At 91 years of age, Joyce Smith is still swinging her way to club championship victories – her 55th, actually. So what’s the secret to her success?
AGE: 91
HOMETOWN: Castlemaine, VIC
CLUB AFFILIATION: Mount Alexander Golf Club
HANDICAP: 19
FAMILY: Three daughters, four grandchildren
Joyce Smith, 91, is a living legend in Victoria’s Goldfields region, north-west of Melbourne. In June she captured her 55th ladies club championship at Mount Alexander Golf Club. After winning her first club title in 1964, she accumulated 47 championships in a row from 1966. That earned her a spot in the Guinness World Records. She has missed only two championships – in 2014 when nursing her husband ‘Max’ and 2015 when she had back surgery. But what makes Joyce’s achievements all the more remarkable is that she only took up golf seriously in her 30s.
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Can I have a chat to you about your wonderful golf record?
Look, I don’t like talking about myself. I really don’t. But go ahead [Laughs].
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Tell us about the circumstances of your latest club championship victory?
It was the same as every year. We play three rounds of strokeplay. It was terribly, terribly wet. The wettest I think I’ve seen our course in a long, long time. I just managed to scrape in. I think it was three [strokes].
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I assume the scores weren’t the best?
No, they weren’t the best. They were in the 90s. We were very lucky to play because it was still raining and the course was just sopping wet… A lot of them pulled out because it was too wet. And the club’s gotten smaller now, because the younger ones are not playing. They’ve got too many commitments now – they’ve got commitments that we didn’t have.
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I believe you won 47 club championships in a row? Was that what put you into The Guinness Book of World Records?
When I had 25 in a row, that’s when they put me in the Guinness Book of Records.
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How did you get into golf?
There was a bunch of girls and we all had children. The children went to school and we thought, What can we do? My husband [Malcom] played golf and I thought, Perhaps we’ll try golf. That’s how we got into it. And I thought, If you don’t practise you’re not going to get any better. I used to go and hit 100 balls a day until I knew exactly where I was going to hit the ball.
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Where did you hit the 100 balls a day?
Up the golf course.
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Any special patch?
No, I would do it in different spots. I’d put a circle out with the flag in it. And I had to hit 10 balls into that circle before I could go on to the next 10 balls. Just discipline. I don’t mind that. I really enjoy practising.
How far away would you put the circle?
Different distances. I never used to measure it then. We only had two or three sticks – we only had a 7, a 5 and a putter. That’s all we had when we started. And you gradually built your sticks up as you went along. I’d start about 50 yards and go to 100 yards. And then 150 yards. The 150 yards, I could rarely make that with the 5-iron. But when I got a wood I could make it quite easily.
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So you literally wouldn’t move on until you hit 10 balls into that circle?
Yes.
And how big was the circle?
It was quite big. It would be about 20 feet [wide]. I used to make a circle of talcum powder so I didn’t damage the course [Laughs]. But it was my way of practising. You do get very accurate when you’ve got to get it into that circle before you can move away.
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How long would you practise?
It could take me a couple of hours. I would always be home for the children. While they were at school I would go up and practise. And then my grandson and my husband built me a putting green in our backyard. So I spent a lot of time out there putting.
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What’s the lowest handicap you’ve ever played off?
I think it was about 6. I really can’t remember because the handicapping was so different to what it is now. And the scoring was a lot different. Everything was 7/8s of your handicap. Now you can get your full handicap. It’s very hard to play against a 54-handicapper [Laughs].
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What’s the best round of golf you’ve ever played?
Oh, gosh, I couldn’t remember. I had a course record up at our home club. And I think I had one in Bendigo somewhere. But as I said, I never think about them. I just go and play golf. And if I play well, I play well. And if somebody plays better then me, I always say, “Congratulations.”
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I believe your late husband Malcom had some influence on your golf?
Yes, he was so proud. He was a member of the club long before me. And his father before him was a member… I’ve always played some type of sport. I’m not keen on football… I rode bikes and played a little bit of tennis. I’ve played bowls. But my one love is my golf.
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What would you say is your biggest strength on the golf course?
My chipping and putting.
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How far do you hit the ball these days?
Not as far as I used to. I automatically know how far I am from the green. And I’ve just gone up one stick higher than what I normally would have used.
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So you measure by eyesight?
Just by eyesight. I haven’t got any of those new-fangled ideas. Many, many years ago when we changed the course up here – our course is hilly – so I thought, I’ll go out and [make] a graph of the course. It took me a month to do it. I knew the slope of the land and where it would go. And that was the way I played golf because I knew where to hit.
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Many people are fortunate to reach 90 let alone be playing golf at that age. What’s your secret to longevity?
I think I’ve just been very lucky. I’ve had reasonably good health. I’ve had a couple of hips and a back operation. You get up and move on.
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Do you walk the course these days?
No, I have a golf buggy. I can’t walk the course now.
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How long have you had the golf cart?
About five or six years.
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What’s the best golf tip you’ve ever received?
Enjoy your golf and don’t expect to win every time.
