Golf's Gary Wiren At 75 he's still got game (Palm 2 Jupiter) 10-28-1032 Palm 2 Jupiter / October 28, 2010
Golf's Gary Wiren: At '75 he's still gamet
BY CRAIG DOLCH
P2J Golf Columnist
Some guys celebrate their 75th
birthday by having a big party,
going on a trip or having a nice,
quiet dinner.
Not Dr. Gary Wiren.
The North Palm Beach resident cel-
ebrated his 75th birthday the best way
he knows how - by combining his love
for golf and fitness. Wiren showed up at
Trump International Golf Club - where
he is PGA Master Professional instruc-
tor - determined to show he can still hit
the ball longer than a dissertation on
root canal.
The goal was to reach 300 yards, and
he surpassed that - powering a drive
307 yards on the par -5 ninth hole, de-
spite wet conditions. That's right, the
75 -year-old hit a 307 -yard drive.
Talk about a birthday bash.
This may seem like a surprise to ev-
eryone ... except Wiren.
"I've been training and preparing for
this day," he said. "That drive just didn't
happen by accident. I wanted to prove
to people that just because you get old-
er, it doesn't mean you still can't hit a
golf ball a long way."
While Wiren has done almost every-
thing in golf - he's written 11 books, has
13 film credits and produced four videos
on the sport; is one of the �Torld's most
foremost golf memorabilia collectors;
and is one of only three people to be in-
ducted into the PGA Hall of Fame and
the Golf Magazine World Golf Teachers
Hall of Fame - his passion for fitness is
equally unsurpassed.
Here's a 5 -foot -11, 187 -pounder who
works out six times a week, does exer-
cises while he brushes his teeth or gets
his tank filled - bringing new mean-
ing to the term "pumping gas" - who
has hand grips placed throughout the
house like some middle-aged people
do xvith reading glasses, and says he's
stronger today than when he played
college football at Huron University in
South Dakota.
The beauty of his two main interests
in life - golf and fitness - is they go to-
gether like peanut butter and jelly.
I have always been an advocate for
fitness in golf, whether we're talking
about Gary Player on the PGA Tour or
club professionals or just regular golf-
ers," Wiren said.
"The reason why most older guys
stop playing golf is they get frustrat-
ed because they cant hit the ball far
enough, they cant reach par -4s in two
shots, so they drift away from the game.
It's inevitable you're going to lose some
of your strength as you age, but a lot of
Mizun® driver, Callaway ball. Photo by Dane Wiren
Standing at the 305 yd. Mark with ball and club. Photo by Dane Wiren
guys are letting it happen too soon, too
fast."
Player was one of the pioneers of
fitness and weight lifting among tour-
ing professionals as the South African
carved out his Hall of Fame career de-
spite his relative small frame (5 -foot -7,
150) , so he can relate to Wiren as well as
anyone.
When Player, who coincidentally
turns 75 on Nov. 1, was told of Wirerfs
long birthday drive, he couldn't stop
laughing he was so happy for his friend.
"That's so encouraging and I admire
him so much," said Player, who has a
home on Jupiter Island. "Gary has al-
ways been a man who really cares about
people. He loves to show them all the
clubs he's collected. He's a great com-
municator and I think it's just wonder-
ful that he can still hit a ball that far."
To prove his 307-yarder wasn't a fluke,
Wiren went to PGA National last week
with a sophisticated launch monitor
that measured every aspect of his drives.
The computer said his best drive car-
ried 298 yards, rolled 7 more (for 305),
he had a club head speed of 118 mph
and a ball speed of 169.9 mph. "That's
(PGA) Tour level," he said.
Wiren has always been able to hit the
ball a long way.
When he was 47, he won the South
Florida section of the National Long
Drive Competition when his first at-
tempt went 387 yards, I foot. The run-
ner-up, a teen -aged Gary Nicklaus of
North Palm Beach, was 50 yards behind
Wiren.
But IvVireiYs interest in golf isn't just
about his game. He pointed out the
number of recreational golfers in the
U.S. has dropped from 30 million to 26
million in the last decade, and he says
the reasons are obvious.
"There are three main drawbacks
to golf - cost, time and. difficulty," he
said. "Yet people keep building longer,
tougher courses -- just so they can pro-
tect par - and all that does is add to the
cost, time and difficulty.
"Protect par? Who cares if some-
one breaks par? When Roger Bannister
broke the 4 -minute mile, -they didn't
make the track any longer. We have to
make golf more fun and less difficult for
the average player."
-Wiren knows the best way for hire to
enjoy Joy the game is to preserve his fitness.
That's why he has those, grips through-
out his house and even in his car. There
can be idle time when you're trying to
beat Father Time. Asked how he wants
to spend his 80th birthday in 2015, Wi-
ren didn't hesitate.
"Same thing," he said. "With a 300 -
yard drive." m