M. Mikell Johnson
My Golf Experiences
I began to play golf at an Executive Par 3 course in 1973. The pharmaceutical company where I was employed had a recreational program for the employees. There were many choices, I elected to play in the mixed bowling league and in the women’s golf group.
We were allowed to leave the site on Wednesday afternoon to go to the Par 3 which was located a couple of blocks from the site. We would play nine holes or 18 holes, if the daylight and weather were in our favor. The Par 3 was located across the highway from the Canoe Brook Golf Course which the United States Golf Association uses as a U.S. Open qualifying course. And, a few miles from the famed Baltustrol Golf Course where Jack Nicklaus won his first USGA major in 1967 and his last major in 1980. The area is immersed in golf history and is near the home of the United States Golf Association.
My first clubs were a set of "hand me downs" from the father of one of my colleagues. The set was a combination of assorted hickory shafted irons and woods. I carried them in an ecru "Sunday bag". The clubs were difficult to use because the wooden shafts were a mile long and sometimes snapped like rubber bands. It appeared as if they were like old hand made tools. After several months of whiffing the ball and digging up the fairway, I became enamored with the game of golf. The motivating factors were that the game could be played with a group or played solo. Either way, the player had to be honest with the scores and play the course. It did not make too much sense to tell lies to yourself.
