Feel Good Friday: Good News on the Greens

POINT PLACE, Ohio (WTVG) - At 91-years-young, Stan Bishop looks very comfortable on a golf course. You would never guess that it’s a hobby he picked up only after retirement.

“I never picked a club up until I was 66 and i haven’t put it down since,” recalled Bishop, with a smile.

At least twice per week, you’ll find him at the Bayview Retirees Golf Course in Point Place; a place Stan says is built on volunteers and a desire to remain active.

“If you sit down, you’re gonna die,” he said. “You gotta stay active. They always talk about exercise, and this is a very enjoyable exercise.”

Bishop remembers when the greens were just a field of weeds in the early 1980′s and says he feels a lot pride when he looks around today.

“I have people tell me, ‘you think you belong to a country club out there!’ And to me, it is a country club,” laughed Bishop. “A lot of people do not know, but we have people coming from Tiffin, all over Michigan. We even have some people here from Cleveland,” he added.

Longtime golfer, Rick McLane, serves as Bayview’s president. He arrives at 5:00 a.m. each day to water the greens.

“It’s not a responsibility!” he exclaimed. “If you love doing the work, it’s not a job. And I love doing the work.”

McLane said the course recently dropped its minimum age for golfers to 45 with hopes of recruiting more players. He says it costs $5 to play, and $5 for a shared cart; prices that can’t be beat for those who love the sport, just like Stan.

So when will Bishop put down those clubs?

“When I’m no longer competitive,” he says with a knowing smile. “When people say, ‘oh, we’ve got Stan on our team?’ I’ll stop.”

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