The rates sign behind the counter at Heather Gardens Golf Course in Aurora tells you that this isn’t your typical golf facility.
It indicates that a round of golf at the 9-hole executive course runs $7.50 for Heather Gardens residents. But there’s a separate line noting that golfers 85 and older pay $7 — a 50-cent discount.
There’s good reason why there’s a separate entry for those at least five years removed from reaching octogenarian status. With Heather Gardens GC being located within an age-restricted “active adult senior community”, the number of golfers who qualify for that 50-cent discount is considerably larger than at most other courses.
Indeed, on the weekday we paid a visit last week, eight golfers 85 and older were signed up to play nine holes.
In fact, one day not long ago it occurred to Heather Gardens PGA head professional Robert Macaluso how unusual the situation is.
While calling a group to the first tee, Macaluso noted, “We have almost 385 years (combined age for a foursome) on the tee right now. I go, ‘That’s got to be a record. If it’s not, it’s got to be close to one.’ And it wasn’t something that we had staged; it just was.”
Heather Gardens used to have a gentleman, Henry Lang, who played golf at 101 years old. Another, John Officer, was still swinging away at 99.
Nowadays, the oldest regular at Heather Gardens is Bert Karbach (pictured above), a 97-year-old local resident who plays most Mondays and Fridays, and who comes out to putt on many days when he doesn’t play a round. He typically walked the course until he was about 95, and even now he shoots between 45-50 for nine holes.
The oldest of the women who play regularly at Heather Gardens is 94-year-old Dorothy Davis, who still walks the course, using a pull cart. Marge Sutton likewise often plays, but she’s “only” 92.
Macaluso estimates that limiting the list to just nonagenarians — that is, people 90-99 years old — there are 12-15 women who play in the Heather Garden ladies club on Wednesday, while the course is home to 8-10 men of that age.
When a sampling of the 90-plus-year-old golfers are asked why they continue to play at their age, most cite camaraderie, exercise and the challenge of the game. In other words, their reasons are much the same as those of the general golf population.
“When I was younger I raised two families with two kids in each one of them,” noted Karbach, a former pilot in the military. “I didn’t have time to play golf (though he played his first rounds in the early 1930s). So now that I’m retired and don’t have those responsibilities, I think it’s a wonderful game. It’s always different and you always have an opponent, and it’s yourself. It’s you against the golf course. It’s just me and the golf course every time.”
Dean Coleman, 93, is a relative newcomer at Heather Gardens, having moved there at the end of November. Coleman (pictured holding a putter next to Don Meyer, 95) regularly walks the course.
“There’s always hope for a better game,” he said. “I can’t think of another sport (that you can do in your 90s). I used to play tennis a lot but I don’t dare get out there anymore. Changing directions is dangerous.”
While plenty of other courses may have a few 90-year-olds play at their facilities, Heather Gardens caters to them — along with folks in their late 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s — given that it’s a centerpiece of a senior community. Macaluso said that at one point the average age of players in the men’s club was 82 or 83, though it’s back down to about 73 or 74 now.
That obviously gives Macaluso, a 56-year-old who’s worked at Heather Gardens since 1992, a little different perspective on growing the game.
“As a PGA golf professional one of the jobs is to promote golf,” he said. “And it’s always been this (emphasis) on junior golf. Don’t get me wrong — I love junior golf and I support junior golf — but it dawned on me in the community that we’re at, there’s not a lot of golf courses that go on the other end of the spectrum and try to promote keeping (older) people playing.”
Macaluso points out that several “super seniors” at Heather Gardens who have never played golf before ask him, Can I learn? And he recently had a lady 90 years old who just took up the game.
“I made a joke at one of our PGA meetings: ‘Everybody is all about the junior golfers, but I’m over at Heather Gardens where my job is to help the seniors keep playing.
“They talk about PGA pros and what are you most proud of, and they talk about they shot 66 the other day or ‘I’ve got a large junior program’. I’m most proud of, I’ve got a great staff and a great community that has supported me for 22 years — and we’re keeping these people playing golf into their 90s.” (Pictured at left is Warren Mitchell, 88, another regular at Heather Gardens.)
For instance, Meyer, a 95-year-old who used to be the tournament director at Heather Gardens, was a very good player for his age well into his late 80s. But recently he got to the point that he skipped a men’s club tournament because he no longer could reach the greens on par-3s from the white tee boxes.
After explaining the situation to the men’s club officials, Macaluso received word that the men’s club agreed to let players at least 85 years old, and those with local golf handicaps of at least 18, play from the forward tees. “I called Don and you’d have thought I told him it was his birthday because he was ear-to-earn grin,” Macaluso said.
Meyer was a good enough player that in his late 80s he would on occasion shoot under 40 for the par-32 Heather Gardens course. In fact, that led Meyer and the Heather Gardens golf shop staff to a little ritual.
It takes a little background to explain. Macaluso used to be a teaching professional at a golf course in Burbank, Calif., which drew its share of celebrities given that it was close to Hollywood. In fact, Macaluso said he gave Bob Hope lessons at one point, and he can be seen in an episode of the TV show, “The Wonder Years”. In any case, he noted that comedian Jack Benny always used to say he was 39 years old, regardless of his actual age. With that in mind, whenever Meyer would shoot 39, he’d come into the golf shop and say, “Jack Benny today”.
“After he turned 90, and his game (wasn’t as good), we changed it to ‘Senior Jack Benny’, which is (shooting) 49,” Macaluso said. “So now he’ll go ‘Senior Jack Benny’ when he shoots 49.”
Macaluso points out that nowadays when Meyer pulls up to the golf course in his red pickup truck, “my staff, they almost argue over who’s going to go down and pick him up.”
Meyer is a former pharmacist who didn’t take up the game until he retired. But these days, at 95 years old, it’s not unusual for him to play golf four times a week.
“I get to meet people and it’s the only exercise that I like,” he said.
Coleman has been playing golf for roughly 70 years, and he remembers distinctly how he got started.
“I was waiting to get out of the Army in San Antonio and they had a golf course on the base,” he said. “For 50 cents, we got a set of clubs and three balls. None of us had ever played before. Then you brought (the clubs and balls) back and you got your 50 cents back.”
In other words, net charge: $0.
Coleman is a pretty good stick even at age 93, having shot a 45 this year. And he does pretty well in the men’s club tournaments.
“I understand I’ve got $76 on the books” in the golf shop, he noted with a smile.
But it’s the challenge of the game that keeps him playing.
“The fact that it’s you against the course is what brings me back,” Coleman said. “There’s nobody you can blame (but yourself).”
Of course, golf certainly isn’t the only activity for the folks at Heather Gardens.
“They’re playing tennis, swimming, riding bikes, playing poker, they have a billiards room …” Macaluso said, reeling off the list.
But it’s seeing them playing golf that really gives Macaluso satisfaction, giving his profession.
“It’s a nice feeling of self-gratification for me that I’m helping these people at the time of their lives where they’ve lost spouses, their kids have moved out, their grandkids are in different states,” he said. “All they have is golf and we ought to keep them playing golf longer. Their age speaks for itself.
“I think there ought to be a study done about the longevity of men and women and playing golf. Long life and what’s the secret? I think golf actually has something to do with it.”
