1970 was my best golf by far while stationed at Kaneohe Marine Base in Hawaii. Pictured below are Allan Westbrook, Joe Capri and me (driving) in the 1970 Hawaii Marine Golf Tournament. We finished 1, 2, and 4 in the tournament. We were all 19 or 20 years old, , , good times.

KBAY Marine News article

I played 18-36 holes of golf every day because I worked midnights as a Computer Operator so I took real advantage of it and improved my handicap to a “1”. That means I shot par or better on most occasions.

I even remember asking a fellow Marine, Jim Rainey, “How can you be a “7” handicap?”

Those days are long gone. Dorine and I got married on December 26, 1970 and priorities changed, , , a good thing :).

Joe Capri became a good friend and we played many rounds together. Two of them are memorable. I was with him when he double-eagled #7, a par-5. We thought his 2nd shot was in a bunker but it finished in the hole, , , double-eagle is the 2nd rarest feat in golf behind “shooting your age”.

The 2nd memorable round was when I beat Joe in the KBAY Men’s Association Tournament, , , primarily because he putted terribly. On the 14th hole, he literally putted a 30-footer off the back of the green and had to chip back onto the green. After that he was so frustrated he broke his wooden shafted Otey Crisman putter and threw it away. I asked if I could save it and still have it.

Joe was one of the best ball strikers I’ve known. When he putted well he was hard to beat and a great teammate on the Hawaii Marine Team of 1970 and 1971.

I can’t play like I once did or hit it nearly as far as I could back then even with the new technology we have today, but I have some very positive memories of “when I could play this great game of golf”.