"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
weekly online golf column
by
Stan Crawley

September 2, 2003

So who would you vote for as the 2003 golfer of the year? Tiger Woods? Mike Weir? Kenny Perry? Jim Furyk? Ernie Els? Davis Love III?

Well, my vote goes to 69-year-old Bill Abercrombie over at the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club. As you're reading this, Abercrombie has either started or just finished his 170th round of the golf season. And that just counts his jaunts around the Country Club in Riverview.

The vivacious Abercrombie is almost on pace to play his 300th round of golf in one season for the 11th straight year. He is near 200 rounds for 2003 when you count his Monday rounds outside of the Country Club—because it is closed on Mondays—to other courses. Unbelievable.

And Abercrombie is a walker, not a rider. Of the 200 rounds he has played this year, Abercrombie has riden in a golf cart for nine holes.

"And that's because Rick Hall had to teach a karate class and wanted to get a cart for the back nine,'' Abercrombie said. "I told him I'd ride with him.''

When asked when was the last time he had ridden in a cart, Abercrombie said "Not ever, I guess.''

A retiree from Signal Mountain Cement, Abercrombie then remembered riding in a cart a few times in charity events, the club's member-guest and with his wife, Bobbie, for some couples play.

"Bobbie says it is no crime to ride in a cart,'' Abercrombie said. "I think it is. If I had been riding in a cart all the time, I would have been dead 20 years ago.''

Abercrombie retired at the end of 1990, then served as president of Chattanooga Golf and Country Club for two years. In 1993, he started to play golf every day and went over the 300-round per year mark for 10 straight years.

"I just don't play as much on Mondays, so I may not reach 300 this year,'' he said. "My hip bothers me, but it will have to get a lot worse before I think about a hip replacement.

"It feels like I'm dragging it up No. 17 every day, but then when I get through the round it's OK.''

A self-taught golfer who began playing at age 32 when he was working in Birmingham, Ala., Abercrombie sports an 11 handicap. His lowest round this year at the Country Club was a 74, but he shot even-par 70 a few years ago.

Abercrombie has a neat daily and weekly routine.

Daily: Up by 7:30 a.m., reads the newspaper and heads to the golf course. After his round, he has a few toddies with the boys, tells a few golf stories and heads back to his house, which is right across from the No. 11 tee at the Country Club. Then he enjoys a few scotches. "It's not a hard life,'' he says.

Said Bobbie, "I know where he is if I need him.''

The weekly routine: Monday—CG&CC course closed, possibly a trip to Brainerd or Brown Acres; Tuesday—Blue tee dogfight; Wednesday—Blue tee dogfight; Thursday—Doctors dogflight; Friday—Blue tee dogfight; Saturday—Malone Everett dogfight; Sunday—11:10 dogfight.

"It's great because I can get a game every day,'' Abercrombie said. "That's nice.''

Nobody at the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club has played more rounds since 1993 than Abercrombie. Not many more avid golfers in the nation have played more.

And not many have carried a golf bag and walked so many rounds. Let's see. That would be 3,200 rounds in 11 years with nine holes in a golf cart.

That's pretty impressive. It displays a great passion and love for the game of golf. And that's why Abercrombie is my choice for golfer of the year.

(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)

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