When I got out of Northern Michigan...

When I got out of Northern Michigan University in 1969, I knew I was coming to California. I borrowed $300, packed up my goods, jumped in the car and, and I was on my way. I was going to teach math so I had sent some letters, and I got a teaching job in Torrance.

But, after I moved to San Diego, I did very little teaching. I was 22 when I got out of college, and I taught for seven years. I liked teaching, but for me the job was all discipline. Just getting the kids to sit in their seat and be quiet seemed to take most of my time and energy.

So I was looking for a career change and just trying to figure out what I could do. My girlfriend then was a clinical psychologist, and she said, “Why don’t you get a job in a hospital. It’s kind of a neat place, and you can help a lot of people.”

Then someone told me about the licensed vocational nurse degree offered at Grossmont College, so I went back to school. I worked at Grossmont Hospital for seven years as a LVN, starting out in the emergency room. After a couple of months, one of the supervisors suggested I apply for a job in the mental rehabilitation unit. That was more plain-clothes, one-on-one counseling. At one time, I was the charge person in the locked unit. We had a 12-bed intensive-care unit for people with severe mental problems.

During that time at the hospital, I met my wife. After we got married, we were going to visit her family over the summer and she said, “I know my dad’s going to ask you to play golf.”

Till then, I hadn’t played golf except maybe four or five times. So I said maybe I’ll give it a go. I was working at the hospital from 3 p.m. to midnight, so I started to play golf every day practically for the next three or four years. I’d get up at 7 in the morning and play, and on my days off, sometimes I’d play 36 holes. I’ve played the Torrey Pines Golf Course 300 to 400 times. I always tell people I played more golf in those first four years than 10 people play in a lifetime.

It’s such a challenge to hit a good golf shot and then to try to repeat it. It gives you this feeling of accomplishment, so you want to do it again. It’s a challenge on the golf course from the time you take the first swing to the time you finish. You can play the same golf course, and it’s different the next time. Your ball is not in the same spot. You have a different club or a different kind of lie.

I think the attraction of golf was the challenge. Plus it was a release for me from the schizophrenics and manic depressives I encountered in my job at the hospital.

Then, after about seven years at the hospital I was ready for another change. I really didn’t want to get a registered nurse degree, so I started searching for something else to do. Somehow I heard about the San Diego Golf Academy.

They have a two-year program where they turned out golf pros. Some people go to the academy to become touring pros, but mostly the school is designed to give you training in golf course management. I gradually phased out my job at the hospital and I started helping to teach group lessons at the Surf & Turf Driving Range in Del Mar.

After a stint teaching at the De Anza Country Club in Borrego, I joined the staff at Del Mar. I’ve been able to help with the organization here because of my math background, and I also teach. I’ve probably taught over 1,000 beginners since I started here in April, 1987.

The biggest problem with my beginning students is they don’t practice, and they wonder why they can’t hit well. I tell them they have to hit thousands of golf balls.

When you get pretty good at golf, it’s almost all mental. When you have the fundamentals, you want to rely on your unconscious and visualize. You feel the wind against your face and you’re looking out across the course with the club in your hand, and you can almost see the kind of shot you want to hit. Then you just try to get up there and relax and swing and hit the ball. You don’t really think too much.

But, when you’re a beginner, you have to learn all these fundamentals. Sometimes you can hit a decent shot by luck. But to repeat it consistently you have to have sound fundamentals.

I teach a lot of beginners, male and female, ranging in age from 25 to 70, and I try to get them started off in the right direction. I’m so positive with them, I don’t let them get down emotionally. I tell them it takes a year to two years before they have some control to hit the ball where they want it to go. It’s like music lessons, you have to practice.

When I meet people, those who are golfers admire what I do because they know how difficult it is to play golf. People are also amazed when I tell them I’ve had three careers. But I get bored when something is not a challenge, and I look for something else. But you can’t create change alone. I appreciate the support I’ve had, first from my girlfriend and then from my wife. People help you along the way.

At first it’s a fearful thing to stop what you’re doing and do something new. For me, the fear was trying to figure out what it is I wanted to do. Once I was clear about what I wanted to do, I could go ahead and do it.