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Ladies of the fairway

Bright and early every Tuesday, the Naughty Niners gather to play nine holes.

By KELLIE DIXON, Times Staff Writer
Published September 5, 2007

Dotty Walls, 86, and Betty Cameron, 76, drive to the green as they play the front nine during their regular tee time with friends at Beacon Woods Golf Club. Every Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. sharp, five ladies known as the Naughty Niners tee off in friendly but heated competition.
	[Times photo: Brendan Fitterer]

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Brendan Fitterer] Lee Eletto, 90, hits her tee shot down the fairway at Beacon Woods Golf Club on a recent Tuesday morning. She plays nine holes each Tuesday with the Naughty Niners. [Times photo: Brendan Fitterer] Eva Barrett (left), 82, hands a ball to Diane Dodge, 68, as the two women prepare to putt. The Naughty Niners once had 40 golfers. Now they are down to five.

BAYONET POINT -- They call them the Naughty Niners.

Every Tuesday, these five women - all Florida transplants - show up at Beacon Woods Golf Club for their 7:30 a.m. tee time. They pile into their golf carts, play nine holes and shoot roughly 15 strokes below their average age of 80.

Scores aren't all that important. What really matters to these women is the friendship and fresh air.

They look too sweet for the moniker. Betty Cameron's eyes twinkled when she insisted the group had changed its name to the Golden Girls.

Her smile betrayed her.

"We're still the Naughty Niners," the 76-year-old confessed in her soft Alabama drawl. "Everybody's heard our bad jokes and everything. We thought we might get more respect as the Golden Girls."

Nice try.

But really, respect is one thing this group doesn't have to worry about. Cameron, Eva Barrett, Lee D'Eletto, Diane Dodge and Dotty Walls never miss a Tuesday. They play three mornings a week in the heat of the summer, in the chill of winter. D'Eletto, at 90, even shows up on weekends to hit the driving range. Men finishing up at No. 18 are amazed when they see her working on her shoulder turn or wedge shots, standing alone in the heat with her wrap-around shades.

Dan Martino, director of golf at Beacon Woods for 13 years, says it's not unusual for several players who have made tee times to cancel because it's either too hot or cold.

Not these ladies.

"They do their nine holes," he said. "They are troupers. They're not wimps."

It makes Martino's day to see the group stroll in for its tee time. They joke back and forth, and occasionally Martino will fire up the PA system when the ladies approach the first tee.

"The Naughty Niners are now playing," Martino says. "Silence on the tee."

It's 7:30 a.m., so no one is out there. The ladies laugh.

On a recent Tuesday, the Naughty Niners agreed to let a Times reporter tag along.

Slow but steady, they stayed in the fairway. There wasn't a lot of chatter. No bad words. And so what if somebody parked a cart a little too close to the green. Rangers see these ladies and it's "yes ma'am, no ma'am."

The group has dwindled over the years. Barrett, 82, remembers when 40 golfers filled the Naughty Niners cast of characters.

"Some of them passed away," Barrett said. "Some of them moved up north with their families. This is what's left."

The golfers are more like sisters than competitors. They encourage, nag and love one another. The widowed ones aren't allowed to date unless the rest approve of her suitor. They trade the details of their lives as freely as they swap recipes and share golf advice during their roughly two-hour games.

Sometimes they will bail after six holes if the weather gets too bad. It was hot on this recent Ladies Day, but they kept moving.

They reached the beastly No. 8, 433 yards long from the red tees. D'Eletto, Dodge and Barrett worked their way up the fairway. Then, 35 yards out, Dodge pitched her ball near the pin.

"Oh that's a nice one," Barrett said before pausing to add. "Want to hit it again?"

"No I don't want to hit it again," Dodge retorted. "I'll take it where it is thank you very much."

Dodge is the young'un of the group at age 68, and unlike the other women she grew up with golf. The others got involved because it was something their husbands did.

D'Eletto played before moving to Florida but really got into golf, like Cameron and Barrett, after she and her husband moved to Bayonet Point. That was 1980. Her voice dropped as she remembered.

"We had fun," D'Eletto said, as she looked up from her lunch. "It broke my heart when he died."

He died a few years after she took up the game, but Mrs. D'Eletto was hooked. She said she won't stop golfing - or stop planting flowers in her yard or playing bridge.

Servers in the clubhouse enjoy having the group stop by for lunch after their nine holes. The servers get credit for coining the name Naughty Niners about three years ago.

It was all in fun. As Martino was quick to point out, "There's nothing naughty about them."

Contact Kellie Dixon at kdixon@sptimes.com or 352 544-9480.

The players

Meet the Naughty Niners

Eva Barrett

Age: 82

Home state: Michigan

Before retirement: She managed a credit union.

Interesting tidbit: She keeps a string of green beads on her hip to keep track of shots.

Betty Cameron

Age: 76

Home state: Alabama

Before retirement: She was a secretary then a stay-at-home mom.

Putter nut: Her husband gave her two for her birthday in July. "I've got a zillion putters," Cameron said after three-putting a hole. "I always buy a new putter because I can't putt."

Lee D'Eletto

Age: 90

Home state: Rhode Island

Before retirement: She was a secretary.

Polished: D'Eletto, who has been playing golf since she moved to Florida in 1980, cleans her clubs almost every day.

Diane Dodge

Age: 68

Home state: Ohio

Before retirement: She taught fourth and fifth grades.

Old-timer: Although she's the youngest, Dodge probably has played golf longer than any of the other Naughty Niners. She grew up playing junior golf and actually met her husband there.

Dotty Walls

Age: 86

Home state: Pennsylvania

Before retirement: She was a dog groomer.

Cha-ching: The short game is her specialty, and Walls recently won the pot of quarters - roughly $7.50 - for chipping a ball into the hole. Each lady adds a quarter to the pot each day they play.

[Last modified September 4, 2007, 20:44:54]