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Dr. Walter Kearns
1922-2019
Dr.
Walter Kearns turned in his final scorecard with a 97 on May 21, 2019, passing peacefully at home in Woodland Hills, CA. He enjoyed a competitive golf career spanning 83 years, and was quite likely the finest golfer over age 90 in the world for several years. Here are some of his remarkable accomplishments:
- Shooting
his age over 1,150 times since 1989, when he shot a 66 at age
67. Check out the 66!
- Personal record of 16 strokes under his age, (71 at age 87; 75 at age 91)
- 1989
qualifier at age 67 for US Senior Amateur Championship
(age 55+) in Houston, TX
- Winner
of the 2002 Southern California Golf Association Super-Seniors (age
65+) qualifying tournament with a 73 at Horse Thief CC in
Tehachapi, CA
- Shot a 98 left-handed at Lakeside GC in 2000, while nursing an elbow injury
- Eleven
career hole-in-ones, including seven accomplished in a five-year span after turning 80.
- Winning
Lakeside Golf Club Championship 26 years apart (1967 and
1993)
- Qualifying
for the Lakeside Club Championship Final Four in
2005 at age 83.
- #1
player and Captain of Princeton University Golf Team, 1942-1943.
- US
Amateur Qualifier, 1941.
- Wisconsin
State Junior Championships Runner-Up, 1939.
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Biography
Walter
Kearns was introduced to golf in 1934 at age 12 in the municipal junior
golf program in Milwaukee, WI. After he and his brother Jack showed
a passion for the game, his father joined Blue Mound Country Club
so that they could play and practice at a first-rate facility.
Kearns
quickly became a top junior golfer, Runner-Up in the Wisconsin State
Junior Championship in 1939. At Princeton, Kearns was the captain
and #1 player on the NCAA Division I golf team in 1942 and 1943. College
highlights include winning the Eastern Intercollegiate Individual
Championships in 1944, while a medical student at Johns Hopkins.
He
qualified for the US Amateur in 1941. While the possibility of a professional
career beckoned, Kearns chose to focus on his medical studies and
enjoyed a 49-year career as a general surgeon, mostly in West Hills,
CA, a suburb of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley.
Through
raising a family and building his medical practice, golf remained
a constant hobby and competitive outlet.
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Coach
Kearns
After
closing his medical practice and winding up a five-year stint with
the Indian Health Service as a surgeon for the Navajo Nation in Shiprock,
NM, Kearns served as the head coach of the Taft High School (Woodland
Hills, CA) golf team from 2000 to 2005.
Taft
- the alma mater of Kearns' sons Wally, Brad and Jeff - had dropped
its golf program for over a decade prior to Kearns resurrecting the
program. This despite a rich tradition in the sport including a 1981
California State High School Championship, a team that included Top-30
PGA Tour player Duffy Waldorf.
In
his first season as coach, the Taft team finished with a league match
record of 10-0. In 2003, the team placed 4th in the Los Angeles City
High School Golf championships.
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Competitive
Highlights
- 1939
- Wisconsin State Junior Championships Runner-Up
- 1941
- US Amateur Qualifier
- 1943
- Winner, Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Championships. Shot 76-69=145, Washington, D.C.
- 1943
- 6th low qualifier, NCAA Division I Golf Championships. Lost in Match
Play to eventual winner and PGA Tour player Wally Ulrich at Olympia
Fields CC in Chicago, IL
- 1957
- Winner, El Caballero Country Club Championship
- 1967
- Winner, Lakeside Golf Club Championship
- 1968
- Winner, Brentwood CC (Los Angeles, CA) Invitational Low Gross with
partner Jim Irsfeld
- 1975
- Winner, American Medical Association National Championships, Olympic
Club Lake Course (San Francisco, CA)
- 1989
- Qualifier, United States Senior Amateur Golf Championship, Houston,
TX
- 1973
- Runner-Up, Lakeside Golf Club Championship
- 1993
- Winner, Lakeside Golf Club Championship (def. Mark McNamara, age
31. A college teammate of Payne Stewart at Houston)
- 2002
- Winner, SCGA Super Seniors Qualifying Tournament. Shot 73 at Horse
Thief CC in Tehachapi, CA
- 2005
- Semi-Finalist, Lakeside Golf Club Championship. Lost to eventual
champion Greg Bell (0.6 handicap)
- 2009 - Shot 71 on both the west and east courses of Braemar Country Club over the summer, a new personal record of 16 shots under his age
- 2011 - Shot 76 in a Braemar intra-club tournament. The round featured a quintuple bogey "9" on the 4th hole, with the other 17 holes played in even par.
- 2012 - Shot 76 at Braemar Country Club, 14 strokes under his age.
- 2013 - Shot 76 at Braemar Country Club, 16 strokes under his age
Hole-In-Ones
- 1942
- Clifton Park Golf Course, Baltimore, MD. 2nd hole, 206 yards, 2
iron (how did he remember that?!)
- 1966
- Lakeside Golf Club. 3rd hole, 164 yards, 5 iron
- 1968
- Lakeside Golf Club. 3rd hole, 164 yards, 5 iron
- 1970
- Hillcrest Country Club, Los Angeles, CA. 12th hole, 185 yards, 3
iron
- 2002
- Lakeside Golf Club. 6th hole, 142 yards, 7 iron
- 2002
- Oakmont Country Club, Pasadena, CA. 11th hole, 145 yards, 7 iron
- 2003
- Braemar Country Club West Course, Tarzana, CA. 18th hole, 155 yards,
6 iron
- 2004
- Lakeside Golf Club. 6th hole, 142 yards, 7 iron
- 2004
- Braemar Country Club West Course, Tarzana, CA. 7th hole, 116 yards,
8 iron
- 2005
- Lakeside Golf Club. 3rd hole, 164 yards
- 2007 - Lakeside Golf Club. 15th hole, 155 yard, 6-iron
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What
Others Say
2007 NEWS
Eleven Aces for Kearns!
On
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007, Walter Kearns hit his 11th career hole-in-one
at his home course of Lakeside Golf Club. This one came on the 155-yard 15th hole, with a 6-iron. This is his seventh ace since turning 80 in 2002!
Kearns
hits 10th Career Hole-In-One!
On
Saturday, October 22nd, 2005, Walter Kearns hit his 10th career hole-in-one
on his favorite hole - the 164-yard par 3 at Lakeside! Kearns' 4-iron
shot was his third ace on that hole (1966, 1968 and 2005) and his
sixth ace since turning 80 in 2002.
Recent Article in LA Times: About posting 800+ below-age scores and golf career longevity
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