They say golf is the game of a lifetime and while many of us come to the game late those that stick with it do so exactly for that reason. For one of the many attributes of playing golf is that we can play it until we end up on the other side of the divots.
“We tee off at 7:45 every day except Wednesday,” he says, relaxing over lunch. “Wednesday, guys from outside the club come and play with us, and we don’t start until 8:45.”
None of this is remarkable for someone who belongs to a semiprivate club in central Florida except for a couple of things: Beckwith will turn 97 in July. More often than not, he shoots his age or better playing from the white tees—from which the course measures 6,088 yards.
Then there’s this: Last Oct. 24, Sid shot 94. It was the 1,000th time he had officially shot his age or better.
Sid looks to have some serious game and an even more serious love of the game. He has since gone on to better his age on 1,045 occasions and is probably upping that number as you are reading this.
Sid picked up the game as a teen on Long Island and like many New Yorkers is spending his golden years teeing it up, daily in Florida.
Beckwith learned the game as a teenager growing up on Shelter Island. The pro at the local public golf course gave him a wood mashie. By the time Sid was in high school, he was on the golf team.
“My senior year, I was the only guy on the team,” he says. “Most of the time, I played with the principal.”
Beckwith was drafted when World War II started and was going to be shipped to Guadalcanal. But he contracted spinal meningitis during a stopover in San Francisco and was so sick he was given last rites. He recovered, but rather than going into combat, he was sent to Hawaii as a staff sergeant in Ordnance.
“I read all the casualty reports from Guadalcanal,” he says. “Chances are pretty good getting spinal meningitis saved my life.”
After the war ended, he joined Gardiner’s Bay and can’t remember if he paid $60 or $80 to become a member. His lowest handicap was 5, and he was a perennial semifinalist in the club championship but never won, though he was the medalist once. After he retired in 1978 and began spending winters in Florida, he did become club champion at Green Valley—twice.
In fact, it was during a club-championship round in 1990, soon after he had turned 72, that he shot his age for the first time. “Had a birdie putt for 70,” he says. “Missed it and shot 71.” Every afternoon, after he plays, Sid gets on an elliptical for about 20 minutes. No days off from exercise.
Golf and exercise everyday…sounds like a great plan for Sid to keep adding to that total of rounds below his age.
Golf is the game of a lifetime, especially least for Sid.
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