Here’s what Golfinity coaches had to say.

Coach Aaron

Golf Journey began: 9 or 10 years old

“My childhood best friend got a set of clubs from his grandfather in Wisconsin, an old set of Gene Sarazen irons. There was a golf course about a mile and a half from our house, so we went to the driving range to try out his clubs, and we fell in love with golf. We used to go to soccer fields together at a nearby elementary school and hit golf balls there illegally with those same clubs.

I was a big baseball player, and golf was always second to baseball. There was this kind of evolution where I liked baseball less and I liked golf more. Eventually the scale tipped. I was 14 when I had to make a decision about it because at my high school, baseball and golf were in the same season. So I decided to do golf. I was the last person picked on my golf team. This was back when they used to post the roster of who made the team on the coach’s door outside the classroom. I went to the portable and saw nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing [scrolled the list from top to bottom]…. Aaron Bergman. If I had not made it, I would have gone out for the baseball team. For further context – I was picked as the last man on the golf team my freshman year, and by my senior year, I was the top man on the team.”

Coach David

Golf Journey began: 14 years old

“I was originally in junior high football. I realized a year before my freshman year of high school that I hated it. I was an offensive lineman even though I only weighed like 110 pounds. There was this one moment I remember where this guy grabbed my shoulder pads and went boom, boom, BOOM [slammed their helmets together] … and that was just it. I was DONE.

So there was a golf course less than a mile from my house that I had never been to. The summer before my freshman year of high school, my parents dropped me off there to go to the pool, and there was a junior golf camp going on. I left the pool and went over to the camp, and from that day forward I became a golfer. I spent every day that summer at the golf course. From then on when I wasn’t working or in school, I was playing golf.

I think I averaged about a 49 my freshman year of high school and about 42 my sophomore year. Then my junior year I was averaging par. As a junior and senior I went to State.”

Coach Nicholas

Golf Journey began: Early 20s

“I started playing the game as a way to connect with my friends. We had lost touch through college, and upon our return to Houston, the options for hangouts were bars or golf courses. I choose golf. They were all experienced players and I was a beginner with a huge slice. We would have heated competitions, and they cunningly withheld valuable information about the club face and its effect on ball flight!

After years of trying to figure out the game, I started to unpack some of the secrets. I valued what the game had to offer me as a person. It presented me with opportunities for personal growth that I found to be imperative for a sound mind and spirit on and off the course. I am thankful to my childhood friends for opening the door to this game that is so mysterious and beautiful. Golf is not the most important thing in my life, but it sets the stage for me to ask and discover what is in all of the most profound ways.”

Coach Cody

Golf Journey began: 18 months old

“I got introduced to golf by my dad because he played in tournaments, like senior tournaments because he was an older guy. Deep down I think he wanted me to be a little Tiger or something. He always claimed he took me to the course when I was 18 months old, that I was in diapers on the golf course with him. I was a pretty good junior golfer. Then I got burnt out when I was like 11. I think it was a little bit because I was pushed too hard by my dad growing up.

But then I found it [golf] again in high school. He [Dad] was all happy like – Heck, yeah! Let’s do it! He didn’t push me though after that. He was like – I’m gonna let you go and do your thing, and we can go and enjoy golf together.”

Coach Mason

Golf Journey began: 2 years old

“My dad took me to the course when I was 2 years old. I don’t remember much about it, but I do know I was 2. I picked up a club for the first time when I was 3, but I didn’t start playing competitively though until I was about 13. I started golf lessons when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I played Select Baseball, and as I golfed more and more, I slowly grew to love it most.”