Minor lacrosse results
PICTON -- The last time Picton senior Evelyn Coburn was on a real golf course she didn’t even make it off the first tee.
After taking a swipe at her opening tee shot, she went to the ground, a fall that effectively ended her lifelong passion of playing on the outdoor turf. But laying on the ground that day was no ordinary senior. Afterall, she was only 98 years old and determined not to let the game she had an 80-year love affair with slip away.
“Well, it was a couple of years ago and I was over at the Picton Golf Club and I took a mighty swing at the ball on the very first and down I went,” she recalled at her kitchen table Wednesday afternoon. “I broke my hip and had to have it replaced and after it was done, the doctor told me no more golf. He said I could chip and putt but no more than that – oh was I ever mad.”
Although she joined the centenarian in October with her 100th birthday, she can still be found playing the game she loves every Wednesday afternoon.
Restricted to chipping and putting, it didn’t take Evelyn long to size up the hallways in her home at the Westwind condos, a Picton seniors complex.
a.m., Hockey, Mike Mulvaney Memorial Tournament, AsphodelNorwood CC, Ennismore CC, Evinrude Centre, Kinsmen Civic Centre, Lakefield-Smith CC, Northcrest Arena
p.m., OCAA Men’s Basketball, Durham Lords vs. Fleming Knights, Peterborough Sport and Wellness Evelyn Coburn, 100, of Picton never loses a game of golf due to the weather.
Once she had determined the hallways were wide enough to make suitable fairways, she sprang into action and organized the Wednesday afternoon league with a dozen players from her building, playing the twohole course - a Par 4 and a Par 5 in the third-floor halls and a putting green in the building’s meeting room.
Born and raised in Montreal, she started to play golf in her teens when she would drag her clubs around and play a field-like course for a dollar. Her first husband died in a concentration camp in Germany during the second World War. Five years later, she married Newt Coburn and
p.m., AA champion vs. AAA champion, Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre eventually they left Montreal with two daughters to set up in Toronto, conveniently near the Islington Golf Club.
“(Newt) golfed but he wasn’t as fond of it as I was,” Evelyn recalled. “He was more of a tennis player but I told him there was no way I was going to play tennis, so golf it was.”
After one of her daughters and husband moved to Picton in 1990, Evelyn and Newt followed suit five years later when he was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s. Although he died in 2002, Evelyn has continued to live in the Westwind condo.
p.m., AA champion vs. AAA champion, Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre
a.m., Hockey, Mike Mulvaney Memorial Tournament, Evinrude Centre, Kinsmen Civic Centre,
She doesn’t let much stand in her way. Legally blind from macular degeneration, she still pursues her two other loves, reading and writing.
Evelyn doesn’t have a magical recipe for longevity. She says keeping busy and enjoying what you do will help anyone. Being able to enjoy a good laugh helps too.
“I was down getting my health card renewed not that long ago and the girl asked me if I wanted to donate and of my body parts – I had a good laugh about that,” Evelyn said. “She apologized and said she had to ask, so I told her everything was pretty much worn out except my tongue and nobody’s going to want that. We both had a good laugh at that one.”
These days when she hasn’t got a putter in her hand, or a book or a pen for that matter – she is busy preparing to move to the Manor on Loyalist Parkway – a retirement and assisted living facility not far from Westwind.
“Well I wasn’t thinking about moving right away – but more down the road sometime. I put in an application and they called and said they had a suite available, so I guess it’s going to be sooner than later,” she said. “They’re telling me here that they won’t have a golf league there, but the hallways look pretty wide, so we might have to work on that.”
p.m., MMA and Muay Thai, The Quest hosted by World Championship Martial Arts, The Venue The following are results of the Nationwide Lacrosse youth winter league play. Junior Division Team Rush 10: Sebastian Martineau 5, Corbin Andrus 3, Jack Bartlett 2. Rock 6: Tyson Kitchen 4, Lukasz Cormack, Carson Ostapek. Black Wolves 16: Alex Duncan 8, James Deveauz 4, Braden Hockaday 3, Noah Adamson-Agostino. Stealth 9: Brennan Gabriel 5, Lachlan Stone 3, Emmett Colby. Senior Division Team Rock 15: Ezra Daley 5, Ayden Whitten 2, Marielle Grace Collins 2, Cameron Canzi 2, Jacob Pattinson 2, William Chmarney 2. Team Rush 8: Kyle McNutt 2, Noah Booth 2, William Chmarney, Evan Booth, Jacob Rose, Trevor Hammond. Team Stealth 20: Cole Davis 6, Colby Loveless 6 Ty Chaplin 4, Garrett Deal 3, Braydon Deal. Black Wolves 14: Kaleb Parkhurst 8, Avery Johnston 2, Mulham Zanzoul, Abby Drinkwalter, Chase Patterson, Tyson Forget.