Jim Hart with the ball matching his age or better for the 371st time.
Tim Phillips
As golfers move from the senior ranks to the much anticipated retired stage in their life, the thought and the challenge surfaces of when will I shoot my age? For most, it remains just a thought and dream unfulfilled. Even those athletes blessed with great hand to eye coordination in different professional sports never achieve the feat, much to their chagrin. The finest golfer of our era and maybe ever by most standards, Jack Nicklaus, first shot his age at 65 but could not do it again until he was 69. So it is not easy to accomplish or repeat over and over again. Health issues suddenly arise along with normal aging processes.
However, we have in Jim Hart a truly avid golfer who first shot his age at 67 and has continued here at Quail Creek to reach a level of 371 times at age 82 and going strong. Quite a record to match and a deadly competitor as well. Earlier this year at his youthful age of 82 he shot a cool 74.
Gentleman Jim has been a resident here at Quail Creek with his wife Carolyn who is also an avid golfer since 2005. In prior years, when he worked for a living, Jim served in the United States Air Force for a strong 24 1/2 years and followed that with nine years at the Holiday Inn chain.
Next on his career path, he then helped pioneer the golf outlet and sales age at Edwin Watts for 22 years in Florida. Although he only began his golfing career in 1957, he did get to play with a number of truly golf notables that included Eli Callaway, Karsten Solheim, Lee Trevino, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer and none other than Jack Nicklaus himself as part of his job at Edwin Watts. A pretty elite group for sure. Jim’s lowest handicap in the old days was six, not too bad for a working man.
So what is the goal for Jim who not only has hit the mark of 371 rounds matching or bettering his age, but has had nine holes-in-one and also as memorable, 13 hole out eagles here at Quail Creek! His goal is to keep on playing and making life difficult for his much younger adversaries in this humbling game we call golf.
When you look at the plaque in our pro shop that recognizes all here who have hit the magic number of matching their age, you will see Jim Hart’s name only once, but remember he started early and the count although last seen at 371 will only continue to mount and we can only guess where the final tally stops.
Congratulations to Jim and let’s see what happens when you reach 500! For the rest of us, let us get our names on the plaque at least once.