Starting Down the Path

Several months ago, I took my wife to a movie that was being shown in the auditorium at my company's headquarters. The movie was The Greatest Game Ever Played, which is about amateur golfer, Francis Ouimet, winning the 1913 US Open Championship. I absolutely loved the movie, and although I've been interested in golf for many years, for some reason, this movie captured my imagination, and I've been itching to play ever since.

I stepped into a local sporting goods store about a week later looking to buy a set of clubs. I was dismayed at the price tag: $399 for a starter set of clubs. I've come to find out that $399 is a decent price to pay, but I wasn't willing to pay that much to start out. Next I went to ebay, but after a bad deal with a laptop from China, I've been leary of online auctions. Finally, I did what I should have done from the beginning, and I froogled golf clubs. I found several sites that offer inexpensive golf equipment, but the site that topped them all was Golf Outlets USA. They feature knock-off clubs, which are great for starting out. If you've golfed for a while, you should probably bite the bullet and purchase some name-brand clubs. I finally settled on a set by Confidence Golf that included all that I would need to start out. Driver, 3 Wood to 5 Wood, 3 Iron-Pitching Wedge, and of course a putter. It came in a nice stand bag and only cost $109 ($140 after shipping and insurance). There was one additional cost... I had to get my wife a new digital camera, which cost $199. It was her bargain for letting me get clubs. Oh well, small price to pay for what I hope will be a lifetime of enjoyment.

The day the clubs arrived, I went to the local driving range. For the price of a burger at Carls Jr., I was able to slice 50 balls, and realize that I have a ton of work to do to even be able to hit the ball straight.

I learned a few great lessons from the experience: do your research before making a purchase. If I had insisted on getting Calaway, Taylor Made, Titlesit, Ping, Cleveland or some other big-name brand clubs, I would have gone to the course and hit the ball exactly like I did with a set of generic clubs. I also learned that watching Tiger Woods on television does not mean you can hit the ball like him. I decided that I needed to get some lessons, but being the cheapskate that I am, I decided to get lessons from friends before opening my checkbook, but I'll tell you about that in my next post. Until then, Chris (NexTiger).