Mark DeCoster

My name is Mark DeCoster, and I was born in Texas in 1995. I moved to Georgia when I was nine months old and my dad began teaching me to golf when I was around four years old. It began on a small driving range near my home in Georgia that was accompanied by a nine-hole par three course. Going out there to work tediously through the fundamentals taught me work ethic and eventually sparked a huge amount of interest in the game for me. It was always tough watching older players pound away at golf balls and effortlessly reach further yardages than me. It put pressure on me to get better each time I was at the driving range. Once I grew a little taller and could strike the ball consistently, I had the privilege of joining my family on an actual course in Florida where my grandpa used to live. The course was called Lakeside Country Club and it is where I made some of the best memories of my childhood. The game turned into competition for me as well as an entertaining hobby. Nearing the end of middle school, I decided to play golf in actual competition, so I joined the varsity golf team during my freshman year of high school. For a while I strived to earn a scholarship to play in college, but overtime I realized I enjoyed playing the game for leisure a lot more than playing tournaments on my own. Now that I am in college, it is safe to say that I am very thankful for the game of golf and the opportunities it provided for me while I played. I was lucky to be able to travel to several places and also play at some well-known courses for very inexpensive costs. Golf is something that I will play for the rest of my life and it will always be more than a game to me.