Those of you familiar with the rat-a-tat-tat social media workings of Twitter will possibly be aware that the great Gary Player puts out more tweets than the dawn chorus.
At all levels of the game, the bold Black Knight will be on, offering congratulations on a weekly basis to the various winners across the golfing board. Strangely enough, though, he’s not commented on Maurice Brown’s win in the handicap section of the Fortrose & Rosemarkie Gents Club Championship yet.
Given both men were born in 1935, it could be something that may tickle Player’s fancy? At the sprightly age of 83, Brown, who is clearly as fit a restrung fiddle, has underlined one of golf’s many alluring qualities; that it truly is a game for life.
Playing off a handicap of 22, Brown never lost a hole as he beat 17-year-old Ben Patience by a 9&8 margin in Saturday’s 18-hole final over that delightful little course on the Black Isle. Age has never been a barrier to success in this pursuit of great longevity.
“I said to my wife going out the door that if I pop my clogs, I’d rather do it out there on the golf course than sitting in a chair,” said Glasgow-born Maurice.
“I’ve seen so many poor people sitting around unable to do things so you have to keep going when you can. I’m lucky I can do that. Age means nothing.”
It was quite the weekend for the golfing golden oldies. At Colville Park in Lanarkshire, Les Innes won the men’s club championship at 69.
Compared to Brown’s redoubtable vintage, though, Innes still looks eligible for the junior tankard.
Brown may not have been everybody’s tip for success, but the former footballer, who had stint with Inverness Thistle back in the day, wasn’t going into his own club’s championship just to make up the numbers.
“When I entered, I said to the club pro that ‘I’m in it to win it’,” he reflected. “The weather on the weekend they played the first knock-out round was pretty terrible. My caddie got so wet he didn’t want to come out again for the next round.
“I got another guy who was going to be caddying for my opponent. But he gave me his caddie as he felt sorry that I had to pull my own trolley! In the final, I’d never played as well before. It was just one of those days.
“I felt sorry for the young lad who I beat. I said to my caddie that I would have felt better if I’d lost a hole but he said, ‘don’t think like that. If he’d won the first, you may never have got a hole back’. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d win the tile.”
Cue a highland fling in the clubhouse to celebrate? Not quite. “I was playing the next day in a competition,” he said. “My playing partner and myself had won it last year so we had to defend it … but I was knackered.”
Brown clearly has an unquenchable drouth for competition. He’s playing in another two club events this week. The golfer he admired most, the late Seve Ballesteros, would have admired Maurice’s unwavering passion and sturdy resolve.
“Many years ago my boy, Andrew, won a competition to get coached at Langbank by Seve,” he recalled. “I think there were 12 lads in total and he showed them all the tricks of the trade. It was great to watch. He was my hero. He had that flair that nobody else did.”
The handicapping system in golf may allow for all walks of golfing life to compete in a fair and equitable way but, despite his notable conquest, Brown still feels he has a point to prove.
“The thing that kind of goes against my win is that I’m playing off a handicap of 22 and on some holes you’re getting a couple of shots,” he said.
“I don’t like that. I’d like to win something with a handicap I can be proud off. I’m not proud of 22 by any means. So the next goal is to get my handicap down.”
The great Walter Hagen once said: “You don’t have the game you played last year or last week. You only have today’s game. It may be far from your best, but that’s all you’ve got. Harden your heart and make the best of it.”
As he climbs the brae on the age front, Maurice Brown continues to make the best of it in this game for all the ages.
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