The women of Niagara-on-the-Lake tend to be very active, and the NOTL Golf Club hosts many active female members of all ages. Here, Sault Ste. Marie women, Helen Godson, Barb Mahon and Rita Kohut, offer some advice about staying active into the golden years<\/p>\n
Three Sault women who are in their 90s \u2013 Helen Godson, Barb Mahon and Rita Kohut \u2013 are still active members of the Sault Ste. Marie Golf Club.<\/p>\n
Each of the women took up the sport in their 40s and 50s, at an age where professional women golfers begin playing on the senior tour.<\/p>\n
Godson, 91, is an Alberta native who has lived in the Sault for over 50 years.<\/p>\n
She worked as a nurse and has six children, 12 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband Bud was a golfer. He liked to golf so I started golfing. We had the Bud Godson Tournament here at the Sault Ste. Marie Golf Club and now it\u2019s called the Godson Family Tournament. It\u2019s held every year for the juniors,\u201d Godson told\u00a0SooToday.<\/p>\n
Among her favourite golf memories is getting a hole-in-one at the club\u2019s fourth hole many years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can’t think of a better thing to do in the summer and it\u2019s fun to golf with friends. I make some good shots, I make some bad shots. Golf is a lot of fun,\u201d Godson said.<\/p>\n
Mahon, 91, was born and raised in Kapuskasing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After marrying, she moved to the Sault where her husband Pat Mahon co-owned the former Lou\u2019s Esso at the corner of Trunk Road and Wellington Street East.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was golfing all the time and I was left at home so I thought \u2018I\u2019m not doing that.\u2019 So I’ve been golfing for about 55 years. I\u2019ve made a lot of really close friends through golf,\u201d Mahon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She has three children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just like the friends and the challenge of golf. And when you live alone it’s really important to have something to do,\u201d Mahon said.<\/p>\n
She has had three holes-in-one in her golfing experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to be an OK golfer but now I’m pretty average. As long as I shoot below 100 I’m happy. I used to be a lot better but now I’m just lucky to be out there. The score doesn’t count anymore.<\/p>\n
“We’re lucky to be out at our age. I didn’t expect to be playing this long,\u201d Mahon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never golfed until my husband retired,\u201d said Kohut, 92.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he retired he said \u2018why don\u2019t you take lessons?\u2019 So, I took lessons from the person who was the golf pro at the club and I\u2019ve been golfing since my late 50s. I like the social aspect of golf and I’m not that bad at it. If I could putt better, I’d be a better golfer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kohut said that senior women – at least on the local scene – are better golfers than men.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe women who I golf with never have to look for lost golf balls. The men are looking for lost golf balls all the time.<\/p>\n
“They\u2019re all over the place. The women are always on the fairway but the men hit them everywhere and if you golf with a man you have to do a lot of waiting because they’re looking for lost golf balls a lot of the time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kohut has five children and eight grandchildren.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each of the three women are widows who play golf three or four days a week.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the secret to being able to play golf in your 90s?<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep active. That’s the main thing. If I’m not golfing, I walk,\u201d Godson said.<\/p>\n
Mahon agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep busy. I do a lot of my own house work. I love gardening. It\u2019s important to keep active,” Mahon said.<\/p>\n
Kohut also loves gardening and her flowers line the approach to the Sault Ste. Marie Golf Club\u2019s pro shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI garden a lot and I cook. I’m of Ukrainian descent and I make my own perogies and cabbage rolls and I love to bake. I make my own cinnamon buns and take them to the boys in the pro shop.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three women are honorary Sault Ste. Marie Golf Club life members and said they intend to enjoy the links for as long as they can.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on her life, Mahon offered some advice everyone should follow.<\/p>\n
“Keep busy and try to be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The women of Niagara-on-the-Lake tend to be very active, and the NOTL Golf Club hosts many active female…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-90130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}