DAVE BUCKINGHAM

DIRECTOR

When I was eight, my brother Mike and I created a very small three-hole layout in our yard and used a baseball bat and ball as our method of projection and hole discovery. My father suggested that we substitute some old, but hardly used golf clubs and a few balls for the baseball equipment. That was my very first experience with golf. After a few broken windows as well as managing to throw a club onto our neighbor’s roof, my dad put an end to the early experiment. 

For sure though, I was bitten by a then unknown bug. It was not until I read “Golf in the Kingdom” many years later that I began to gain some understanding of just what this “unknown bug” consisted of or meant to me.

Golf has injected itself in my life long discovery process, playing a role in just about every developmental step in my life. The reality is that my performance in the game has never matched up with my own perceptions of how I “should” be playing and therein lies the rub, as they say.

One story of note that highlights all of this, took place on the fourth hole at Ballybunnion, in Ireland. I had just played three awful holes and duck-hooked my tee shot. As I trounced off to find the ball, my caddie, who was hanging behind me, had a conversation with my good friend, Eric, that I was told later went something like this: “Eric: Have you ever seen anyone go crazy during your days as a caddie?” Caddie: “No and I just might be witnessing my first time today.”

I spent at least twenty years knowing, loving and working with our founder Steve Cohen. My commitment to the continuing existence and hopefully growth of the Society stems directly from my friendship with Steve and the certainty that he would want the Society to play a role in the world of golf, support golfers to learn and have fun in the game, and perhaps being better people as a result of their membership. It is my pleasure to serve on its Board and honor Steve’s memory.