Question: "Age-Shooter" Records in Golf
In golf, an "age shooter" is a golfer whose score matches or beats his age. For example, a golfer of age 70 who shoots a 70 or better. What are the records relating to age-shooters in golf? Here are a few.
(Source: The Golf Digest "record book," which appeared in the Jan. 1999 issue of the magazine, is the source for much of the information that follows.)
Answer: The age-shooting records that follow take into account only those rounds played on courses of 6,000 yards or more in length.
The overall record for youngest golfer to shoot his age belongs to Bob Hamilton, a golf pro who shot his age of 59 at Hamilton Golf Club in Evansville, Ind., in 1975.
The golfer who holds the age-shooting record on golf's major professional tours is Walter Morgan, playing the Champions Tour. In 2002, at age 61, Morgan shot a 60 in the AT&T Canada Senior Open Championship.
On the PGA Tour, the record belongs to Sam Snead. Slammin' Sam fired a 67 at the Quad Cities Open in 1979, when he was 67 years old. Then he set a new record a day later, shooting 66.
The oldest golfer to shoot his age was 103-year-old Arthur Thompson of Victoria, British Columbia. Thompson was playing the Uplands Golf Club in Victoria when he accomplished the feat in 1972.
How about the record for beating your age by the most strokes? OK, that's Ed Ervasti, who in 2007, at age 93, posted a 72 at Sunningdale Golf & Country Club (Old Course) in London, Ontario.
On the pro tours, the most-strokes-below-age record is held by Joe Jimenez (who in 1991 set a record for youngest age shooter on pro tours - with a 63 at 65 on the Champions Tour - later bested by Walter Morgan). Jimenez shot a 62 during the 1995 Ameritech Senior Open on the then-Seniors Tour when he was the ripe old age of 69.
And finally, the record for most times shooting your age belongs to T. Edison Smith of Moorhead, Minn. Frank Bailey of Abilene, Texas, had long held this record, matching or beating his age 2,623 times, from age 71 until age 98. But in 2006, Smith passed Bailey and continues on with the record.
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