How to Convince Someone to Take Up Golf

My golf club recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. It was a fun day. We played a fourball Texas scramble over nine holes, followed by a barbecue and a disco - and dozens of people attended.

It helped that the weather played ball, which meant that we were able to sit outside until around 10pm. While we were sitting chewing the fat I looked over to the practice putting green and there was a father with his son, who could have been no more than three years old. The boy had a tiny, cut-down putter and he was having the time of his life hitting balls.

Golf is For Life

And there, in a nutshell is why golf is such a fantastic game. If you can catch them at the right age they have a sport they can play for life. Who knows? If you get them into golf early enough you may well have the next Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy on your hands. Or indeed the next Nelly Korda or Charley Hull.

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I was introduced to golf by my grandfather as a five-year-old and have played the game on and off ever since. I am now retired and still love chasing that little white ball around the course, still dreaming of improving, still looking for the career shots, for the perfectly-struck drives, for the next hole in one, for the best gross score of my life.

Why wouldn’t you play golf? There is no other sport quite like it. 

If you play football, tennis or rugby (union or league), there will come a time when your body lets you down, when you can no longer compete with fitter, younger players.

Of course, as we age we do not hit the golf ball as far as we did in our prime but that is the beauty of the handicap system - it allows us to be competitive for as long as we play the game.

And when our bodies start to let us down, we can start using an electric trolley or a buggy to get around. We have many seniors at Dunston Hall Golf Club over the age of 80 who are still incredibly competitive and contribute hugely to the golf club.

Engage With Nature & Other People

It is a sport that can be played all year round. We get to play on tree-lined courses where nature abounds. We get to play alongside like-minded people and when we join a club we get the chance to meet new people and make friends for life. Walk round any golf course and you will hear laughter and chatter. Head into the bar after your round and you will see groups of men and women reliving the rounds they have just played.

Walk in Footsteps of Golfing Heroes

And in what other sport do mere mortals have the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of our heroes? Amateur footballers can only dream about playing at Wembley, Old Trafford or the Nou Camp. Do you know any club tennis player who ever walked out at Wimbledon or Melbourne Park? Or a rugby player who had the chance to bestride the turf at Twickenham or the Millennium Stadium?

But as golfers we can play the Old Course, Carnoustie, Royal Lytham, Pebble Beach, Kiawah Island, Royal Portrush. We can stand over a golf ball and hit it from the same spot that McIlroy, Woods, Scottie Scheffler et al have done. The results might not be quite the same, but that’s not the point.

Getting Others Into Golf

I have been lucky enough to have introduced several people to golf and they all became hooked on the game in the blink of an eye. My wife had always wanted to play so I got her some clubs, arranged some lessons, spent hours with her on the driving range and finally took her out on the course. I will never forget the elation she felt when she made her first ever par.

And then there was the work colleague who had spent his youth playing football and went on to manage a local team. He became fed up with the politics. He hated the abuse he took when certain players were dropped. After a long conservation over a pint of beer I finally persuaded him to give golf a try. We headed to a deserted playing field and I showed him the basics. Initially it was not pretty but then he caught one out of the sweet spot - and then another. And another.

He began with a set of cheap second-hand clubs and joined me at our local municipal course. And, surprise, surprise, it wasn’t long before he had booked lessons and bought new clubs. He was bitten by the golf bug and his handicap soon began to tumble.

As a senior golfer I am struck by the number of men who turned to golf upon retiring from full-time employment. My club also has a number of seniors who still work part-time but play a couple of times a week. These are individuals who may have played a couple of times a year but now recognise what a wonderful game this sport of ours really is. And they all have one thing in common - they regret not applying themselves to our sport at an earlier age.

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