KNOXVILLE, Tennessee — Walt Chapman has been golfing since he was 10 years old. You could say the passion has been there for a while.
"My father, if he went out to play golf and he didn't take me with him, I would just sit there and scream and cry at the house until he came home and got me to take me with him," Chapman laughed in front of the Fairways and Greens Golf Center in West Knoxville.
So how many times would you say you've swung a golf club in your life?
"I don't know," he laughed again, this time with a club in his hand. "That's a good question."
It was enough to get a kid from Greeneville on the Tennessee golf team, making him captain in 1985.
"I enjoyed those four or five years playing on the golf team, having people that want to support you and want you to do well, normally it's just you against the world."
After winning the Hilton Head Invitational as a senior at UT, Chapman went to the PGA, playing in majors like the US Open and PGA Championship.
He takes a swing on the driving range, the ball slices through the air, the metallic clank of metal vibrates past the club.
"Oh I'd like to have a million of those."
With the highs came the lows. Chapman took a three year break from the game. He said it was the best thing he could have done.
"It's a humbling sport. You think you're on top of the world and then it knocks you back down."
So what was the next step for Chapman? Teaching. Since 2000, he's taught at Fairways and Greens learning from his students as much as he teaches them.
"They ask questions and I'm like 'you know, that's a legitimate question' why do I need to do that with a golf club"?
Another swing on the range.
He's also playing some of the best golf of his life. He's won about 50 events in his career, making a name for himself on the PGA Tour Champions, even winning the Tennessee Senior State Open in June.
Another swing.
According to Chapman, golf is a roller coaster. Just as he teaches it to others, the game teaches him about himself.
"Golf does mirror life, nobody says it was going to be fair. Things happen to you, you have to overcome adversity."
"If you can just go one day at a time, not try and get to wrapped up and frazzled by what's going on around you, I think that helps you stay a little more calm. Easier said then done."
Another swing.