It Costs To Golf

I'm in the worst shape of my life.  I admit it and am fully aware of it.  I am almost embarrassed at how out of shape I am these days.  When I was younger I was a very active person... I would regularly play basketball, football, tennis and go mountain biking.  Now, for the past 5-10 years, essentially since I had children, I have been nothing but a slug.  I may go biking once or twice a summer and living in Fargo, it is usually a leisurely ride because it is so flat.  A few years ago a friend of mine and I made an effort to play tennis once a week and we did for an entire summer...hot or cold.  But the following summer we played a couple of times and then gave it up ... he moved to the other end of town and trying to find a place and a time we could meet up to play was becoming difficult.

And here's the deal...I would love to get back into shape but I have never been a guy that likes to just exercise...sure, I did run cross-country and track, but now-a-days running just doesn't appeal to me anymore.  And I really don't want to get into shape, per se, but I just want to get off my ass and do something.  I am a fairly tightly wound person and any activity at all would be good.  So that's where the first hurdle that presented itself in my quest to do "something".  I wanted to find an activity I could do that I would enjoy, give me some exercise and that winning and losing really didn't matter...just getting out and having some fun would be the priority. 

After some thought, I came up with the notion to start playing golf...again.  I use to play golf when I was young and the last "official" round of golf I had, I played even par on the local 9-hole course...that was in 1988.  So I wasn't too bad, but I played that course every day of every summer for a decade.  After that summer the course was being upgraded to a 18 hole course, the greens fees more than tripled and my parents no longer could afford for us to golf there and thus ended my golfing career...at that time.  So I thought to myself, why not get back into golf?  It is a leisurely sport and I have several friends that play...none of which claim to be an ace at.  So I have started to begin my quest to get back into golfing...and am finding out how much money I am going to have to spend just to play again and was a bit shocked at the fees...

There are plenty of golf courses in the region, so I am sure I will hit up the 'low-rent" courses, but I was stunned to see the green fees for some of these courses... $30+ to play a round of golf?  Holy cow!  Even $15+ to play on the nine-hole courses, to me, seem fairly expensive.  So I still want to start golfing, but my major concern is how much money is this going to cost me?  I've already determined to spend about $200-300 on clubs - which certainly won't be a set of clubs with any speciality...and figure about another $100 on other needed accessories to start out with...balls, tees, etc.  If I am going to spend all that money on equipment, I certainly don't want to see that stuff collecting dust...hell, living in the barren wasteland that I do, I will be lucky to golf 5 months out of the year the way it is and half of the days in those 5 months will suck...be too windy, too hot, too cold, rainy, etc...

I'm also leary as to whether or not I will enjoy the game like I once did.  When I previously golfed on a regular basis I was a teenager with minimal responsibilities.  I would golf twice a day in the summer just because I would have nothing better to do.  Also, back then  it was a simpler time...people weren't dicks like they are today.  I can already foresee myself getting into some disagreement with someone because I wouldn't be playing "properly" for them.  But I am hoping that if I play the "poor" courses the people there are more forgiving.

So there's my objective...I am a procrastinator and have gotten into mode of laziness...I know just buying the equipment won't be enough to start playing but I hope to take that first step soon...