Helen Laidlaw with (from left) Jo Steele, Clarice Pearson,
Lesley Sinclair, Merle McCulloch, Elza Kearns, Carmen
Hinckling, Vi Allpress and Margaret Borland. Photo by Peter
McIntosh.
Helen Laidlaw started playing golf at Dunedin's Chisholm
Park Golf Club when she was 18 and, apart from a 15-year stint
in Christchurch, Invercargill and Waiouru until 1964, has been
a member ever since.
Mrs Laidlaw - "possibly" the most senior woman member of
Chisholm Park Golf Club - celebrated her 90th birthday
yesterday at the course.
She said she took to golf for the fresh air and the
friendship and, decades later, she credited both for keeping
her in resolute golf-playing health.
She played nine holes yesterday, recording a creditable 6 on
the par 5 15th, even if "starting with a hiss and a roar,
things went down hill a bit".
As she prepared for the unexpected photoshoot on the
"horribly hard to play" 18th hole - and joked it would be
easy to photograph her taking a putt because she is "a
three-putter on every green" - she wondered whether she would
be lucky enough to celebrate her next milestone with another
nine holes in 10 years' time.
"That'd be the day," she said, tongue-in-cheek.
"But even if I can't play more than six holes, it would be
wonderful way to celebrate my birthday."
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