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JOSHUA
SAYLOR
Biography:. First and foremost
I would like to thank God for everything
he has blessed me with and for allowing
me to have the success that I have had in
my life thus far. I was born March 24th
1986 and lived in a quiet neighborhood in
Bessemer City, N.C. My father loved sports;
baseball, basketball, racing, golf and bowling.
Bowling was what he was good at when he
was young. He introduced all those sports
to my sisters, my brother, and me. Except
racing, mom would never allow that. My parents
really stressed the importance of having
goals to reach growing up and knowing that
if you put your mind to them they will become
reality. I was mostly interested in sports
but when I was eight, I went on my first
plane ride to Cincinnati, Ohio to see some
relatives. Ever since then I wanted to be
a pilot. So my goals were set early, sports
and becoming a pilot. As far as sports go,
golf was the furthest sport on my mind.
My dad took me one time and I thought it
was boring. I was never good at bowling,
although it’s fun. I enjoyed playing basketball
but I was really good at baseball so baseball
was my game and I loved the diamond. I played
catcher, shortstop, and second base.
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 MY
TURN AROUND
 When
I was eleven years old, we moved to Pearland,
Texas on account of my father’s job. At the
time I was in the sixth grade and they didn’t
have a baseball team for the middle school.
So I played baseball for the YMCA until high
school. When the spring of ninth grade came
around, I tried out for the baseball team and
made it. Unfortunately, report cards came out
the week after and coach cut me but urged me
to come back as a sophomore with better grades.
My parents of course were angry because I had
never had a problem with grades. Truth is, I
just goofed off and had fun my freshman year.
On my fifteenth birthday, my parents surprised
me by taking me to the local airport to meet
my flying instructor, Eldon. I couldn’t believe
it. I was really excited. My first lesson was
really fun. I learned how to pre-flight the
airplane and Eldon took us over the Galveston
coast line. Later that afternoon, my father
was in the backyard chipping some golf balls
to a bucket. He always tried to get me to play
but since I thought golf was boring, I had always
turned him down. But while I was watching him
chip those golf balls that day, I remember thinking
to myself, “For everything my father has done
for me I should at least go see if I can have
fun with him in the backyard.” So I went outside
and he showed me how to hold the club and told
me to just feel it. So I hit it and the ball
hit the bucket. It was only twenty-five yards
away, but for it being the first swing since
I was five, I liked it. And from then on I was
hooked.
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 MY
ACHIEVEMENTS
Egolf Amateur Tour - 2006
Had my first win at Rock Barn &
followed up the next week winning at Crowder’s
Mountain for back to back wins. By year end
my USGA Handicap was 3.
Egolf Amateur Tour – 2007
2007 was a break out year for me as an Amateur.
Had 7 tour wins, won the Points Championship,
& Birdie Championship. By year end my USGA
Handicap was +1.6.
Carolinas
Pro Golf Tour 2008
Turned Professional January 2008
Assistant Golf Professional, USGA
Handicap +1.6 & Student Pilot
After the fall semester had passed,
I had got good enough to shoot in the low nineties
and therefore more addicted to the sport. So,
I didn’t want to stop. When I brought this to
my father he didn’t take to kindly. I was really
understanding of his point because we had worked
really hard all my life on baseball. But when
I reminded him of how he taught me that I can
do anything I put my mind to, he allowed me to
put baseball down and continue playing golf. Although,
there is one thing he made me promise him in order
for me to continue my quest at golf. I had to
promise him that no matter what, I will never
quit until I’m the number one golfer in the world.
So I said, “Dad, I’ll do you one better. I won’t
even quit when I become the number one golfer
in the world.”
Now, eight years later. I’m currently
in my second season in the mini-tour circuit.
I’m so excited about the challenges I’m faced
with and how much I’m learning playing professional
golf. I’m just so thankful of everything and I
owe all my thanks to God and my parents.
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 SELF
MOTIVATION
During the summer of 2001, I got my first
set of clubs and started going to the driving
range a few times a week with my father,
and sometimes on Saturday we would go play.
I got really addicted to the game because
it was so challenging and I love challenges.
It was all about golf for me. I even started
talking about more golf than baseball. It
even got to where I would rather go to the
driving range than the batting cages. So
my father started to get a little concerned
about the new hobby I just picked up getting
in the way of what I wanted to accomplish
in baseball. Because in baseball I was good,
like a mid-seventies golfer. But in golf,
I could barely break 100. So I slowed down
on the golf swing and started hitting the
batting cages more often. But after a whole
lot of begging I talked my father into letting
me try out for the golf team when school
started back. I was going to balance both
sports. Play golf in the fall and play baseball
in the spring. Fortunately, I was the last
person to make the golf team. That’s a really
good thing too because if I would have not
made it, I probably would have just kept
the game as a hobby for the rest of my life
and never would have competed.
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