English Major Golfer

Welcome to my blog – English Major Golfer.

My golf journey began my freshman year of college at Lenoir-Rhyne College (now University) in Hickory, NC. I was on the baseball team and my freshmen teammates required me to complete their four-some at Hampton Heights Golf Course, a nine-holer very near to campus.

They gave me a set of clubs to use and for eight holes, I attempted a baseball-golf hybrid swing. I have no memory of most of the round until the ninth hole where my tee shot found the fairway. I don’t recall the distance to the hole just that I was told to use a 9 iron. I did. The contact of the club to the ball was solid and it flew high and right at the pin. It disappeared as it approached the landing and then I saw (or what I thought I saw or imagined) the ball bouncing in the parking lot.

I yelled a loud expletive! Disappointed that I missed the green and terrified that I may be paying for someone’s windshield – one of my teammates yelled back at me:

“What are you mad at you idiot, you put it in the hole!”

Dumbfounded and in disbelief, I ran to the hole hoping my teammate was right and there it was…my first ever Eagle (which at the time I didn’t even know what to call it).

I was hooked.

For the next 30 years, my relationship with golf has been a range of obsession to disdain and dread. Most of my experience has been recreational aside from a 10 year span of a family tournament that took on a life of its own. (That’s a WHOLE story for another post.) The thought of competitive golf always intrigued and terrified me.

I tried twice to get into tournament play. My first was a bit later in college after transferring to UNCC and working as a cart attendant at Eastwood Golf Course (like Hampton Heights, is now the site for condos). My game was in pretty good shape at the time, shooting regularly in the low 90’s-high 80’s. I got to the par 3, 13th and was playing well. The tee shot required a carry of about 120 yards over water. I put 3 balls in the water and 4 putted for a 10.

I don’t remember anything else from the day except the feeling of complete humiliation. It was scarring. It took me years before I tried again. And to this day, I have no memory of THAT event either except an entry in my golf journal:

7/29/2000 – Deer Brook Golf Club – Carolina Blond Tour (which is now Golf Week Amateur Tour) – score: 96.

For me a 96 indicates it was not a good day, thus no memory of the round.

So it would take another 20 years and a pandemic for me to decide to make a run at competitive golf again – for real.

Since 2020, I have been putting my game back together and attempting to take it to another level. I joined the Golf Week Amateur Tour and I am currently in the A Flight (hc 4-8.9).

These last 3 years have shown me a lot about the game itself and about me – my best and my worst of me.

Because at my core, I am a writer, informer and teacher, I can’t stop myself from wanting to share my experiences; what bit of wisdom I have developed; and the observations of the most difficult sport on the planet.