Perth’s James Spencer’s love for golf was growing.

With his 14th birthday approaching, James’ grandparents had the perfect present in mind; a first golf membership to TeeMates.

After starting his golf journey using his mother’s clubs, James’s parents helped him purchase a set of his own to make it a birthday to remember.

"He was very excited," said James’s mum, Ella. "To have his own clubs too, he was pretty thrilled I’d say.

"It’s kind of been a new thing for him getting into golf. It’s very much a footy in winter and swimming in summer, but one of his favourite footballers, Jeremy Cameron, is always posting about his golf.

"We thank him for the obsession."

The TeeMates membership came just in time. With a series of events across January run in conjunction with Belgravia Leisure at four of the golf courses they run in Perth, James put his new clubs to good use.

"James has the opportunity to play a lot more now at Carramar and Marangaroo, which are pretty close to us," said Ella.

"During the school holidays, he’d play there every day if he could, so it has made that a lot easier."

Ella says golf has helped James — a generally fast-paced kid — work on his sporting mindset.

"He kind of has to reset a little bit so to have the opportunity to reset is really good for him," she said.

"Just having that little time, I guess, and resetting a little bit during a game.

"Whereas in football or swimming, it’s just go, go, go and you don’t really reflect on anything until after."

Now armed with his TeeMates membership, James is already helping to recruit more young golfers by telling his friends about all the opportunities it has provided him.

"Because he’d been playing a lot, he’d been dragging one of his mates around and now he’s just joined up for TeeMates as well," Ella said.

"He’s got a couple others that have started playing. He is trying to tell them all, ‘It’s so much cheaper to play now as a TeeMates member!’"

Golf is all about firsts – your first long putt, your first chip-in, your first par, your first birdie, your first hole-in-one, the first time you break 100. We are celebrating all our TeeMates Firsts in a special series across our Golf Australia channels.

Please send us your story of your TeeMates First to [email protected]. We’d love a photo or video and some information to help us tell the story.