Golf: Evergreen with an eagle eye

SUZANNE McFADDEN meets a sprightly golfer who's just getting in the swing.


Nora Johnson has made her friends swear that if she dies on the fairway, they must carry on and finish their golf round without her.

"Then you can come back and pick me up later," she tells them.

But Nora, who turns 90 next week, reckons she is still some way off handing in her final scorecard.

She manages two or three 18-hole rounds every week on the demanding Pupuke Golf Course on Auckland's North Shore.

She strides at speed up and down the course's hilly terrain on youthful-looking legs - shunning the idea of using a motorised cart to get around.

Playing off a 34.9 handicap, she still hits a mean ball straight down the middle.

Nora does not go to golf for a stroll and a cup of tea afterwards. She is driven by the challenge of winning a golf ball each week.

The lawn at her Mairangi Bay home is littered with the little white balls - as is the floor of her lounge.

She will celebrate her 90th birthday next Friday with an early morning round of 18 holes.

But this passion for golf began late in life. She picked up the clubs only after retiring from a career in fashion design at 60.

"I had played every game known to man until then," she said.

"On the farm when I was a child we played football and cricket, tennis and hockey. There were golf clubs lying around, but I didn't bother with them.

"When I retired I tried bowls. But that was boring, and all the women gossiped. At golf, you can walk the whole round and not hear a word."

Not that there is anything wrong with Nora's hearing or eyesight.

She passed her driver's licence last week, her only warning being that she needed to slow down a tad.

"I told the man I had to get my licence, or I couldn't go to golf. So it looks like the girls have got me for at least another two years," she said.

The Pupuke women need her to carry on swinging. She is still part of the veterans team which has won the North Harbour women's Veterans Cup for the past seven years.

Pupuke women's club captain Liz Clark describes Nora as an inspiration to the other golfers - and a benchmark.

"There are other, younger women here who would like to go down to playing just nine holes. But they say they can't until Nora does. They would be too embarrassed," she laughed.

Nora has even played the perfect shot in her career - scoring a hole-in-one on Pupuke's second hole, using a bright yellow ball given to her by her grandson, Matt.

"I rang him on his birthday and said I was going to use the yellow ball for the first time. He said, get a hole-in-one Gran, and I said, sure. And I did," she smiles.

Nora has passed her love of the game down to a new generation. Her great-grandson Oliver, who is three, is already teeing off with his own set of tiny clubs.