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.
By the eighties, I was no longer just a gifted pharmaceutical research scientist, but I had developed an alter ego in the guise of an avid golf nut trying to break the elusive PAR barrier. The old hickories were stolen and were replaced by a boxed set of clubs from Sears. I kept those clubs until the move to the Carolinas in the Nineties. Then, the clubs changed to King Cobra, Taylor Made and finally to Ping. I played with steel shafts until Christmas 2000.
An 18-hole Par 3 was located one mile from my house. I would walk to the course every day and play one round in the morning, one round after lunch and one round after dinner. I was in golf heaven, because on the weekends there were golf courses all over the place, locally, anywhere within the state, from Myrtle Beach to Hilton Head and many other surrounding states.
One of my special moments on a golf course was when I was able to visit, not play, the Pebble Beach Golf Course. I was fortunate enough to take a prize photograph of the 10th hole overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
I have also been a volunteer at many LPGA, Nationwide and PGA golf events performing the tasks of - score keeper, practice range attendant, ball spotter, and kiosk attendant.
My home course is The Traces located in Florence SC. My USGA handicap has been as low as 18, but has steadily climbed to a career high of 27 since an injury in December 2005. The lowest score that I have shot at The Traces is 87 for 18 holes. Although my handicap has crept up, I have done very well in the "one putt" pool.
My current goals are to
- play at least one round of golf at each course on the Grand Strand
- get the names of Althea Gibson and Ann Gregory on the ballot for entry into the World Golf Hall of Fame