Golf isn’t my kind of sport. In fact, you might say golf and I are completely incompatible. As I pointed out in a column several years ago, during my 20 years of formal schooling – from kindergarten through graduate-school – the only class I ever flunked was golf.
It’s different with Bill Jensen. Golf is quite dear to his heart and important in his life. Of course, his business enterprises and his family are infinitely more important but, even so, after 45 years of marriage his wife has learned to hold her breath and her tongue whenever he’s about to tee off.
At one time, he considered playing golf professionally, but that never materialized. Instead, Bill spent 30 years working with five or six different radio stations in the Greatrt Seattle region, including two of our most popular stations, KVI and KIXI. Mostly he was involved with sales and programming but, in a few cases, he was general manager of the entire operation. He rarely worked as a DJ. (In the course of our conversation, he mentioned country music record-spinner, Buck “B for Butterball” Richey and that sparked a synapse or two in the deeper recesses of my childhood memories.)
Bill currently owns the Taco Time restaurants in Enumclaw and Bonney Lake.
But I ramble and our subject is golf. Bill first swung a club when he was 10 years old, while he and his mother were playing the opening hole on the Enumclaw course. Alas, the results were quite devastating. On his back swing, he clipped his mama on the forehead, making a rather nasty and bloody wound and giving her such a terrible headache they had to quit for the day. Nevertheless, she remained optimistic and bravely encouraged him to pursue the sport.
Bill became a junior member of the Men’s Club when he was only 12 or 13 years old. When he was 16, he became the youngest fellow to ever win the annual Men’s Club championship. This year, at the age of 67, he won again, thereby becoming the oldest fellow to ever do so. Between these bookends, he captured the title another nine times.
Bill modestly explains that he isn’t as talented as this record might suggest. He admits to being a “pretty good golfer” but claims no one can win all those honors without a lot of luck.
For instance, after completing 18 holes and eliminating all the other players in this year’s championship, Bill and Joe Kuzaro emerged as dual winners, so they had to initiate a “sudden death” playoff. Bill said Kuzaro is an excellent golfer and about 25 years younger than himself, so most of the side bets were laid on Joe. However, Kuzaro had an incredible run of bad fortune and three-putted the very first hole. How does one explain such a sudden, unexpected turn of events, except to attribute it to luck?
Well, I guess you could do that. But maybe Bill is simply a perfect example of Hemingway’s old adage that age produces grace and talent, especially when the pressure is on.
