HELEN GAWLIK USGTF Associate Member, Arlington Heights, Illinois

I am fifty-three years old and have been golfing since the age of twelve. My father was an avid golfer, and I was constantly following him around on the course. Finally, picking up a club and seeing that I had inherited his talents, my father hired a pro golfer at Loring Air Force Base in Maine to teach me the fundamentals of golf.

My first golf tournament at the age of 15 was absolutely wonderful. Even though I was competing with the entire male gender (my boyfriend too), I held my own and won the tournament. What excitement there was in our household! Okay, my boyfriend broke up with me because he could not believe that I would actually go up against him. Oh, well, his problem, not mine.

Anyway, at the time I thought I was onto something great in my life, until my dad was relocated to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Starting off again at a new school, and no less my last year of high school, was not what I bargained for. I did keep playing, but my interest went somewhere else because of the new location. I did continue to golf, but felt like I was being pushed into another direction. Mistake! I got married and left home. Big mistake! We won’t go through the entire next 28 years, but as I try to advise my daughter: don’t leave home just because you want and you think it’s better on the other side, leave home when you are mentally and financially ready, and definitely when no outsiders are influencing your plans you have set in your life. Overall summary, if I could go backwards, I would have listened to my father and already been retired as a professional golfer.

So, here we are today. Over the past seven years, I have been pursuing the passion and dream that somewhere I hid inside. Well, it’s out and watch out!

My passion is to achieve and move forward into the golfing world. I cannot join the LPGA and there is no senior women’s division, so I am forwarding my passion as a certified associate member golf instructor for the USGTF. I have already achieved two levels (with the help of my tournament sponsors, and my daughter) and cannot wait to achieve the other two levels.

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