By Lisa “Longball” Vlooswyk

My husband, Anton, and I were late to golf.

Anton grew up in rural Alberta and nobody in his family played. When he graduated from university with an engineering degree, he started to get invited out to corporate and charity golf tournaments. He realized then that he was missing out on networking opportunities because he didn’t play the game.

In an effort to learn, he dragged me out to the local municipal courses or any others that we could afford to play back in our 20s. I had played the odd round with my dad when I was in junior high school but I didn’t have friends who golfed so it wasn’t something I became passionate about.

Then a funny thing happened. We both fell in love with golf.

Fun night last night at @Topgolf Scottsdale!🌵We tried driving range mode, target golf and 9 holes of Pebble Beach and St.Andrews! ⛳️ What a great way to spend family time! Awesome seeing the facility packed with all ages of golfers and all ability levels! It’s all about making… pic.twitter.com/3o6WCN1pGC

— Lisa Longball (@LisaLongball) April 15, 2023

In addition to Anton playing corporate golf with clients, customers and colleagues, we started playing recreationally.  We loved being outside in the fresh air and exploring the beauty of different courses across British Columbia and Alberta. Eventually, golf became a part of my career.

When we became parents, we were so excited to introduce our son, Luke, to our new passion.

We started like many parents do — with plastic clubs in the back yard that somehow end up in the living room too.  We brought Luke to the driving range with us. We made up games at the range trying to hit various targets. When he was little, our focus was not on our own practice, but about making those trips to the range fun for him.

When Luke started to improve, we took him out on the course. His two favourite things were riding in the golf cart and seeing the beverage cart come around. He thought it was amazing that someone brought drinks and snacks out to us on the course.

Luke’s attention span during those early years ranged anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Then he was done. Anton and I easily could have given up and just kept golf as our thing.  We could have hired a babysitter when we went out to play or planned a play date with one of Luke’s friends.

But both my husband and I saw the value of golf far beyond fairways and greens. We were aware it taught integrity and honesty. That it is about resilience. That, as in life, there are good breaks and bad breaks and how you handle both is very important.

That it teaches humility. That just when you think you “have it” you lose it. That it is a game at which you are always trying to improve.

That golf is wonderfully social. That it is about sharing, talking, celebrating the good shots and laughing off the bad ones. That it is a fantastic way to connect with people and get to know them on a personal level.

Most importantly, we saw golf as the perfect family sport. We could play it at home or on holidays. We could play together regardless of ability with no phones or distractions. We saw golf as a wonderful way to spend quality time with Luke, particularly as he entered his teenage years.

For all of those reasons and more, we persisted.

When we played golf as a family, we played a scramble. We would all hit our tee shots from the appropriate tee box and then Luke could pick mom’s drive or dad’s drive. He would hit his second shot from there and would get to pick again and again until he holed out. This kept our pace of play up and made it a fun game throughout the round.

We had Luke tee up his ball in the fairway when his driver was going less than 100 yards. He loved hitting driver — driver, driver, driver, a short chip and a couple of putts.

We invited his buddies out to play with us.  They had fun learning together and would start their own games within a game.

The turning point for Luke with golf was when his hockey teammates started asking him to play. He had experience with the game already because of his many trips to the course with us, but once his friends picked up the game, he just loved teeing it up with them.

As a parent, nothing made me happier than dropping four boys off at the golf course and picking them up five hours later. They took pull carts or would carry and had money for the snack shack. Instead of sitting in a dark basement gaming, these boys were out in the fresh air, socializing and being active. My heart swelled when I pulled up to the course, watched the last player putt out on 18, and saw the boys remove their hats and shake hands.

Had an amazing time playing this past weekend at my home course @HeritagePointe_ ! Golf is such an AWESOME family sport! Devices are put away and it’s a perfect opportunity to catch up, laugh and chat! ❤️⛳️ pic.twitter.com/cmGDjdOuSb

— Lisa Longball (@LisaLongball) September 13, 2022

My husband and I are so glad we introduced Luke to golf. That we stuck with it even during those times when he didn’t have a lot of enthusiasm for it. That we never forced it on him, but always included him in our games. That he’s gotten to play with us and his grandparents — three generations on the golf course together. He’ll be a lifelong golfer now just like us, and we can’t wait for the day to be playing with him and his own kids.

Hopefully they will give their grandparents gimmies and mulligans.

Lisa “Longball” Vlooswyk is a Golf Town ambassador and eight-time Canadian Women’s Long Drive champion.