It’s hard to know where to begin when you describe David Havens’ little slice of golf heaven in Hawaii.

He traces his start in the game to when he was 10 and a perceptive pro handed the self-described “hot-headed kid” a 1-iron from a lost and found barrel.

“He goes, ‘You need to change your life, you’re kind of a turd,’” Havens recalls. “It was a game-changer for me.”

That ultimately led him to Maui, where he works now as PGA director of instruction for his The Havens Experience and teaches part-time at King Kamehameha.

It also leads to the story of the 12,000-plus golf clubs he has given away since starting Spare for Change six years ago.

The non-profit’s mission statement is “Growing the game of golf. One recycled club at a time,” but Havens also calls it “preserving” the game. His idea is that anyone and everyone should have the opportunity to golf if they have the inclination.

He collects and recycles unused and abandoned clubs and puts them in the hands of prospective players. Spare for Change also provides instruction, club repair or “anything else needed to grow our players’ chances of making golf a lifelong passion.”

Many of those hands are tiny, but while Havens has helped lots of kids get into the game, he is also open to anyone’s request. When he was at the Sony Open in Hawaii last month, sharing a hitting cage with the Aloha Section PGA at Spectator Village, he offered recycled, re-gripped and cut-down clubs to all 345 who took a free lesson, giving away 200 clubs. That didn’t include the set he gave to the guy at the bell desk of his hotel.

“If kids don’t have golf clubs, if adults don’t have golf clubs, they’re not going to play,” says Havens, the 2013 Aloha Section PGA Teacher of the Year and last year’s winner of the President’s Plaque. “When they come here they have some interest in golf. We give them an awesome lesson, but if they don’t have clubs to practice, the lesson dies.

“Once I started teaching and realized there was a gap or disconnection between what we do — people wanting to play, all this golf equipment sitting around, people talking about growing the game but not doing anything about it … I wanted to do something about it. I’m going to make this a PGA initiative.”

He would like to see Spare for Change (spareforchange.org) in every state. He already has given clubs to folks in every state and “dozens of foreign countries.”

His own initiative seems to be rewarded on a regular basis. One of his Sony visitors was a newly married guy in the military whose “timid” wife wanted to play.

Havens’ solution was simple.

“I gave her four clubs, enough for her to get started,” he says. “It sounds silly, but it works.”

It has worked with many, many kids on Maui, where Havens gives them “whatever they want — if they come in here and they love the game, I will give them whatever they want. I don’t know if they will stay with it. I just take a chance.”

Many do. Last year, Spare for Change donated $2,500 to twin sisters Caylyn and Caitlyn Villatora. The Lahainaluna graduates ended up working for Spare for Change. Now they are on the University of Montana golf team.

Havens says he still has another 11,000 clubs on Maui, where he is building a permanent space to house his non-profit. He re-grips every club he gives out. His board is made up of wife Susan and ASPGA members Ben Hongo, Mike Jones and Gregory Fields.

People from all over donate clubs and Havens gives them in bunches to fellow pros interested in his mission, along with 100 grips, which he holds fundraisers to buy.

Somehow, there is never a shortage.

“How many people do you know that have a garage full of clubs …?” Havens shrugs. “And other pros, chances are they have 200 clubs at their course in lost and found that will never have a home unless someone does something with them. I’m like a good middleman.”

He did study marketing and management while playing golf at Virginia Tech. From there he played mostly on the South African Tour. When Havens stopped over in Hawaii on his way to the Australian qualifying school, he “fell in love with it. Moved here for my 30th birthday.”

He worked at Kapalua, taught and caddied on the PGA Tour for Brendon de Jonge, then was at Ka‘anapali for seven years before going out on his own last year.

Havens claims he finished “dead last in my class” at Virginia Tech. There are no regrets.

“I teach golf on Maui,” he grins. “The person who finished No. 1 in our class is not quite as happy as I am.”