There is this thing that happens as you grow older and become a parent—you suddenly appreciate all of the things your parents did for you (both big and small), and for some reason, the small ones stick out more.

Whether it be dragging your lazy 8-year-old butt out of bed to go to hockey practice at 7 a.m. on a cold December morning or dropping you off at the golf course before the sun comes up in July, these acts all took precious time away from potentially doing other things—like sleeping in on weekends—which as the parent of a toddler now, is something I dearly miss.

Although this specific thank you isn’t about either of those scenarios, they are still greatly appreciated. This is about a simple suggestion that led me onto this crazy path, and into an industry I love working in.

I was a kid that loved to tinker and pull things apart, all the way back to my first bike. Anytime an appliance (or lawnmower) died, I was given the opportunity to break it down into every last part with no expectation of ever getting it back to its original state. It was a complete unsupervised free-for-all with my dad’s ratchet set, and by the time I was done, there was no chance they would ever be assembled again…

Then came golf and golf clubs. Just like bikes and skateboards before that, as soon as I got interested in golf and realized clubs could be pulled apart, I did what I always did, immersed myself in research (pre-internet, mind you) and learned everything I could about how they worked and about how you could build them. I read magazine articles and instructional books for any shred of information on how to put golf clubs together, and then one day, I learned about Golfsmith—the now-defunct golf retail chain that started out as a club builder supply. Not only did they offer components to learn with, but you could go to “Club Building School” and learn how to be a real club builder.

In my late teens, I did eventually attend the week-long Master Club Building Program at GolfSmith HQ in Austin Texas, which was managed by non-other than Jeff Sheets—the man behind the famous ’99 Hogan Apex irons, among many other designs, and someone I still call a friend to this day.

But before those week-long trips to Texas in July, it was something more simple: a three-hour course on building a graphite-shafted metal wood, and a steel-shafted iron at the Golfsmith distribution facility in Mississauga, Ontario, just outside of Toronto. If my memory serves me right, it was $149.00, and at the end of the day, I got to take home the 7-iron and 3-wood I built. I’m also sure I bugged my parents for weeks to let me go through the class…

After enough nagging, my persistence paid off, and I booked my day to “go to school.” There was a small shop alongside the industrial storefront that doubled as the component showroom. The class consisted of three enthusiastic golfers including myself eager to learn the tricks of the trade, and the only reason I got there was that my mom sacrificed an entire Saturday to drive her dumpy 14-year-old oldest son the 2.5-hour one-way trip so he could put a couple of clubs together for a few hours.

It was immediately after that when my complete obsession began. I took every club apart I could, just to put them back together, and for a very long period of time, I only ever used Golfsmith component clubs because they gave me the opportunity to build my own sets from scratch. Eventually, I started building clubs for local golfers who noticed I had a knack for fine-tuning clubs, and my experience then led to my first job at a course and then years later during college, working at a big box golf store. From there, I worked for OEMs, and then, thanks to a chance encounter, I ended up managing production at one of the busiest independent club building studios in Canada. Now, I’m very lucky to bring my experience and knowledge to GolfWRX.

Looking back now, I’m certain I would always have a life long passion for golf, thanks to how much I enjoy the game itself, but I’m not sure I would be where I am today if it wasn’t for those eight hours on a Saturday that my mom took to drive me to an industrial park to learn the first steps on the finer details of building a club at Golfsmith.

It’s with that in mind I try and remind myself every day that when our daughter gets older, I need to take the time to help nurture her passions and interests no matter how fleeting they may be, because I have no idea what a few hours out of my day could lead to.

So Mom, thanks for that Saturday.

Happy Mothers Day.