A Golfer for all Seasons
A rainy afternoon, a perfect time to find a golfer at home, and so I called and interviewed Tony Adams, golfer par excellence. He came to Tiffin about fifteen years ago, because his wife’s family, the Burgers, live here. Her father was Pop Burger and her sister, Mary Ellen, married Frank Distel. Tony was and is a great athlete He played football, basketball, and baseball, and ran track in high school. He graduated from Central High School in Cleveland in l926. This school was also John D Rockefeller’s alma mater. John D. was known around town for handing out dimes to people on the street.
After he graduated from high school, he started working for the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland for 35 –40 dollars a month. He remembers carrying gold coins from the vault. One million dollars made a very heavy tray. But the best part of the job was the basketball team that the bank sponsored. They played teams like the Firestone team from Akron, the General Electric team from Fort Wayne, and the Red Man Chewing Tobacco team from Toledo.
In the late 20’s he became a professional basketball player. There were many small outfits in those days who would come into town for $100 plus 50% of the gate. They traveled by car as far west as Denver and east to Maine, washing their uniforms themselves when they got dirty. .
Basketball was a slower game in those days. After each score, there was a tap ball from the center of the court. Players had their eyes peeled for pretty girls in the crowd because after the game, the floor was cleared and waxed for a dance. He remembers the Depression Years as some of the happiest years of his life.
When he was thirty, he married and settled in Cleveland. He worked for TRW for 23 years. When he first started playing golf, he and his friends went out to the Municipal Golf Course and just tried to see how far they could hit the ball. Later he played in golf leagues and won some trophies. TRW built a golf course near Chardon shortly before he retired and as a worker at TRW and a retiree he was able to play there for a $150 annual fee.
He and his buddies in a foursome liked to play a skin game. That would be a quarter a skin for the lowest score on a hole, and a skin for the closest shot on a par 3 hole. The winner on each hole got one skin from each of the others. If someone made a birdie, they got 2 skins. In those years, he would frequently break 80. Counting his ten best scores, he had a handicap between 9 and 12. He was considered a B player.
There hasn’t been a year since he retired that he didn’t played golf 12 months out of the year. He remembers a friend assuring him that they could play at Erie Shores even though there were two or three feet of snow on the ground. They passed high drifts of snow, but when they reached the course, it was open, and the wind had swept the snow away except for the sand traps.
When he came to Tiffin, he continued to play golf with a membership at Seneca Hills and usually shot in the 80’s. Sometimes he plays at Town and Country. He still shoots in the 80’s. He remembers the last time he broke 80 was on an Ottawa Hills golf course when he was 82. He is still out on the golf course every month of the year. He thinks that right now is the best time to play golf. Two years ago he developed emphysema and now uses a cart.
Unfortunately, about five years before they moved to Tiffin, his wife suddenly developed rheumatoid arthritis. She had to have her hip joint and both knees replaced in a six month period. Tony soon learned to cook and clean house. They hadn’t finished unpacking after they moved to Tiffin when she fell and broke her other hip. She enjoyed working crossword puzzles over the phone with her sister. She died in l993.
Their son, who is a veterinarian for race horses, now lives in Tiffin. Tony’s grandsons, Tim and Scott live in Findlay, and Keith lives in Boston.
At 90, Tony’s hair is white, but he still stands tall and straight, about 6 foot 3, and his face is unwrinkled. He takes 1000 units of vitamin E and 1000 units of vitamin C daily and eats small meals. He still plays golf and shoots in the low 80’s. He reads the Cleveland Plain Dealer every day. His zest for life is strong.
– Mary