Senior golfers share what they love about game
BELLA VISTA — Bella Vista has its fair share of golfers, but it also has a number of golfers who are still quite active in their 80s and beyond.
Several women golfers from the Putt Savers golf group recently shared how they got into golf and what they enjoy about it.
Shari Hult, 82, is originally from Omaha, Neb., and started playing nine-hole golf in 1999.
“I admire all the ladies’ agility because mine is getting quite difficult, but they put up with me,” she said. “I love being outside. Everything I do is a social thing. It’s the only athletic thing I’ve ever done, and I just love it. I love Bella Vista.”
Peggy Mcmenus, 91, moved to Bella Vista from Springfield, Mo. She started playing golf in 1997 with a nine-hole group.
“When we moved here and retired, my husband played. He was a good golfer. I thought, ‘I’m not going to be a golf widow, so I’ll play too.’”
She was a homemaker and raised two sons.
Her favorite thing about golf is getting out in the fresh air when the weather is nice and being with the other ladies who golf, she said.
Marion Caho, 87, moved to Bella Vista from Oklahoma. She formerly worked as a secretary. She never played golf until her late 60s when her husband died. Now she tries to play 18 holes twice a week. She said Kaye Pedziwater, who heads up the Putt Savers, does a great job.
“Everybody is so friendly,” she said. She explained that, in Putt Savers, if they get two putts, they donate a dime; and, if they get three putts, they donate a quarter.
“Most of us just put in a dollar because it goes to a charity in Bella Vista,” she said.
Sharon Franklin, 80, moved to Bella Vista from Quincy, Ill. She was secretary to the director of special education.
She has lived in Bella Vista since 2002 and has been in Putt Savers since 2004. She said her husband plays golf a lot. She became interested in golf because she had retired and needed something else to do, and she had a friend who played.
She is also in a nine-hole group and the Hummerettes golf group.
“What I like best about it is I’ve made a lot of friendships,” she said.
Carol Mckibben, 82, moved to Bella Vista from Joplin, Mo. She formerly worked as a secretary and then worked part-time when she began raising children.
She became interested in golf because her husband plays and she wanted to play with him. She plays Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday.
“I love it. It’s outdoors; you’re being with people. Good camaraderie. You just make so many friends playing golf,” she said.
Barb Jenner, 81, was raised in Nebraska but moved around a lot in adulthood because her husband was military.
She was also military, serving in the Navy as an air traffic controller.
When they retired, they did some research and found Bella Vista and moved here in 2000. She took golf lessons in 2002 or 2003. She played with her husband at first, joining the ladies’ group later on. She said she loves the sport because she makes so many friends.
Carroll Knost, 88, moved to Bella Vista from Minneapolis. She was also from a military family, with the move to Bella Vista making her 23rd move.
She had a career working for a medical device company in the development of pacemakers and implantable defibrillators.
She said she has always played golf, but not seriously until she moved to Bella Vista. Now she tries to play twice a week. Besides being in Putt Savers, she has been in a ninehole ladies group since 1999.
Her favorite part of golf? “The friendships,” she said. “That tops it all.”
Two men from the Jelly Bellies golf group also shared their love of golf.
Dick Willows, 88, moved to Bella Vista from Minnesota, where he worked at the Pioneer Press Dispatch in St. Paul for 29 years. Before that, he worked at other newspapers, for a total of 46½ years.
He has been living in Bella Vista for 26 years.
“I like it here because it’s four seasons. One of the groups I play with, we play in the wintertime,” he said.
He did not start golfing until he was 45 years old. He grew up in Canada, so he had always played hockey. One day some guys from work invited him to play golf, and he grew to love it.
“I worked the night shift at the newspaper so I’d play every day. I got down to a 12 handicap, which is respectable. Right now I’m a 19 or a 20 depending on which course I’m on. I just enjoy the game. I only play twice a week now because I’m involved in the Bella Vista Men’s Chorus and I sing in a gospel quartet and the church choir, and my music keeps me busy,” he said.
His favorite thing about the sport is winning, he said.
“We play for money,” he said. “I had a hole in one five or six years ago, and there was a hole-in-one pot. No one had one for a few years so I won $570. I generally win some money every second or third round. It’s bragging rights. I like to tell the guys, ‘Hey, how many strokes did you beat your age by today?’”
Ray Wolf, 87, moved to Bella Vista from California, where he was an educator for 35 years. He has been living in Bella Vista for about 12 years. He plays with three golf groups — the Wylde group, the Duffers and the Jelly Bellies — and he also plays with family on the weekends.
“It keeps me young,” he said. “I’m 87 now; it keeps me young. I love the game or I wouldn’t be out there. I play with some of the greatest people you’d ever want to know.”
He said he took a golf class in college but didn’t really become interested in the sport until he was in his mid-30s. He knew several coworkers in education at the time who golfed.
“I became a golfer, and I fell in love with the game,” he said.
He added, “Golf keeps a person young — keeps you out there; you’re getting exercise. Sometimes I even shoot my age. I like the people, the game itself. I think the golfers are the most honest and they’re friendly, just people you like to be around. Golfers are supposed to be honest — when they tell you they shot a 5 or 6, you believe them. It’s a great game. I tried to get as many of my students playing golf as I could.”