Article 2 – Going All In: How We Bought Our First Real Clubs at Puetz Golf

What started as a random idea turned into a couple of rough rounds, a few humbling moments, and more than one shot that probably landed somewhere it shouldn’t have.

But somewhere between all the frustration and a handful of decent swings, we realized this wasn’t just something we were trying out anymore.

And once that happened… we were all in.

One of the big drivers behind Katie saying, “I want to play golf,” was simple—she wanted to be outside more during the spring and summer.

Since she enjoys being outdoors and isn’t exactly a fan of gardening, this worked out pretty well for her.

A coworker of hers at the credit union had also encouraged her to give it a shot. She had gotten into golf later in life through charity events and meeting with customers, and it stuck with her.

Either way, it doesn’t really matter what the exact tipping point was.
Once that idea got into Katie’s head, there wasn’t much turning her away from it.

It’s not easy to change her mind once something gets in there—but this time, it was something I wanted to do too, so I didn’t put up much of a fight.

The second time we played, a good friend of ours invited us to join him and his son at Glen Eagle Golf Course in Arlington, WA. It was about three weeks after we got back from our trip.

Coming off our first experience at the beach, we figured—what could go wrong?

What I had forgotten about Glen Eagle is that the houses are basically right on top of the fairways. Not exactly the ideal setup for a couple of brand-new, out-of-control golfers.

There was one hole early on the back nine where I lined up for what was supposed to be a nice, straight shot. Instead, I played it like I was aiming for a dogleg right.

The ball sailed hard right over a house and landed somewhere in a cul-de-sac.

So, naturally, I teed up another one. Same result.

At this point, I was completely annoyed with myself, so I decided to adjust. I rotated a little left to compensate for my previous two terrible shots.

This one somehow went even further… and still over the houses.

That was the moment I decided I was done with that hole entirely. I just boycotted it.

And as if things weren’t going well enough already, the weather decided to join in. Late summer turning into early fall, the wind suddenly picked up out of nowhere. What started as a breeze turned into a full-on windstorm.

Then came the thunder.

We were only about four or five holes from finishing the round. Three of us had already teed off on the next hole, and we were driving through a stretch of trees to get to where Katie was going to hit. Out of nowhere, a big wind gust snapped a dead branch loose, and it came crashing down—just missing us by about five feet.

That was enough for us. The weather rolled in and we didn’t finish the round.

To this day, I’m pretty sure the golf gods were telling us, “You need to stop whatever this is right now and pick a different hobby to spend your money on.”

After what can only be described as a complete disaster of a round, I remember getting in the car and telling Katie,

“That was completely irresponsible for us to even be out there.”

And I meant it. Even now, after getting a little better, I still haven’t gone back. That round left a mark.

But even after that, Katie wasn’t backing off.

We talked about it through the fall and into the new year, and by mid-January, we had made the decision—we were going all in on this golfing thing.

That meant it was time to retire the old Golden Bear set and get Katie something better than the dusty clubs sitting in the garage.

We decided to head to Puetz Golf Supercenter. They had a good selection and, more importantly, prices that made sense for where we were at.

I had done a little homework ahead of time, trying to figure out which complete sets would be the most forgiving for a couple of beginners like us.

When we got there, the guy helping us was great—no pressure, just walking us through what actually mattered.

He even suggested going with a cheaper set than what we were looking at since we were just starting out and could always upgrade later.

But I already knew Katie was all in at that point—and if I’m honest, I was too. I didn’t want to buy clubs twice.

Katie ended up with a set of TaylorMade Kalea Gold ladies clubs, and I went with the TaylorMade RBZ set.

These are the ones she landed on if you want to check them out:
TaylorMade Kalea Gold Ladies Set

And for anyone wondering, here are mine:
TaylorMade RBZ Set

He let us hit a few balls with a 7-iron and even gave us a little instruction right there in the store.

When we were at the counter checking out, he mentioned they had an in-house instructor—and since we were buying clubs, we’d get a discount on lessons.

So now, not only were we walking out with new clubs…
we had three lessons each booked over the next few weeks.

We walked out of Puetz that day with two shiny new sets of clubs, a little less money in our pockets, and still not much of an idea what we were doing.

As we were carefully loading the new clubs into the back of the car, I remember feeling that same kind of excitement you had as a kid when you got a brand-new toy.

It was a pretty cool feeling.

For the first time, this didn’t feel like something we were just trying out. It felt real.
We were committed to it.

And whether we knew it at the time or not, this was the moment we stopped “trying golf”…
and officially started this new chapter of our lives.