By Jack Wagner October 23, 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, actor Jack Wagner (General Hospital, Melrose Place, the Bold and the Beautiful), 50, one of the best players among Los Angeles' show business crowd, discusses how his game has fit comfortably around his career.
I'm from a little town in Missouri, Washington. My father used to play this little nine-hole course, Franklin County Country Club. That's how I picked it up, just walking around, caddying. I was about nine. I never had a lesson in my life. I never played on a golf team.
I was interested in it from the start and enjoyed getting better at it. I started beating some of the members when I was around 11 or 12. But it was a seasonal sport. Summer was golf. Winter was football and basketball. I got into acting at 16 in high school plays. So I kind of had a season for everything.
My handicap now is zero, though I didn't know what a handicap was until I joined Bel-Air Country Club in 1986. In about 2002 or 2003, I went through periods where I wasn't working and got into a big golf gambling group. I played golf everyday in Los Angeles, got my handicap down to a plus-two and made some money.
I've won the club championship at Bel-Air six times. I still play in it, though it's gotten tougher. I'm getting older and we've got more younger members coming in all the time.
I have had the opportunity to know and play with several PGA Tour players, including John Daly, a great guy. I remember when he came to town about 1994 or so. I beat him up at Bel-Air for two days. Then about three weeks later we went out to the Palm Springs area and he beat me up out there at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage for a couple days and we about broke even.
If I had to do something else besides acting, I would have loved to have played golf professionally. However, I didn't have the discipline to travel and hit balls. I didn't like going to sleep too early, so I wouldn't have made those early tee times. I was having too much fun as an actor.
I hit a lot of balls now. When you get older, you have more time, and you tend to do it the right way. But when I'm working, I don't have much time to play, maybe once every six weeks or so. I've got teenaged boys. I'm on the back nine with them, so that's where my priorities are.
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