One of Wodonga Golf Club's best sledgers could only laugh when chipped by a member recently.
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"Somebody saw me having a lesson with Gavin and said, 'you know the definition of an optimist, an 82-year-old having golf lessons," Max Mueller chuckled.
The Sultan of Sledge was out-sledged.
But the octogenarian had the last laugh when he achieved a reasonably rare feat last week, equalling his age.
He fired one birdie and eight pars in his 10-over par round of 82.
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"I have broken 80 twice before when I was getting down to 11 (in my late 70s) and I hope I can break 80 again soon," he said.
"I just want to do a bit more work with Gavin, just on my general swing."
Gavin Vearing is the club pro who's helping Mueller, who lives near the course.
"He loves it, he's up here every day playing," he said.
"He still hits the ball alright, it was interesting working with his golf swing on TrackMan (golf radar).
"About 167m was the furtherest I could get him hitting it, with his down and across (swing) that a lot of golfers have, but I put him on TrackMan and it improved his (flight) path and got about 25m extra distance by improving his path and club face.
Somebody saw me having a lesson with Gavin and said, 'you know the definition of an optimist, an 82-year-old having golf lessons.
- Max Mueller
"It's great that he wants to learn, age is not necessarily a barrier, it's your mindset."
He might be a legend of the lip, "I give all the crap in the world to all my mates, I'm seen as quite a good sledger", but he's also enormously popular.
"It's interesting when we put a post on our Facebook page we might get, on average, five to 10 comments," Vearing said.
"With Max, we got 38, saying,' Max, great effort'.
"He's a bit of a character around the club."
Mueller is also a hard worker.
"He's instrumental, like when we were doing the Zach Murray (current European Tour member) fundraisers Max will go up to any member and say, 'we need you to come and play this day'," Vearing said.
"He's well liked around the club, he chips in and does a lot of extra things."
He didn't start until 50.
"I make sure that if anybody new comes to the club, I introduce myself and make sure they feel part of the club," he said proudly.
"I just like people, I love my sport and I like doing things with sportspeople."
Especially sledging.