A nonagenarian is defying the age barrier by hitting the course three times a week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Wodonga Golf Club member Ken Zappelli took up the thrice-weekly habit at 82 and only started peaking in his 70s.
"I don't get into any trouble, I just hit it down the middle," he said when quizzed on hitting his best form in his 70s, an age when many golfers are slowing up and past their peak.
He got down to a handicap of 11 in his prime, but the 90-year-old now plays off 28 on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Zappelli only took up the challenging sport at 46.
"We used to go fishing, but couldn't catch any fish in the end," he laughed of his time at Beech Forest, in Victoria's Otway Ranges.
Zappelli was a jack of all trades in his working life.
"I used to get the seven-year itch, I had seven years on the shire in Colac, seven years a plumber, couple of years on the railways, almost seven years in the army (including the Korean War in 1953)," he said.
"I had to check around the minefields." Was that nerve-wracking? "No, just something you did."
Perhaps it explains why Zappelli had such steady nerves with putting for many years.
"My putting (used to be my strength), but I've lost my putting, I haven't putted well for ages," he laughed.
IN OTHER NEWS:
It can be said of golf it's the only sport where you can lose form walking to the next shot.
"(Laughs), you're probably right there, you can have a really bad hole and birdie the next, it's a funny game."
