An 89-year-old Winnipeg golfer is proving that age is no reason to slow down.
Hank Plouffe, who will be turning 90 in July, hits up Bel Acres Golf & Country Club, just north of Winnipeg, five days a week, from Monday to Friday.
“It’s the enjoyment of the friendship of the people that you play with,” Plouffe said. “It’s a game; there’s fun to it.”
And it was friendship that drew Plouffe, who averages about 70 games a season, to the game of golf 57 years ago.
“I had a very good friend who was a very good golfer, and he passed away on the golf course in Pinawa,” Plouffe said.
“He was my best friend and he started me into golfing, and from then on, it kept on going.”
Despite decades on the course, Plouffe is still experiencing firsts. In his lifetime, he’s got eight holes in one. The two most recent ones were shot just the other weekend at the Netley Creek Golf Course.
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“I hit the ball and I didn’t look up, and he says, ‘Gosh, that looks like it’s going in the hole.’ I said, ‘Yeah right,’” said Plouffe, who was golfing with family at the time.
“I took a club and I was looking around the edge of the green for the ball and they all stood around the hole and said, ‘It’s in the hole! We told you that!’”
Then came the unthinkable — a second hole-in-one in the same round.
“We get up to number 12, and it’s a short hole, and I took my nine iron out and I hit the ball and this time I looked up, and sure enough, it hit the green and curved right into the hole,” he said
“And I said, ‘I can’t believe this is happening’. Two holes in run in one round … It’s unbelievable.”
The odds of it happening are about 67 million to one.
“Well, I wasn’t that surprised, he’s a good golfer,” said Brian Kaluznick, who has been golfing with Plouffe at Bel Acres for about 40 years.
“It’s an amazing feat… and especially for a guy that’s only 89 years old.”
But Plouffe credits it to a stroke of luck.
“Usually attention like this is for heroes,” Plouffe laughed. “I’m not a hero, I’m just an everyday golfer.”
But some things — like Plouffe’s mindset and staying active — can’t be credited to luck.
“Everybody is going to have a bad shot, everybody is going to have a decent shot. Just remember the good ones,” he said.
“The bad ones, well, put up with them and forget it. (Just) keep yourself active, that’s great.”
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