Making shots and taking shots at 100
SPECTATOR GOLF
There’s a first time for everything.
And so it was that I had a chance this week interview a local golfer on the day before his 100th birthday.
I met Bob Miller on the range at Hidden Lake where he was hitting a few chips and sitting in the cart watching family members hit balls.
Golf is often billed as a game for life and Miller is living proof of that. He took up the sport about 60 years ago because friends played and he’s still at it even though, admittedly, age has slowed him down a little.
These days, he tries to get to the course at least once a week even if it’s just to hit some balls at the range.
Miller says he can only hit it about 20 yards anymore but he was obviously trying to get strokes off me because he was belting them way past that when we coaxed him out of the cart to hit a few.
“The best I’ve been is a 15 but I’ve had a couple of holes-in-one,” Miller says proudly.
“I had one in 1965 on the third hole on the Beddoe at Chedoke and one in 1981 at Bracebridge.
“Even though nowadays you know your limitations, you still want to be out here.”
A 40-year veteran of National Steel Car, Miller says it’s the quest for perfection that keeps us all coming back.
“We all have the ability to hit a long ball but to repeat it is a different story,” he says, noting that runners run the same all the time but golfers can have poor shots and then really good ones.
That brings him to what he’d do differently with his golf game if he had to do it all over again.
“I’d take lessons from someone who really knew what they were doing,” he says.
In addition to being able to hit a golf ball decently, Miller is still sharp as a tack.
When I finished the interview by saying that I hope he’s still golfing when he’s a 150, Miller got a big grin on his face, thanked me and added “but I don’t think you’ll be around to interview me.”
Ouch. WHOLE-IN-ONE: Aces in the area recently include three from Chippewa Creek, Jim Cunningham on the 108-yard sixth hole of the Gold Eagle nine with a pitching wedge; John Roberts on the 116yard fourth hole of the Gold Eagle nine with an eight iron; and Michael Kilmartin on the 135-yard third hole of the Red Falcon nine with an eight iron. … Willow Valley had a pair of aces on the same hole, the 15th, Kevin St. Michael from 125 yards with an eight iron; and Rick Ferguson from 108 yards with a pitching wedge. … Norm Virtue made a singleton on the 135-yard 14th hole at Kings’ Forest with a six iron.