This is a very good thread. I enjoy reading about how others developed their games…especially ones who have competed at various levels.
I started playing when I was 3 or 4 years old. My dad cut down an old persimmon and a couple of irons and I would hit them around the yard. When I got a little older he would take me to the course and I would ride in the cart and hit a few balls here and there. The 4th hole was about 140 yards and had about a 100 yard carry over a small pond and I always liked trying to drive it over the water, but I never could because I was too little.
I lost interested in golf when I was around 8. I played basketball and baseball and then eventually gave up basketball. I loved baseball and thought it was the only real sport. I was a good hitter and loved pitching. I think I was 11 or 12, my last year in little league before I had to move up in the age group, when I threw my arm out throwing curve balls. My right elbow would hurt so bad after a few pitches that I couldn’t stand it. To this day I can only throw about 10 hard pitches before it’s too painful to keep throwing.
After I hurt my arm I lost interest in baseball too. I loved pitching and didn’t want to play if I couldn’t. My dad was playing a lot of golf so I eventually asked him if I could go. I started going with him and played horribly, but had fun. I just took a big baseball swing at it and tried to hit the ball as hard as I could. I learned pretty fast that I was putting out a lot of effort to hit a 150 yard sliced drive, so I decided I would teach myself a better way.
My family moved to a golf course when I was 13 and I continued to practice. I played in the club championship the first year we lived there and I shot 112-106. Surprisingly it wasn’t last place, but close enough and I was embarrassed and ashamed of my scores. I continued to play and chip and putt slot and I shot in the mid to high 90s the next club championship. Everyone thought it was amazing that I could improve 10 shots or so in a year, but I was still mad at myself. I thought I had put in a lot of effort and I was disappointed. I decided to really focus on golf and that’s when my obsession with the swing started.
I bought every golf book and magazine I could and read every word and looked at every picture put out by the “top 10” instructors at the time. I didn’t take any lessons at first other than the summer golf camp type things at the local courses. I just read books and looked at pictures and tried to copy what I thought looked right. It didn’t take long to learn about Ben Hogan and he quickly became my idol. Hogan said the plane shifted out to the right in the downswing so I shifted it right and learned how to hit the ugliest push hook you’ve ever seen…but I practiced and got pretty good at playing my ballflight. I finished my 3rd club championship at 82-84.
I kept improving and eventually broke 80. I still think breaking 80 is the hardest thing to do in golf. It’s almost a right of passage to becoming a “real player” and I was so excited when I did it.
My junior year of high school was the first year I got to play full time on the high school team. We only played 9 hole matches and I thing my average for the season was 39 point something. The summer before my senior year I played a few junior Pepsi tour events and won my first tournament I’d ever won. I shot a 76 on a course I’d never played and won on the second playoff hole. My senior year scoring average was 37.2 and I tied for 2nd in the regional high school tournament with a 75. Our team won by 12 strokes. One of the highest ranked players in the state, who would eventually play with J.B. Holmes at the University of Kentucky, was in my group and shot 78 or something. I knew he didn’t play well at all, but I was proud that I beat him.
I played in the state high school tournament and probably played the best round I’d ever played in the first round. It was cold, windy, and raining and I started on hole 10, a par 3. I pulled my iron left of the green and got up and down for par. I made par on 2 and then had a disaster on 3. It was another par three and I landed on the front of the green and spun it back off. It rolled down into a hazard. I found my ball and it was sitting on a rock. I bladed it over the green and out of bounds. I dropped, chipped on, and three putted for a 7. Some how I pulled myself together and made 3 birdies on the front and eagled number 10 to go to one under. I was wet and cold and mentally exhausted from grinding out my score and finished with a 76. I was tied for 7th after the first round. My shoes were still soaked the next morning and the weather was just as bad as the first day. I think I shot 85 or something horrible to end my high school career.
I had hopes of playing professionally at some point if I could get my swing where I needed it. My dad had opened a golf retail store so I worked there and practiced as much as I could. I won a club championship shooting 73-75 the summer after I graduated high school. I also broke 70 for the first time when I three putted 18 for a 69. I shot another 69 my next round at a different course. I was playing with my dad both rounds so that made it extra special.
I moved south shortly after and got a job at a golf course. I was still playing well, but got a chance to play with done good college players and a few mini tour players and that opened my eyes real quick. I didn’t realize how far away my game was until I saw some of them hit the ball. My good rounds on an average 7000 yard course were around par give or take a stroke or two and their average rounds on the same courses were about 67. I got discouraged quickly.
Near the end of 2004 Hurricane Ivan hit near where I was living. I evacuated and came home. I started thinking about going back to school because I was tired of making minimum wage as a bag boy. After the hurricane was clear I went back, got my stuff, and moved back to KY. I went to school for a year for criminal justice and got lucky enough to get hired at a law enforcement agency a couple of months after my 21st birthday. I didn’t touch a golf club from the beginning of 2006 to 2009.
I started ABS in 2010 and hurt my right wrist on the bag. I took about 6 months off from ABS and then re-started it. I had a a few other setbacks, got busy with other things, and got married, so I’ve slacked big time with my practice. I decided to restate module 1 about a month ago and I’ve been doing my bag work every day. As soon as I can get a new camera in going to start sending Lag videos again.
I think ABS is great and reading through the LTLGM thread has taught me a lot of things and re-affirmed a lot of things that I thought were right, but had been told otherwise by the “top 10” swing gurus. Everything I’ve read from Lag makes so much sense and seems obvious when you read his explanations and thoughts. I’m very thankful for the Internet because it gives guys like Lag and Geoff Jones (Slicefixer) the opportunity to reach people they probably wouldn’t ever have reached. Ice gotten rid of every golf book with the exception of my Hogan stuff because everything I need is on this site.
Sorry for the long post. I hope to read some more of your stories.
) It’s been a long journey but I know I have become stronger because of it, not only in golf but in life. Now I’m planning on moving south after school in a year and seeing what I can do in this game. What a difference a year can make. I can’t thank you enough Lag, Two, LCD and all you guys. And thanks for starting this topic Alec, felt good to get that off my chest.
. I would love nothing more than to get to the US Am this year and show all the kids up here that I’ve still got a little game. Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it.