OT Maybe--Shooting Your Age

[Jim Hoak]

My father, now deceased at 99, was an excellent lifetime amateur, and said that it got real easy once you passed 90!

[Brett Meyer]

This thread just made me realize that I've been shooting my age for 9 holes for a year or two now. And since I'm no +4 handicap, it's just another indicator that I'm inescapably middle age.

[Jamie Pyper]

For consistency consider Ed Ervasti, the great senior golfer from London, Ontario, who shot his age or better in 239 of his last 240 rounds, dating back to 1998.

[Lou_Duran]

Who on here has shot their age and what was your age when you did it?  For those of us who haven't, do you expect to and how long do you think you will have to live?

I was prompted to look in by the title and author of this thread, thinking that maybe he extracted his revenge on Lahinch recently by matching his age.  Instead, here I am pondering a question again that has been asked of me quite a bit lately. (Has anyone wondered what's happened to John Cook?  But for a great head of hair, he seems to have aged 20 years in a short period of time.)


Personally, I've been within 3 shots a couple of times, but the closest this year is 6 shots.  Based on the progression of my handicap and a review of my calculus notes, it appears that I should expect to shoot my age upon turning 120.  Since I have some doubts that I will be playing past 80, short of being bit by a vampire, it will be another goal in golf that I failed to achieve.   

[JohnVDB]

I played golf with former major league pitcher Jim Kaat a few years ago. According to Golf Digest, he was the first person to shoot his age both right and left handed.


Tomorrow, I’ll be one year closer to shooting my age,  it it’s going to be a few more years if ever. 

[John Crowley]

Who on here has shot their age and what was your age when you did it?  For those of us who haven't, do you expect to and how long do you think you will have to live?



First time was at age 74.
Then, due to deteriorating joints, hips and spine, didn’t do it again for a couple years. Two new hips and a spine surgery later, am now matching or beating my age 40-50% of the time. Mainly at 6,000 +/- yards. Caveat - on courses sloping 130+ it is much more difficult.


Have moved forward in accordance with the USGA/PGA “play it forward” chart based on how far my tee ball goes. Having way more fun playing the appropriate distance for my length off the tee. Age has not much to do with it - it is about how far you hit the ball.

[Michael Wolf]

Tokyo Golf Club has an (almost) empty board hanging in their hallway with the names of the two members who have shot their age on the course. I do not know the requirements for adding a name - tees, tourney rounds, etc.


Michael

[Steve Lang]

   Well I shot a 35 for 9 when I was 35 years old, unfortunately on the back 9, I aged 10 years and couldn't repeat! 


This is truly a great goal and my hat is off to any who have done it, gross or net, but noting real men don't take strokes!

[Wayne_Kozun]

For consistency consider Ed Ervasti, the great senior golfer from London, Ontario, who shot his age or better in 239 of his last 240 rounds, dating back to 1998.

I was just going to post about Ed - this story says he shot his age 4000 times: https://scoregolf.com/blog/rick-young/remembering-ed/
He beat his age by 21 shots by shooting 72 at age 93.

[David Ober]

I may be mistaken, but I believe for an age tying/beating score to "count" for the Guinness Book of World Records, it has to be on a set of tees at a minimum of 6,000 yards.

There's a local long-time amateur turned mini-tour/senior pro in SoCal, Ray Vanyo. I wouldn't be surprised if he's coming up on a 2,000+ now. Ray has always played a LOT of golf. He was at 1,000, back in 2016.


If I can get a back surgery that will extend my playing time, I fully expect to do it in my late 60's (hopefully) or very early 70's.


But who knows.

[John Crowley]

I may be mistaken, but I believe for an age tying/beating score to "count" for the Guinness Book of World Records, it has to be on a set of tees at a minimum of 6,000 yards.

There's a local long-time amateur turned mini-tour/senior pro in SoCal, Ray Vanyo. I wouldn't be surprised if he's coming up on a 2,000+ now. Ray has always played a LOT of golf. He was at 1,000, back in 2016.


If I can get a back surgery that will extend my playing time, I fully expect to do it in my late 60's (hopefully) or very early 70's.


But who knows.


Believe you mean Ray Arrino who is a phenomenal golfer. Holds several course records. I know he shot 60 at The Palms Golf Club in Indio, CA at approximately age 68.

[John Kavanaugh]

At age 60 I missed shooting my age by 4 strokes. I fully expect it to take 10 years to get that close again.

[Brock Lynch]

I may be mistaken, but I believe for an age tying/beating score to "count" for the Guinness Book of World Records, it has to be on a set of tees at a minimum of 6,000 yards.

There's a local long-time amateur turned mini-tour/senior pro in SoCal, Ray Vanyo. I wouldn't be surprised if he's coming up on a 2,000+ now. Ray has always played a LOT of golf. He was at 1,000, back in 2016.


If I can get a back surgery that will extend my playing time, I fully expect to do it in my late 60's (hopefully) or very early 70's.


But who knows.

David,


I had the great pleasure of playing with Ray on occasion at the now closed El Rancho Verde GC in Rialto. After shooting 68 in our regular Saturday game, I asked Ray how many times he had shot his age (he was 69 or 70 then). He said that he has shot his age 238 times. I had no reason to doubt him or that he knew the exact number! He had a simple, repeatable swing and would hit 15-16 greens consistently. He was also fairly long, often out driving the rest of us. We last crossed paths a couple of years ago at a California State Am qualifier @ Apple Valley. He's got to be around 85 and is still competing.


Nice post David, brought back some good memories.   

[Mark_Fine]

I believe they say 9 in a million golfers will ever shoot their age so congrats to all who have done it. 

[Pete Lavallee]

My buddy just missed doing it again yesterday in Men’s Club play. He was 2 under coming into 18 but landed just short in a piece of turf that should have been marked as ground under repair. He chinked it and took a double. We play at 6459 yards. He’s been doing it several times a year since he turned 67; he’s 70 now.

[Steve Wilson]

This has certainly elicited a high number of responses and some fascinating stories.  The larger number of people managing this feat has to have several elements.  First of all people are living longer and healthier lives, equipment is better, and we do have the forward tees.


I found David Ober's remark that there is a cut off point for having a score qualify in Guinness Book of World Records.  Rather than just length I would suggest that the difficulty of the course is also significant.


I will confess that this has been a goal but not an expectation considering I have carried a HCP in the 10-14 range for the past 25 years. Bearing that in mind I returned from Scotland in 2015 where I had been playing some truly dreadful golf at Golspie.  This was the year before they managed to get the rough thinned out.  I was probably losing a dozen golf balls every three days, and it was so bad I was replenishing from the found balls bin.  But when I returned home and went to the course I play quite often as it the closest in my golf desert I found myself routinely shooting in the high 70s.  This is a course of 6200 yards with slope rating of 106.  Hope was renewed.  I surmised that if I could maintain my health and minimize my yardage loss as I aged I might have a chance on this course.  This is particularly so since the clay based fairways bake out in the summer and can play almost like a links with the ball bouncing and gamboling along. 


Last year during the pandemic I spent a lot of afternoons playing speed golf to get out of the heat in around two hours.  The course was dried out and the ball was running and twice I got to the 17th tee in one over par and needed only a birdie and a par to finish at my age of 72, but I managed bogies instead and so finished at 75.  This year I haven't been close yet and I don't know if I should be proud of it even if I do manage it due to the slope rating of the course.  BTW, don't bother to look up the course as the new management team decided not to have the course rating renewed and so it doesn't appear in the list of courses when I go to enter scores for handicap purposes.  I obtained the slope rating from some old score cards I had lying around.


So, I'm a year older and playing about the same, so maybe someday with a hot putter I can manage this.  I'll probably be playing on October 10 as I'll be in actuality the same man as I will have been on October 9 but I'll have another stroke to play with.  If it does happen I'll be the guy in the back of the room raising my hand but just barely and certainly not waving it around.


Some great stories and the one about Ed Ervasti shooting 72 at age 93 is mind boggling.  There should be a record for the most strokes under age as that is an undeniable feat virtually regardless of the course.


 

[Pete_Pittock]

some records
https://www.liveabout.com/age-shooter-records-in-golf-1563297
I was looking for this as John Powell bested his age by 22 on 6/1/2017 in a PGA sponsored event in CA.