Episode 110: Why Is Golf So Hard to Quit? | Bill Smith of Tuesday Tee Time
You can have a bad round, spend hours on the course, and walk away wondering why you even play.
Then a few days later, you’re ready to do it all over again.
So what is it about golf?
In Episode 110 of Talkin’ St. Pete, Ryan Bogden sits down with Bill Smith, writer of Tuesday Tee Time at Registry Tampa Bay, to talk about the game that has become a huge part of his life.
And the funny thing is, Bill didn’t even start playing because he was obsessed with golf.
His wife bought him his first set of clubs.
Bill met his wife, Hilles, while playing tennis. They made a good doubles team, but Bill admits he could get a little too competitive.
Hilles thought golf might help him relax.
Years later, Bill is still playing about three times a week.
So much for relaxing.
For Bill, though, golf became much more than a game. It gave him friendships, experiences, and stories he never expected.
Including one with Arnold Palmer that he still remembers all these years later.
Arnold Palmer Remembered His Name
Bill spent nearly 40 years in advertising sales, working with major publications including Time Inc., LIFE, and Golf Magazine.
That career eventually put him around some of the biggest names in golf.
But one interaction stood out.
Bill met golf legend Arnold Palmer during the opening of a golf course in Washington. The next morning, Palmer sat down with Bill at breakfast.
They talked about family, including Bill’s son and whether he was getting into golf.
That alone would have been a great story.
But months later, Bill saw Palmer again at the Masters in Augusta.
There were plenty of people around. Bill was just one person Palmer had met months earlier.
Yet Palmer recognized him.
Even more surprising, he remembered their conversation and asked about Bill’s son.
Bill said he nearly fainted.
It was a small moment for someone as famous as Arnold Palmer, but a huge one for Bill.
And it says a lot about what Bill loves about golf.
The people matter just as much as the game.
Golf Gave Bill Something He Didn’t Expect
Bill doesn’t talk about golf like someone chasing the perfect score every weekend.
He talks about the people he’s met.
The conversations between shots.
Being outside.
Putting the phone away for a few hours.
And building friendships with people he may never have met anywhere else.
That’s part of why he calls golf an “addiction” and a passion.
It gives you something, takes something away, and somehow gets you to come back again.
After moving to the Tampa Bay area to be closer to family, Bill and Hilles eventually settled in Belleair.
A neighborhood connection later introduced Bill to the family behind Registry Tampa Bay, which opened a door he had wanted to walk through for years: writing.
Bill had studied journalism at the University of Alabama, but his career took him into advertising sales instead.
Now, through Tuesday Tee Time, he gets to write about a sport that has been part of his life for decades.
But Does Golf Need to Change?
Bill loves golf, but that doesn’t mean he thinks everything about the game is perfect.
One obvious problem is time.
A round can take hours.
When people are balancing work, kids, family, and everything else happening in life, finding five hours to play golf isn’t always realistic.
Bill likes seeing courses look for ways to make rounds quicker and more enjoyable.
He also believes the sport needs to feel more approachable for beginners.
Golf can be expensive. It can be intimidating. And when you’re standing over a ball with no idea where it’s about to go, it definitely isn’t an easy sport to learn.
But Bill is encouraged by what he sees from younger golfers, college players, and more women getting into the game.
Around Tampa Bay, he gets a close look at that growth through the stories he covers, from professional and college golf to what’s happening at local courses.
He also stays involved off the course, helping raise money to support Dunedin Golf Club, including efforts that help more kids experience the game, and serving on the membership committee at Belleair Country Club.
Retirement hasn’t exactly slowed him down.
So, Is Golf Really That Hard to Quit?
After hearing Bill talk about it, you start to understand why people keep coming back.
Maybe it isn’t about finally shooting the perfect round.
Maybe it’s the person you meet.
The friend you play with every Saturday.
The few hours you spend outside without staring at a screen.
Or the random conversation on a golf course that turns into a story you’re still telling years later.
For Bill Smith, golf has given him all of that.
And after decades around the game, he’s still out there three times a week.
So if golf really is an addiction, Bill might be proof that some people have no plans to quit.
Comments