How old are you and what's your occupation?
I'm 69 (70 in May) - and lucky to have stayed healthy and fairly flexible. I'm old - but don't play old.

I am a semi-retired university physics professor (Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo). I retired from my full-time faculty position after 36 years at a university and this is my fifth year teaching part-time (which is what gives me more time to play golf!).

When did you start playing golf and what's your handicap?
I started playing golf when I was a kid - a group clinic during the summer when I was about six or seven, played junior golf (not well), high school golf, and college golf (UC Riverside). I was never particularly good - but enjoyed it. But after graduate school, I took a nearly 35 year hiatus - over three decades without swinging a club - until my by then grown son gave me greens fees to San Francisco's Presidio Club (knowing I had not swung a club in his lifetime). That was nine years ago. (So have I been playing 60+ years, or nine? Depends on how you count.)

How often do you play?
My current handicap index is 2.6. That seems artificially low, mainly since I had a two-month stretch this Fall of playing over my head with four or five low rounds (including my best round ever). It will creep back up to about a four or five, which is
more realistic and closer to what I usually play to.

Since retiring, I now get to play a couple of times per week - and often practice some once or twice in addition. Of course, living along the central coast of California makes golf a year-round sport - so that means 90-100 rounds a year.

Tell me about a great shot you've made.
The nice thing about golf - no matter who is playing and what the skill level is, great shots can happen at any time. I suppose I should claim, however, the two aces I've made this year. They both were on the short (120 yd) three par 8th hole across the lake at my local course. Although a short hole, it can be intimidating just because it is water from tee to green. The two shots (seven months apart) were nearly identical (although one was a knock-down 9-iron, the other a pitching wedge to a different pin position). In both cases, the ball hit about a foot beyond the hole, hopped forward, then spun back into the cup. I always assumed that if I ever made another hole-in-one (I had made one as a college kid), it would be on a fluke shot that just happened to bounce in - like the others I've witnessed. It was nice that both of these were great shots whether or not they went in - and they were both witnessed by friends!

What is your best golf memory?
There are probably too many. Great shots, of course, always stick in one's memory and are fond to recall. But maybe getting into that "zone" where nothing can go wrong lodges there best. The most recent was just this Fall - on an otherwise pretty good round in which I was probably scoring better than I was playing (except for a two-shot penalty for a ball that somehow disappeared in an open area just left of the fairway), I birdied five of the last six holes for a "career" round of 69 (also my age!). Even the lone par in that stretch was a great hybrid shot across a ravine on the par-3 15th (which plays about 200 yds against the prevailing wind) to within 15 ft. I missed the putt - my only two-putt in that stretch of holes. But eighteen shots for six holes - two of them 5-pars - will stay with me for a
long time.

What is your "home" course?
Dairy Creek Golf Course in San Luis Obispo, CA (actually halfway between San Luis and Morro Bay). It's a county parks public course, a links-style course by John Harbottle, with lots of risk-reward holes, elevation changes, forced carries across ravines and environmental hazards and creeks. Great scoring opportunities, but a lot of places for it to go wrong as well. A nice track for a public course.

What ball do you play?
I've played mostly Titleist since my college days. I usually play either Pro V1 or Pro V1x, although I'm not sure I could tell the difference between them and other premium balls from Callaway or TaylorMade (which I played today).

Clubs?
My irons were purchased when I started playing again nine years ago - Cleveland TA5s, and more recently Cleveland wedges. They still work. My driver is a Titleist D2 (fit by Titleist's Glenn Mahler) and I also play a Titleist 3-wood and hybrid. I putt with an Odyssey 2-ball - sometimes well, sometimes not so much. I don't think it has anything to do with the putter!

Favorite pro?
Until recently, that would have been easy to answer. I grew up in the Ben Hogan, Sam Snead era - and they would have to have been my favorites as a kid - along with Gene Littler, a local San Diego phenom. Arnie, of course, has been everyone's favorite player for decades - all for good reason. I am contemporary with Jack Nickaus - and it is hard not to applaud all he has accomplished on the golf course and in life. I payed no attention to golf for three decades so missed much of that era - although would have to list Tom Watson as among my favorites from that era (especially after this year's British Open). And, of course, we are all lucky to live in the Tiger Woods era - and to watch what he can do with a golf ball. (I followed him at Sherwood CC two years ago when he shot the course record 62. Amazing.) I do hope his personal problems can somehow be resolved and (selfishly, I realize) we get to see him again.

Favorite course you've played?
As a young player, I had a lot of opportunities to play on some good golf courses (and probably didn't really appreciate them) - La Jolla CC, Torrey Pines, Indian Wells, Annandale, LA CC. But a very special place that no one has ever heard of is Balfour CC near Nelson, British Columbia, in the Canadian Rockies. It is a relatively short, spectacularly beautiful risk/reward course - with lots of water built in a forest on the side of a mountain. It was the first time since returning to golf that I went low (73) and realized that I really could play again and should devote some time to it.

Dream course you've yet to play?
Oh, there are many. The obvious choices, I suppose, would be Pebble Beach or August National.

Best round ever- and what course?
If by best round you mean lowest score - it was just last September at San Luis Obispo's Dairy Creek. After a one-over front nine 36 (where I scored better than I played), and a lost ball on #12, I birdied five of the last six holes (five one-putts between one and ten feet) for a 33 coming in. I walked off the 18th after that last birdie putt thinking, "Did that really just happen? Did I really just shoot my age?"

Give me an example of a time your SkyCaddie saved you a stroke?
Again, probably too many to examples to count. Just yesterday, after a blocked into-the-wind tee shot on a long par-4 that got hung up in the short rough just right of the fairway, my SG2.5 showed that I had 190 to the front edge (which would have allowed a safe hybrid shot to just short of the green) and 230 to the back pin position on that long narrow green with trouble both left and right. Why play safe when nothing is riding on this game? I chose to hit 3-wood to the middle of the green - probably luckier than smart. (Made the putt.)

What is one aspect of your golf game you would like to improve on in the next year?
I'm pretty consistent off the tee - which allows me hit a lot of greens. So being able to save more pars on those I miss is really what I need to work on. So ... short game and putting, what else?

Tell me a story.
When I was 12, my dad and I went to a hole-in-one contest at our local San Diego muni. It was about a 100 yd shot across a ravine. We got two tries. I hit my first ball pretty well - nearly made it to the surface before it bounced back into the canyon. On my second attempt, to my chagrin, I accidentally bumped the ball as I was addressing it (nervousness, I suppose), it bounced off the rubber mat and rolled into the canyon (followed by the laughter of those watching). As I was sheepishly leaving the tee box, the starter tossed me another ball and said to try again. I stuck it to 4 ft 2 inches short of the hole - to finish third in that two-day contest. I still have the trophy. Somewhere.


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