Throughout my high school and college life, I often thought about the game of golf, but it wasn't very positive. I fluctuated between the thought that it was a stupid game for people who didn't possess much athletic ability, or the fact that I thought I would never be able to control a little white ball accurately enough to get it into a hole 400 yards away.

This last Tuesday, I became a golfer. Perhaps that is a strong statement to make - it might offend some true golfers. Let me try again.  Last Tuesday, I played golf for the first time (that is a little more accurate).

I've been interested in the game for most of my adult life, and though I had convinced myself that the first of those two comments above was wrong, I still doubted my ability to hit that little ball.

I went to a garage sale a couple months ago and bought a set of golf clubs for $25.00. It seemed like a decent, cheap set, and I was going to try to sell them on e-bay for two or three times what I paid for them. They sat around in my garage, week after week, as I contantly forgot to put them online.

Then, I went to a real estate event at the Grand Harbor community in Greenwood, SC (actually Ninety Six, SC). Two friends decided to play golf, given a free pass to play on the GORGEOUS course, and I tagged along to drive the golf cart and socialize.

It was that point that I got the bug. My vision of golf was people hitting par the majority of the time, but these two guys showed me that golf can be fun even if you aren't great at it.

I took one of my friends to a driving range, hit several balls, and decided to give it a try. So, last Tuesday, I loaded up my former e-bay golf clubs, met my friend Scott at a course, and played. I shot a 56... but then we started the back nine. My total score was 111, but I had a blast, hit SEVERAL good drives, and learned that putting and chipping aren't as easy as Tiger makes it look.

The highlight of the day? On the last hole, a par 3, I hit a tee shot with my trusty 3 wood, and landed it on the green!  What a way to end the day!  For those of you more experienced golfers (which would be ALL of you who've played golf, I wager), that may not be such a huge highlight, but for me, it caused a grin from ear to ear.

FORE!