Club pros share their love of golf
Walking six miles in four hours to hit a small ball with a variety of sticks into a hole may seem absurd to some people.
But for others, all it takes is one good swing of the club to become hooked on golf.
Joe Boros, the pro at the Treesdale Golf and Country Club in Adams and Pine townships, believes he knows why.
"I think it's that golf is the only sport that doesn't have a referee or an umpire," he said. "You have to call penalties on yourself."
Boros, 44, lives in Saxonburg with his wife, Suze, and their two children. He grew up Emlenton and didn't play his first round of golf until seventh grade. And nobody in his family played, either."They needed people to try out for the golf team," Boros said. "I'd never played, but I got out of class, so tried out."Soon he was a member at Foxburg Country Club down the Allegheny River in Foxburg, where he would have his mother drop him off in the morning. He would sometimes play as many as 72 holes — that's four rounds of golf — in a day.Boros played through high school and then for Clarion University on scholarship.After graduating, he decided he was good enough to try to make golf his life and livelihood and joined the professional minitours.Then, after hurting his back, Boros started work as a club pro at the Pittsburgh Field Club in 1989 and stayed for nine years. In 1997, Boros joined Treesdale's staff.Recently, Boros went back to Clarion University, where he was inducted into the school's Sports Hall of Fame."I was inducted with wrestlers and football players, and all I can say is that they aren't wrestling or playing football anymore," he said. "In fact, they're all taking up golf."
Unlike Boros, Paul Hollstein's exposure to golf began much earlier.It was a family sport, played by his father, mother, sister and brother."I started playing at age 10, 42 years ago," he said. "We played before it became the family game it is now."Hollstein played junior golf at Avonworth High School and then for Westminster College in New Wilmington.After graduation and jobs at other golf courses, Hollstein was hired by Butler Country Club in Penn Township.As club pros, both Hollstein and Boros wear "many hats," as Hollstein said, including course management, running pro shops, organizing events and, perhaps the most important to golfers — teaching golf.
Boros and Hollstein recommend new players take a few lessons with a club pro and spend time on the driving range before charging onto a course.Hollstein said the first thing he might do is take a new player to lunch and talk about golf.Boros likes to get at least one club in the player's hands and make sure it is the right fit, such as being the right length."The first three things I would recommend a new player do is to first go to a driving range or a golf course or country club, talk to the pro, swing some clubs, but don't buy anything right then," Boros said.Next, Boros said pick out a club — he recommends a 7-iron. Swing it, hit a few balls and see if you like it."If you do, then before you buy clubs get them fitted to make sure you have the right ones," he said.Hollstein said he'd like to see golfers start playing sooner than later, age-wise that is."Start early with conditioning and lessons, as well as getting out and hitting some balls," he said. "You need to graduate to the course itself."
