Just living to be 95 years old is an accomplishment unto itself, but living to be 95 and still being able to play golf three times a week is sort of like heaven on earth for most people.

Harold E. "Doc" Belton of Oak Ridge, Tn., certainly defies the odds in numerous ways.

He not only is 95 and plays golf regularly, but he plays golf WELL regularly.

Belton may even be close to some kind of national record for shooting the most strokes under your age.

Last year at the Oak Ridge Country Club he racked up a round of 83. He was 93 at the time. That 10 strokes under his age may rank him near the top of the national list of players shooting 10 or more strokes under their age.

The United States Golf Association says the odds of a golfer shooting a score even equal to their age is about 1,000 to 1. "Anyone shooting 10 strokes under their age is sort of miraculous," says John Allen of the USGA. "We don't keep records for that specific area, but I have never heard of anyone shooting 10 strokes under their age."

Belton's scorecards at the Oak Ridge Country Club show he has shot his age or better 15 of his last 20 rounds. "I suppose I have shot my age or better hundreds of times over the last 20 years or so," he said.

Belton did not even take up golf until a year or so before he retired from his Atomic Energy Commission job 33 years ago.

"I just needed something to do to stay active," he said.

Belton says he has never had any serious illness to slow his golf play over the years. "I've been pretty healthy, really...but it runs in my family - my sister was 92 and my mom reached age 89 before passing on. Guess its our Irish background."

He now plays to an established 19 handicap and you can find him playing with such partners as Jim Hill, Ward Foster, Frank Davis and Dick Paul.

Belton says he has always been a "dink-and-plink" golfer, keeping his scores low with a good chipping and putting game. "I most often hit my tee shots only about 150 yards or so, but most of them hit the fairway. I've never been a long hitter. I probably never averaged more than 170-180 off the tee."

He says he has never had a hole-in-one in the many thousands of golf holes he has played.

His nickname has nothing to do with any medical connection he has, he explained. "I picked that up when I was about 11 years old in the Boy Scouts."

He was the driving force in the establishment of the East Tennessee Senior Golf Association (ETSGA) in 1971. "I belonged to a golf association called the Southern Golfers at the time and just thought we needed our own senior golfer association in East Tennessee,'' he said. The ETSGA, open to golfers age 60 and up, now has more than 600 members throughout East Tennessee.

Belton has made one concession to his age over the last 10 years: He now rides a golf cart on his rounds. "I always walked until I was about 84," he said.

This story was published on 28 May 2002.