Ryan’s Newfound Passion: Golf

At the beginning of each year, we sit down together in a sort of “business retreat” and discuss our personal, spiritual and business goals for the year. When we had our goals meeting early this year, we kept coming back to one specific area in our personal lives that just seemed to be missing: hobbies. We couldn’t seem to think of anything we really enjoyed doing outside of our business and family lives. Sure, we had the usual things like watching Netflix shows together, taking Mia on walks, etc. But we really didn’t have an activity that we could call our own personal hobby. We needed to pursue something outside of our business.

So one of our personal goals for 2015 became finding a hobby for each of us to pursue. As of now, Alyssa’s hobby is, well…TBD. We are still working on that! So if you have any good ideas for her, she would love to hear them! But as for Ryan, he found a new passion in golf. Before March of this year, Ryan had never even swung a golf club!

He did play a lot of other sports growing up.

He was fairly decent at soccer (for a kid who didn’t start playing until he was 10). As one of the rare left-footed guys around (this also comes into play in the golf story later), he played left fullback most of the time. He was…well, how shall we say, not great at basketball (#shortguyproblems). Although he did hit a game-winning buzzer-beater in high school as a member of the Sharks! He has ridden the unimaginable fame and glory from that shot for years. He loves to tell that story! But his favorite sport and the one he has always been comfortable playing well has been volleyball. Despite being somewhat of a shorter fellow, he was always great at serving, bumping, setting…pretty much everything except spiking (again, #shortguyproblems). Plus when you grow up with an all-star volleyball player as a sister, you learn a few things!

But he never got into golf for one reason or another. So why the sudden change? Well, remember when we said Ryan’s left-handed/left-footed persuasion comes into play later? That time is now.

Alyssa’s father is an avid golfer. And we bet you’ll never guess which “hand” he is. Yep. A Lefty. A Southpaw if you will. Late last year he invested in a new set of clubs. And in an extremely generous gesture, he offered his “old” clubs to Ryan! Another thing you need to know about Ryan. He is very careful with money. Frugal. In a wise, provide-for-the-family kind of way. Not in an Ebenezer Scrooge kind of way. That being said, a set of golf clubs is probably not something Ryan would typically spring for unless it was something he really wanted. So suffice it to say that that had Alyssa’s dad not given Ryan the clubs, this blog post probably wouldn’t exist!

Ryan wasn’t sure he would enjoy golf at first. But once he tried it, there was no stopping him. He got “the bug” as they say. He has only been playing for about 6 months to this point and he has worked so hard! He even took a few lessons to get him off on the…right foot. Hey, where’s the rimshot for that pun? Come on!

At the end of the day, there is no question. Ryan has found his hobby. In fact, he has found a passion. A passion to improve. A passion to share time with others on the golf course. A passion to get outside and do something. And if you’re a golfer, let Ryan know!!! He would love nothing more than to get out there and play a round!

P.S. We don’t have an actual photo of Ryan playing with Alyssa’s dad. Her dad tore his Achilles tendon a few moths ago and they haven’t had a chance to play together yet. Soon!