Golf

Age is just a number

By RODNEY PAGE, Times Staff Writer
Published September 20, 2007

They are the weekday warriors. While many are punching their alarm clocks to start another workday, they are, like clockwork, already on the golf course, beating the heat and trying to beat the others in their foursome.

This is what a lot of us hope things will be like when retirement finally comes. A weekday round of golf, followed by stories in the clubhouse. And boy, the tales they can tell.

Here are the stories of two area seniors who have excelled at the game despite the passage of time.

Finding the game later in life

Angela Der Magerdecian has been playing golf for 30 years, but she wishes it was more like 60. Der Magerdecian, 83, didn't take up the game until she was in her mid 50s, when she and her husband, John "Jigs" Der Magerdecian, moved to a seniors golf community in Connecticut.

She began with a 27-handicap and quickly got it down to an 18. A few years later she won the women's club championship. At her peak, Der Magerdecian had a 9-handicap.

"I always tell everyone that in my next life I'd like to be a pro golfer," Der Magerdecian said. "When I was growing up I didn't know anything about golf. That was never something we did."

A few years after picking up a club, Der Magerdecian got her first hole-in-one. It was on the par-3, 155-yard 10th hole at Grassy Hill Country Club in Orange, Conn. She'll never forget because she has a commemorative plaque with the ball on display at her Spring Hill home.

"I screamed and everyone knew what happened," she said. "We were in the hole-in-one club, so my husband had champagne ready for everyone in the clubhouse. When I got in there everyone had their glasses ready and started cheering. I felt like Marilyn Monroe or something."

Since moving to the Timber Pines community in Spring Hill in 1987, Der Magerdecian added 12 more holes-in-one. They came on the championship course as well as the Lakes and Hills courses.

She plays about four times a week, maybe more if her schedule allows. Her husband died two years ago, just after their 60th wedding anniversary.

She has no plans to put away her clubs.

"It's my main hobby," she said. "Sometimes I'll go out and play nine holes in the afternoon by myself. I always hope I don't get a hole-in-one when I'm by myself because then nobody will believe me."

Walking thousands of miles in his shoes

Tony Scordino was 11 when he first walked down the railroad tracks in Westchester County, N.Y., to Scarsdale Golf Club. He would wait in the caddie shack, sometimes for days, hoping to carry a bag and earn 50 cents a round. If he was lucky, he would get two bags per week.

That was 1927.

"It was rough in them days," said Scordino, now 91 and living in Belleair. "You kidding, we'd sometimes carry up to three bags at one time. They didn't have tees in those days. There'd be a bucket of water and some sand. You get on your knees and make a tee out of sand."

The game evolved, but through the years Scordino remained a caddie. He would carry bags at Scarsdale in the summer, then trek down to Vero Beach and caddie in the winter.

The highest salary he ever earned was $7,700 per year. And he loved every minute of it.

"If I had to do it all over, I'd do the same thing," he said. "I met some great people. I caddied for Babe Zaharias, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Richard Nixon, Joe DiMaggio, Frankie Frisch."

He also caddied for some he wished he hadn't.

"Frank Gifford, cheapskate," Scordino said. "He never tipped me. And 1957 Masters winner Doug Ford, he was a no good ... "

Scordino and his wife, Grace, relocated to Clearwater in 1981. He became a member of Clearwater Country Club and has been playing routinely for the last 25 years.

He consistently shoots his age or better. Just a day before his 91st birthday, Scordino shot 77. From the men's tees, he would like you to know.

"I learned a lot about golf by just watching guys," he said. "I've caddied for some of the best."

And even though carts have long since replaced caddies at a majority of courses, Scordino still walks 18 holes four days a week.

"If there is somebody who has walked more miles on a golf course, I don't know who it is," he said. "I enjoy it. Golfers today, they have it too easy. Everything's handed to them."

Rodney Page can be reached at page@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8123.

[Last modified September 19, 2007, 20:09:31]