Fifty Years of Golf
Still a winner in his 50th year of golf, Clarence W. McKay '93 at the age of 82 took home another prize this summer when he placed in the Rochester (N. Y.) District Senior Tournament. Playing in the nine-hole division authorized for men over 75 years of age, Mr. McKay also won a prize last year in the New York State Senior Tournament in the same division. The aggregate age of each foursome was over 300 years.
Proud of his half-century membership in the Oak Hill Country Club of Rochester, which he describes as "the finest club between New York and Chicago," Mr. McKay, who was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Dartmouth and has practiced law in Rochester since 1896, has been a willing slave to the game of golf. In an interview published recently in the Rochester Times-Union, he said, "Over the years I've sold my fishing tackle, given my guns away to my children, and pulled my boat up on the beach to rot because of golf."
Few other golfers can boast of getting two birdies on one hole, but Mr. McKay accomplished the feat in a unique way. "I was playing at Palm Beach," he said, "and hit a good shot with my mashie on the third hole, a par 3 - couldn't see where it landed. As we walked up to the green, Jerome Travers, the former Amateur and Open champ, came toward us with a plover. My ball had landed on the bird's head, killed it and stopped a few feet from the hole."
Challenged by Travers to get two "birdies," Mr. McKay promptly sank the putt.
Last year Mr. McKay shot a nine-hole 52 to win the Class A division of the RDGA Seniors held at Oak Hill. In younger days he was in the 70's on several 18-hole rounds, a 77 having been his best score. In fifty years of battling par, a hole-in-one has eluded him, but there are more seasons to come, and the quest is not considered closed by any means.
Next to golf, Mr. McKay enjoys winning at bridge and has won various bridge tournaments. He still works six mornings each week in his law office.
CLARENCE W. McKAY '93, who completed fifty years of golf this summer, checks the form of 3-year-old Danny DeAngelus, son of the associate pro at Oak Hill Country Club.
