b'Renaissance ManDUREL BILLY fell in love with the game and with its history, and found numerous ways to give back to it, even though it did not always give back to himBY PAUL RAMSDELLAlot of us fell in love with golf from the very beginningbut probably not as much as Durel Billy did 20 years ago. My first round of golf was a Sunday at PLU. Ill never forget it, obviously, said the 50-year-old from Puyallup, Wash., about the Pacific Lutheran University golf course that has since been paved over.I hit a 3-iron off that first tee, which was a MacGregor 3-iron, and I was hooked from the beginning. I mean, literally, thats all it took, he said.Thats when it started, and the next day I was looking for my own clubs, shoes, pull cart, I was hooked up. A week later I had everything.And in the 20 years since, probably none of us have spent as much time and energy, despite numerous hurdles along the way, worshipping the game of golf and growing it as Durel Billy.Years, dates and timelines can be important for someone who has had 23 different addresses. Billy was raised in an Air Force family, born in New Orleans, but growing up mostly in Mountain Home, Idaho. He even lived for a time in Amsterdam.The golf life, though, has all been in the Puget Sound region, and from that Sunday outing 20 years ago when his basketball buddies were planning to make fun of him as he attempted a new sport, it has evolved to where hes a member of the Board of Directors of Washington Golf, overseeing all of amateur golf in the state.On that 20-year timeline, 2013 stands out for the man who has turned himself into a golf history buff, basically because of what happened 100 years earlier.1913 was a big inspirational year to me, Billy said. Thats kind of when golf took off in America, that was Francis Ouimet winning the U.S. Open.18PACIFIC NORTHWEST GOLFER|SEPT 2020'