Golfing dynamo turns 80

Thursday, 05 June 2008

By LIZZIE MITCHELL

• Howick and Pakuranga Times

May Fitzpatrick.

The unsuspecting May says she was going to the club intending to shout her fellow members a drink. She says the day was ‘exceedingly nice’ and remarks on being given a ‘lovely’ bouquet of flowers. “They had baked me a cake and put 80 candles on it. It was lovely a surprise.” May has been a member at the club for more than 20 years and says it is her main hobby. “It is really part of my social life; I started playing when my husband retired.” Depending on the weather, May plays three times a week and says: “If I’m not golfing I’m gardening.” What she enjoys most about playing golf is the company and the golf club. “If your game is not up to par the views are spectacular.” And showing she’s still in pretty good form, May shot a round of 88 just two weeks before her birthday.“For me it was really something,” she says of the score. She doesn’t plan on retiring from golf just yet. “You’ll have to cut my legs off before I’d stop playing,” she joked.