‘She’s an inspiration’
Eunice Cudmore is eager as ever to hit the golf course at age 91
Eunice Cudmore expresses frustration — both verbally and through a look of disgust — over a poorly struck golf ball.
Perspective, though, quickly follows her displeasure over the shot.
“I shouldn’t be complaining,’’ says Cudmore. “How many are out here at 91?’’
The Stratford woman with the sunny disposition has embraced the game since joining Belvedere Golf and Country Club in Charlottetown in 1960 with her husband, Ivo, who died in 1992. (The couple owned and operated Cudmore Business Equipment, which sold office machines and office furniture).
After 57 years of swinging — and with her 92nd birthday just a few months away — the allure of golf has not faded in the least for Cudmore.
“I love golf,’ she says.
“I love the coming out with the girls, sitting around after (golfing) and having lunch or having a drink – all that stuff.’’
She provides amusement to playing partners with her trademark celebratory dance that regularly comes on the heels of a good golf shot.
“Did you see that one, girls?’’ she shouts out enthusiastically after hitting a crisp shot up the middle of the fairway.
Cudmore impresses the relative youngsters — Phyllis Connolly, 77, Lynn Clements, 74, and Etta Connolly, a mere 71 years of age — who regularly join her for golf at Belvedere.
“Oh, she’s a sweetie,’’ says Clements.
“She’s an inspiration to everybody. She really is. She’s fun and she’s loving and she can tell the jokes, too.’’
Cudmore truly is quite a marvel.
She golfs every Tuesday and Thursday, playing nine holes each day. She only started using a golf car in 2016 — the first year she stopped shoving her clubs along the fairways in a pushcart.
She also just recently gave up curling out of concern over slipping on the ice.
“When I became 90, I got it in my head I might fall…and who needs a broken hip?’’
Cudmore, though, appears fit as a fiddle.
Nine holes of golf fail to wear her down one bit.
Nor does she experience any aches or pains after a couple
hours of hitting balls and rumbling over the fairways in a golf car.
“I’m not tired at all,’’ she notes.
“Go home and finish my housework, go to the grocery store and decide what you are going to have for dinner.’’
Cudmore typically goes to bed around midnight, never missing her beloved Blue Jays playing baseball on TV, and is up at 7 a.m. ready to make the most of each day.
She enjoys cooking and
baking and working in her yard, clipping bushes and trees on her two acres of property.
“You just have to keep going,’’ she says.
“If I sit down for a few minutes, I get up. I figure I should be doing something. I’m wasting my time sitting.’’
Cudmore chalks her longevity up to good and healthy genes, not to her nearly six decades of golfing.
Many tell her that she does not look her age — not even close. She could pass for being in her 70s.
“They can’t believe my age and they are always guessing me younger,’’ she says.
Still, golf seems to help keep Cudmore young at heart.
She finds the sport fun, social, relaxing and even therapeutic.
“Well I think golf is a great thing for anybody,’’ she says.
“The way I look at it when you are out there hitting that little white ball, if you’ve got problems you forget about everything.’’
So there is no need for this 91-year-old golfer to put away her clubs, right?
“Oh, I’ll play as long as I can,’’ she says.
“I sure am hoping I can play next year.’’