{"id":6,"date":"2026-05-06T03:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T03:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flyingbirdiegolf.com\/?p=6"},"modified":"2026-05-06T03:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T03:05:00","slug":"why-i-started-golf-at-38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flyingbirdiegolf.com\/?p=6","title":{"rendered":"Why I Started Golf at 38"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I was never a golfer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Growing up, I played basketball and soccer. I loved sports, competition, training, and working out. Golf was never really on my radar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That changed last September. Just 8 months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My wife\u2019s aunt and uncle visited us in Toronto from Korea. They were absolute golf fanatics. Out of the three weeks they stayed with us, they wanted to golf almost every single day \u2014 except for the five days they flew to Alberta to see the Rockies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They asked me to help book tee times all over the Greater Toronto Area. Cheap courses. Expensive courses. Public courses. Bougie courses. Everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They also invited me to join them, along with my mother-in-law, which made us a group of four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was my first real golf experience on a proper golf course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Technically, it wasn\u2019t my very first exposure to golf ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I grew up in Vancouver, so over the years I had casually tried driving ranges and pitch-and-putt courses here and there. I had also done screen golf with friends whenever I visited Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But honestly, I was terrible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I never took golf seriously, and I definitely didn\u2019t think it was a sport I would ever get into long-term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Korea, there is a funny expression people say when they bring someone golfing for the very first time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\uba38\ub9ac \uc138\uc6cc\uc92c\ub2e4\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It literally translates to something like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey stood your hair up for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Weird translation, I know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But culturally, it basically means someone introduced you to the world of golf for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At that point, I had absolutely no idea how golf bookings worked, so I downloaded the GolfNow app to figure things out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For our first day, I booked Kirby Links, an 18-hole par-3 course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Haha\u2026rookie mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My wife\u2019s aunt and uncle thought it was too easy and were already bored by the end of the round, but honestly, I had an amazing time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By around hole 9, my forearms were already hurting because I was trying to crush the ball with all my strength every swing. I had no understanding of tempo, technique, or how effortless good golfers actually make the game look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That first round also became my introduction to golf etiquette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They taught me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>where to stand<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>when to stay quiet<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>how to respect pace of play<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>how to repair divots and ball marks<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>basic golf manners<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>They also explained how golf culture in Canada is much more relaxed compared to Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Korea, golf can feel much more formal, strict, and status-oriented. In Canada, the atmosphere felt more casual and welcoming, especially for beginners like me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why did I love it so much?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Honestly, it was everything around the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was the perfect fall weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blue skies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Birds chirping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fresh green grass everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Being outside for hours without looking at my phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coming from years of busy schedules, airports, flights, and city life, the golf course almost felt peaceful in a strange way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the thing that really hooked me was the sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That clean \u201cpop\u201d sound after a perfectly struck golf ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hearing it echo across the course for the first time felt unbelievably satisfying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even as a complete beginner, I immediately understood why people become obsessed with golf\u2014I understood what people meant by \u201ccatching the \u201cGolf Bug\u201d.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Right after finishing all 18 holes, they immediately asked me to find another course. I guess 18 holes at a par 3 course was slightly disappointing to them. Again, I honestly thought it was great! Now that I know a slightly bit more about golf, I\u2019d go there to practice my short game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Luckily, I found an opening at Uplands Golf &amp; Ski Club about 30 minutes later, which worked out perfectly because it took almost exactly that long to drive there from Kirby Links. Now, Uplands\u2026that place was another level. We had thought we wouldn\u2019t need a cart as we didn\u2019t need one at Kirby Links so we just got one for my wife\u2019s aunt and my mother in law. I was wrong. I should have paid attention to the.. \u201cSki Resort\u201d part at Upland Golf AND Ski Resort. The place was hilly as hell. Imagine how I had felt for the uncle. Hahaha. \u201cAura Loss -100\u201d (I think my 9 year old son would approve of using this phrase at this appropriate moment).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was basically the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then, golf has slowly become more than just a random hobby I picked up later in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now I want to improve. It\u2019s only been 8 months since my first green. But I have to say, I was hooked after I hit that one good fluke ass shot that made the ball go pop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> But now I want to break 100. Consistently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Play courses around the world during layovers\u2014 which I plan to make a YouTube series about \u201cGolfing in (insert city) during my 24hr layover\u201d (I\u2019m a flight attendant\u2014 been one for almost 16years). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Experience golf culture in different countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And document the entire journey along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m still terrible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But maybe that\u2019s the fun part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was never a golfer. Growing up, I played basketball and soccer. I loved sports, competition, training, and working out. Golf was never really on my radar. That changed last September. Just 8 months ago. My wife\u2019s aunt and uncle visited us in Toronto from Korea. They were absolute golf fanatics. Out of the three [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-why-i-started-golf-at-38"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why I Started Golf at 38 - FlyingBirdieGolf<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flyingbirdiegolf.com\/?p=6\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why I Started Golf at 38 - FlyingBirdieGolf\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was never a golfer. 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