By Alice Cooper April 22, 2009
Editor's Note: In "My Game," a weekly series, GolfDigest.com asks noted personalities to expound on their experiences in golf, and what keeps bringing them back. This week, legendary heavy metal artist Alice Cooper discusses how alcoholism was the instrument that eventually introduced him to golf.
I was invited to speak at Callaway Golf's sales meeting recently. My topic was how addiction can be a good thing, that you should get addicted to being excellent.
I often joke that when I took up golf I traded one addiction for another. But the fact is that that is absolutely true. I was an alcoholic, not a golfer, but when I decided to stop drinking, I knew I needed something to replace it, something to fill that time up, to fill the void. So I started playing golf, literally every day, hence trading one addiction for another.
I had always been a good baseball player, a good athlete, in fact. I had good hand-eye coordination. I figured if I could get a bat on the ball, I would be able to hit a golf ball off a tee.
When I took up the game, I played 36 holes a day, every day, for a year. No kidding. That was 27 years ago. I'm 61 now. Back then I got my handicap down to a nine, just by playing every day (I'm now a five). I still play every day, even when I'm on the road. The only days I don't play are when I happen to be traveling that particular day. I'm in the 300 club -- 300 rounds or more a year. I'm told there are only a handful of us who are members of the 300 club. I love it. I never get tired of the game, whether it's been a good round, or a bad round, or whatever. It makes no difference to me. I still love it. I probably play more golf than the pros do. I don't practice. I just get up every morning and play.
I'm a member at Phoenix Country Club. It's 110 years old. I'm a member at Legends Trail Golf Club in Scottsdale, King Kamehameha Golf Club in Maui, a club in Germany, another in England, a bunch of them, as well as several honorary memberships all over. But mostly I play at Phoenix Country Club.
I've had several instructors. Some guy named Johnny Miller. Another guy named Rocco Mediate. Some guy I had heard of named John Daly. Some of the best instructors in the world.
Rocco built me my putter, an Odyssey. It broke during the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, but I've since had it repaired.
I'm a club junkie. I love the stuff and get new equipment sent to me all the time.
I've been associated with Callaway Golf for 15 years. Basically, I am their Iron Byron, because I tend to hit the ball pretty straight and am pretty consistent. They send me their new drivers and I test them. If I'm not hitting fairways with them, I send them back and tell them, "I don't know what's going on with this driver, but I can't hit it." Former research and development chief Richard Helmstetter would always say, "If Alice can't hit a fairway with them, it must be the club."
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