Local golf group encourages members to play on

WINDERMERE As time went on, the wear and tear of playing tennis regularly started to add up for Shirley Adams as she reached retirement.

“That’s exactly why I stopped,” Adams said. “My knees started really bothering me.”

The same went for Ginny Wolff, who recognized the situation may no longer be tenable after tearing a tendon in her foot.

For these two Keene’s Pointe residents, it was time to re-evaluate how they keep active while staying social and feeding their appetite for competition. The game of golf fit nicely, and the Keene’s Pointe Ladies Golf Association has been a great facilitator.

“Absolutely — and it’s fun,” Wolff said, asked whether golf though KPLGA has filled the void in her life that tennis once occupied. “Every week, you play with somebody different.”

Launched in 2001 — not long after the Keene’s Pointe development just outside the town limits of Windermere was completed — the KPLGA has been facilitating residents and members at the Golden Bear Club keeping active, competitive and social. Although there is not an official age designation, the membership of more than 50 ladies does skew older as more women are able to play regularly once they retire.

“I would say its (chief purpose is) really so that you play a round of golf together — but it’s also social,” Adams said. “There’s a camaraderie, and we generally come up and have lunch afterward.”

For someone such as Wolff, the organization’s president this season, that social element — and its ability to make a large development like Keene’s Pointe feel a little smaller and communal — is crucial.

“That’s very important to me,” Wolff said. “(The KPLGA has) such a diverse group of people. Everybody comes from somewhere else, and there are different ages and people in different stages of their lives. It’s an interesting group of women.”

For Adams, it can be the competitive element that is most valuable. Both women took up golf seriously later in life, but Adams takes regular lessons from a coach and recently started competing additionally in a regional ladies golf association.

“I’m very serious about getting better at it,” Adams said. “Once I grab onto something, I can’t let it go until I improve.”

The KPLGA keeps an active calendar full of fun events, including a club championship, match play, a President’s Cup, a “putt ‘n’ pour” and plenty of others. On Wednesday and Thursday this week, the ladies are participating in a “Member/Member” event, and the end of the 2016-2017 calendar is drawing near with the club championship in April.

For many members, in addition to playing each week in any of the various formats — the group features both an 18-hole and a nine-hole league and keeps track of player-of-the-year points through the season — there is the added benefit of a new hobby they can share with their extended family.

“It’s nice, because it is something people can play together regardless of their level,” Wolff said.

And even though the ladies play the same course at The Golden Bear Club each week, one of the perks of golf is that no two rounds are ever the same. For Wolff, who has been a member since 2012, and Adams, who has been a member since 2005, each time they set out on the links it is a new adventure.

“There’s something about golf, for me, where even if you play the same course — you’re not in the same position,” Adams said. “It’s always a little different.”

Contact Steven Ryzewski at [email protected].