really good friends with a girl on the golf team there and played lots of free golf at Starcke Park

First played at about 12 but never consistently until my first job post-A&M (23). My boss liked to play and I was a serviceable cart partner. Played quite a bit in grad school (28). Then only off and on until I got to Florida (39). I played there probably 100 rounds/year and got from a 20 something to a 10. Now probably a 14-15. Seattle sucks.

21...played Juco baseball in Temple and we have a 9 hole course on campus and that's where it all started!!