AFTON – John Lashway didn’t pick up the game of golf and play it seriously until he was past the age of 50. Now 73 and an Afton Golf Club member for 20 years, he had the stated goal of one day shooting his age – or lower. Until this season, a bad hole here and there conspired against him, and his best-ever score was a 74.
“My son, John Simonds said, ‘well your goal is to shoot you age, I guess you’ll have to keep playing an awful long time,’” Lashway said in a recent telephone interview.
Joking aside, Lashway was determined to reach his goal, and on the last weekend of July, he had a career day on the course.
After a bogey on the opening hole, a short par-four, he then parred the rest of the holes on the front nine to shoot a 37. “I had some good up-and-downs on the front nine,” Lashway said. “Then I started nailing the greens.”
Lashway said he plays to a 10 handicap, and typically, he is good for one or two birdies a round. After parring 10, he birdied the par-five 11th, the par-four 12th, and par-four 13th to move to 2-under-par for his round. He dropped back on the 14th with a bogey, but rebounded with another birdie on 15. He parred the difficult 16th, but gave another shot back to the course bogeying the downhill par-three 17th. On 18, an uphill dogleg par-five, Lashway was 1-under-par for his round, and needed nothing worse than a bogey to shoot below his age.
“I had a good drive, a good second shot, and I was fortunate enough to it my third shot close to the hole to tap in for birdie,” Lashway said.
His score of 70 was 2-under-par, four shots better than his previous low score. “I’ve always hit my driver fairly well, and that is a plus,” Lashway said. “I straightened out my putting earlier this year, and it all blended together to make the round possible.”