Most golfers dream their entire lives about hitting a hole-in-one. The National Hole-in-One Registry says that the odds of an average player hitting one are 12,000 to one. The registry also states that 16% of holes-in-one are made by women, whose average age when making an ace is 55.
Dorothea Harding, 90, has hit three in her golf career than began at age 65.
Harding hit her third hole-in-one on June 30, but she didn’t know it until her playing partner Mary-Catherine Kane reacted. Harding is nearsighted and could not see her ball go in the hole.
“I started jumping up and down, and screaming and yelling, which is not typical on a golf course, and it was really sweet because some golfers from the other holes came over, and they could see how excited I was, thinking I hit it in,” Kane, 60, said. “And I’m like, ‘no, she hit it in, she hit it in!’”
Harding hit her third hole-in-one on June 30 on the sixth hole at Bill Wright Golf Complex At Jefferson Park. Her previous two came at Mauna Kea Golf Course in Hawaiʻi eight years ago and at Mount Si Golf Course in Snoqualmie “a long time ago.”
“I haven’t actually seen any of them go in the hole, it’s always been my partner that’s seen them go in and get excited,” Harding said.
Harding and Kane are both part of the Women’s Club at Bill Wright Golf Complex. Harding is the oldest member of the league. Neither woman is sure of how old the next oldest member is, but they are certain that it’s someone at least 10 years younger.
Harding’s handicap right now is around 23 — and she’s not happy about that.
“My handicap right now is not very good,” Harding said.
Kane said that puts her around the middle of their league, but it is not up to Harding’s standards.
“She’s always complaining about it. It’s very funny, she’s very very competitive,” Kane said. “She still takes golf lessons. We go to the driving range together, and she’s great to play with because I can really tease her if she has a ‘poor shot.’ I’ll just say, ‘wow, that stunk. That was terrible.’ And she just laughs and she goes, ‘it really was very bad.’ And we just laugh and carry on. It’s a hoot to play with her.”
Harding is very competitive, but mostly with herself. The appeal of the league in Kane’s eyes is that the golfers all want to do well and want the best for each other.
“It’s not competitive against. It's competitive with,” Kane said. “We’re all trying to play well and support each other in playing well.”
Harding began golfing around 25 years ago when she was 65. She golfs about twice per week. She also goes to the driving range and has taken golf lessons with Jim Bennett at Pro Golf Southcenter for years. Last year, she regularly went to Mercer Island for golf fitness, and specifically weight training.
Harding lives near Seward Park now, but is originally from England, which she left with husband in 1958. The couple first immigrated to Montreal and intended to move around more, but eventually put down roots in Seattle after her husband landed a job with Boeing.
“A different life, I guess,” Harding said of what made them want to leave England. “More opportunity, we thought, because I’d just got married, and we were very young, and naive, and so we decided that rather than start a life in England, we would travel.”
The weather here isn’t too different but “it’s worse in England, you know. It’s more, more rain and colder,” she said.
Her husband played squash in England, and continued in Seattle. Harding was a dressmaker and designer. Then, with her husband and two sons playing squash, they began a racket-stringing company, began importing squash racquets from Australia and Taiwan and her dressmaking business pivoted to sports clothes. The businesses together were all called West Coast Imports.
Along the way in her 30s, Harding began playing squash herself and competed “up and down the West Coast.” After her accomplished squash career finished she had an interlude with tennis before taking up golf.
Harding’s golfing has now spanned decades. She’s skilled and consistent.
“It goes straight down the middle every time. It goes about 100 to 150 yards, and then she putts well, and it just goes in. So it’s really fun to play because it’s easy to play with her,” Kane said. “She just goes down the center of the fairway and puts the ball in the hole.
The drive to succeed and do better powers her, and the other women who play at Bill Wright.
“She’s competitive with herself, and just a joy to play with. It’s so fun to be with someone 30 years your senior who’s still crushing it,” Kane said. “And that is kind of inspirational for all of us. You can only hope that in 30 years you’re still playing and then playing well, but she doesn’t think she is, and hit a hole-in-one.”
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