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Apr. 28, 2005 Raymond Williams is 81 years old now and still, when he feels good, shoots legitimate 69-72 stroke scores on the golf course, though he often plays from the short tees now as he says he can't drive over 240 yards anymore. And those are no-cheating scores on regulation-length golf courses. He came by his golfing skills quite naturally. His father's friend was a well-known golfer and became his first golf teacher. That friend was the legendary Bobby Jones, and Mr. Williams began golfing instruction with Jones at age 5. Five is a number which played another role in his golfing career. He was one of the best amateur teenage golfers in the country when he was 17 years old, at which time he enlisted in the Marines for World War 2, where the number five played a role also. He saw duty on five of the most battle-torn islands in the South Pacific: Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, the Sullivans, Marshall Island, and Okinawa. He made the rank of sergeant, as being a 17-yr-old kid was no handicap to promotion when non-commissioned officers were needed because of combat losses. And the number five played a part here, too, as he had chosen to take his 5-iron with him to war, it being a middle iron and suitable for keeping one's swing grooved. He would unpack it and take practice swings whenever there were lulls in combat, and he became known to the other Marines as "Sergeant Five-Iron." He survived all the battles and his golf swing remained grooved, he survived a lung cancer operation, and he plays to this day, and I suspect he is the finest 81-yr-old golfer in the world. He never turned pro, and he never competed as an amateur, but there is little doubt he could have made a name for himself. His old teacher, Bobby Jones, would have been proud. ------------ About the author Brooks A. Mick: 63-yr-old physician, still practicing medicine but retired from the US Army. Write just for the fun of it, but working on novel in the vein of Tom Clancy's politico-military genre. Email: brooks15@cox.net ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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