My name is Tyler Kelly and I fell in love with this game in October of 2023, I’m just another guy in the middle of nowhere who works hard but work isn’t all that’s meant in this life so I set out to teach myself a new skill/hobby. I spent every single day watching training videos and film of old competitions just trying to learn what I can of this beautiful game. I even bought the newest PS5 games just so I could hands on break down and see how every step of this thing works. The local range opened up that following January and I felt confident enough to take my dad’s old clubs out there and see what I could do. Every single day I would go out there and hit 500-800 balls just trying to replicate what I saw the pros do in the videos I’d been watching for months. I kept that up every day like clock work until February 22nd, I’d just gotten through a very promising interview to the local Casino that was set to open in the following months, I got to the range and there wasn’t a single car there so I figured no better time to get my first career round in like now, and even though I didn’t fully know what even the tee box was I didn’t have a single fear and never did I lose my smile and I’ve held onto that same hope and feeling into every single round I play to this day. And I know that sounds so much easier than done but I’m a 25 year old in the middle of Indiana who wasn’t even been playing 2 years, I’m not a pro, every single swing is a learning lesson to me. Now with me being self tough it has been really hard to make friends that also golf so I’ve joined Facebook groups and that’s helped me to get about 20 rounds in with other players, and maybe 3 months after I joined I finally got my first playing parter and we met up at the nicest course we have in town which would be Idle Creek Golf Course (October 29th, 2024 day of Hole In One) and we had a great round! It was coming to an end so I wasn’t putting to much thought into the 18th tee, I saw it was a dog leg left over the trees but I knew I could clear them so I just let it rip, we didn’t hear any trees so we knew I was in the clear but my partner shanked his shot to the right. We drive up, play his ball, and he ends up about 18 yards short of the green. We drive up, we get out and I don’t even grab a club since I don’t know what kind of shot I’m looking at, I had to walk through the center of the green to get to the other side of that tree line to start mapping out where this ball could be and out of the corner of my eye just in a prayer of a glance at the hole, there it was sitting beautifully in the bottom of the cup. I turn around, look at my partner petrified not knowing what to do and he runs up thinking that I’m messing with him, we then turn to the house behind us and see a couple clapping and laughing saying they watched it all but didn’t want to ruin the surprise!! Best possible way to pack up the bag and call it a day!! I know I’m still knew to the game but It really has brought back immense joy into my life and given me more meaning than just being another worker at a dead-end job in the middle of Indiana, even when my brand new car of 10 months got totaled out this past 9/11 when a 19 year old ran her light and t-boned me sending me into the ditch my first thought was thank god my clubs weren’t in the car today, so you better believe I won’t be quitting anytime soon!!