JoBeth BorowiakJoBeth Borowiak
Chattanooga
Commercial manager
JoBeth Borowiak has a fine set of shiny golf clubs - a mix of new models from Callaway and TaylorMade purchased last summer.
She's just now learning how to use them properly.
And she's loving it.
Borowiak, a native of Illinois who moved to Chattanooga for work purposes, is new to the game of golf after playing basketball and volleyball and starring as a softball pitcher in her younger days.
"A guy I was dating bought me clubs last summer," she said. "I've played sports my whole life, and I can't just 'play,' because I want to be better and know what I'm doing.
"So I started taking lessons about a month ago. I want to be good at things."
Borowiak never considered playing golf while she was a competitive softball player. She shied away because the swings are so different.
"Now that I don't play softball anymore, I thought, 'Why not?'" she said before stroking shots down the range at Moccasin Bend Golf Course on a recent Monday afternoon.
Borowiak attended Illinois State before her job brought her here - after four moves in six years. She is enrolled in an MBA program at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
She learned, through injury and other lessons in high school, that she would not grow up to be a professional athlete.
"I shattered my pitching thumb during my senior year of high school, and Dad said, 'Maybe we should concentrate a little more on school,'" Borowiak said. "Sports are very important to me. It's a good way to stay active, stay healthy. Even golf isn't like you're struggling to run and work out."
Borowiak has realized that her ankles and knees and arm don't work like they used to - and they hurt more after she uses them - golf rose to the forefront of her activty list in recent weeks.
"I'm not a spring chicken anymore, but golf gets your blood flowing, it gets you socialized," Borowiak said. "No matter your age, you can enjoy it. However, I do say a lot of bad words when I play. It's really amazing the string of words put together when somebody is mad."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.