THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 15, 1995 TAG: 9502140116
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Linda McNatt
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Four!
Six?
Guess you know already that I don't know much about golf. But that's what this column is all about.
Golf and numbers.
Two local seniors are heading up a drive to find 38 other players about their age - that's over 55 - to play a 30- or 31-week schedule of golf.
But you can't play unless you have a handicap, up to 34. And one of the rules will be that any member with a handicap of 30-plus should try to improve to 30 or below by the end of the season.
Now, one of those seniors, Dan McLaughlin, has a 12 handicap. And the other, Lewis Chapman, has 16.
If that makes you feel bad, maybe it should - because having a handicap, they tell me, has nothing to do with being able to park in designated spaces.
Handicap, McLaughlin and Chapman say, means how many bats at the ball you take over par for the course, and par is usually 72. Therefore, if you hit - shoot? - a 106, you would still be playing par golf if your very own handicap is 34. See?
Now, if you're not even quite that good, don't worry. You'll be paired, these golfers say, with others who are as bad as you are.
``And we would hope that these people will work to get their handicap below 30,'' McLaughlin said.
Maybe then you can park in the designated parking zones.
Got it so far?
So, these senior golfers - who have named themselves the South of the James Seniors Golf Club - plan to play on six or seven courses, with Smithfield Downs the home course.
Other courses already in the bag - er, the hole? - are Sleepy Hole, The Hamptons and Suffolk. And this group is planning on playing a game called ``closest to the hole.''
If you win, you get golf balls, which are always nice to throw at intruders if you have a handicap. I guess.
McLaughlin and Chapman got the idea about forming a seniors golf club closer to home after they had been playing with a Virginia Beach seniors club for nine seasons, on 14 or 15 courses.
But they didn't want to drive so far, so they put out the idea of a local club among their golfing buddies - and there's already lots of interest, McLaughlin said.
Chapman retired from American Oil in Yorktown after 30 years as a lab technician. McLaughlin is a retired, 34-year air-traffic controller who managed the former Patrick Henry Airport in Newport News at one time. He's been retired for 12 years.
Soon after he retired, Chapman said, he knew he had to do something to get regular exercise when he realized he was doing little more than sitting around. Since he started playing golf, he's started painting his house. He started last fall. He already has almost a third of it done.
The seniors say they'll have shotgun starts for most of their outings. That's to get them moving. I'd start if somebody shot a gun at me, wouldn't you?
``That way, we can be off the course in about four-and-a-half or five hours,'' McLaughlin said.
And Chapman can go home and paint his house.
The only membership requirement is that you must be older than 55. They had in the rules that you must be male, but I wouldn't let them get away with that.
``If a female approaches, she can join,'' McLaughlin said. ``But she had better have no more than a 34 handicap.''
``And,'' Chapman said, ``she's got to admit she's 55 or older.''
Annual dues will be $25.
If you're interested in playing, call McLaughlin at 357-5428 or Chapman at 357-4014. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LINDA McNATT
Lewis Chapman, left, and Dan McLaughlin are organizing the South of
the James Seniors Golf Club.
by CNB