My favorite thing to do outside of school is playing golf. I started playing when I was in middle school, but it was never really a priority for me. Throughout the majority of middle and high school, my time has been spent at school. I have been part of the Theatre program at The King’s Academy for years, and being in shows and doing concerts and showcases has always taken up most of my time. Even though I wanted to get better at golf, I never really had time. Eventually, my clubs ended up getting placed into the garage, where they spent months at a time without being used.

The number of times I used my first set of clubs could be counted on one hand. When I was first gifted my clubs, I took them out to the driving range and tried my best to figure out how to hit decently. However, I did not anticipate how difficult learning how to hit a ball with a stick would be. I had assumed that as long as I swung the club hard enough, the ball would somehow make it into the air and really far. When I discovered that playing was not as easy as I thought it would be, I did not hesitate to give up. I decided that gold just was not for me and that my clubs did not need to be used. From that point on, my clubs were only taken out every time I would try to convince myself it was easy, and then the cycle would continue. Overall, I probably started and gave up playing golf about 8 times over the course of middle and high school.

Although I had never intended to return to playing golf, the pandemic hit, and suddenly finding new hobbies was the only thing that I was interested in. Throughout quarantine, I got heavily involved in various hobbies. Anything that could keep me occupied was worth my time. Distracting myself from the pandemic and my fast-approaching senior year was my main priority. Even though I had never really considered golf as a hobby I would be interested in picking up, I noticed that my dad was spending a lot more time learning more about the sport. I quickly caught onto him and realized that it would be worth a shot to take another stab at golf.

When things finally began to open back up, my family got a membership at a golf course. Considering both of my parents are now retired, and all my dad really does is golf, getting a membership seemed like an advantageous idea. I took it upon myself to ask my dad if I could come with him when he went to practice on the driving range. Naturally, my dad was very excited that I had finally taken an interest in golf again so he was more than willing to bring me with him. Once again, I was horrible at it, but this time I had the drive to improve.

I now take lessons as often as I can, and any spare time I have is spent on the golf course. When I can I will play 9 or 18 holes with my dad, but when I do not have the time to play a game I will definitely be on the driving range. Over the course of two and half months, I have been able to go from not being able to make contact with the ball, to having an average drive of 170yrds. I plan to continue playing golf as a hobby in college, and hopefully for the rest of my life.