83-year-old dominates match play at Desert Aire
David Sivils at the Sagebrush Senior Center Scramble awards banquet and auction. He did not win the Desert Aire Match Play Tournament this year, but he was treated as if he had. "He didn't lose," the master of ceremonies said. "He just came in second."
DESERT AIRE - The handicap system was devised to level the playing field in golf, and 83-year-old David Sivils can attest to its effectiveness.
Taking advantage of his 29, Sivils has dominated the first two years of the Desert Aire Men's Club Match Play Championship.
Sivils wore down the field of 64 for the title last year. He made it to the final two this year before running out of gas in overtime.
In the process, Sivils made a name for himself. He was the talk of the golf course and clubhouse.
Many a good golfer spoke of Sivils admiringly during his run of supremacy. But he probably would have been embarrassed to hear the chatter, for he is quite modest.
"I've been so darned lucky it's pitiful," he said in his deliberate Carolina way. "Most of the guys made mistakes and let me in the back door."
But that's what handicaps are about. They let a lesser player take advantage when a better player falters.
In the final match this year, the better player excelled on the key hole while Sivils played to his level. Sivils parred the 19th hole (extra holes), and George Sellers birdied for the title.
Sivils is old school when it comes to golf. He started as a caddy in Elizabeth City, N.C. at the age of 13.
"Only the rich played," said the man who worked on the family truck farm before that. "If you were a good guy, the caddy master would let you play."
Sivils was thankful for those rich people. He carried two bags at 50 cents a bag and earned $1 a day at a time when adult wages were $2-3 a day. That $1 helped his family.
"It wasn't that hard," he said. "Most players carried five clubs in those days. They had what they call a Sunday bag now."
Sivils picked up the clubs as a player at the age of 15. But he did not do well until later, when he was a member of a U.S. Air Force air crew.
Sivils was in the Air Force when he finally got his game down to a 10. He jokes that he learned to play the sand in the deserts of Morocco, Arizona and California. He also played in England and Germany.
"I played in Bermuda one time when we got stopped by a storm between Bermuda and the U.S.," he said. "That was back when planes flew at 14,000 feet. We couldn't fly over the storm. So we had to wait four or five days."
Sivils had several jobs in the Air Force. Probably the most important was radio repairman in support of the F-86 Sabre Jet in Korea in 1950-51.
Sivils ended up at Desert Aire mostly because he retired from the Air Force (Chief Master Sergeant) at Fairchild AFB in Spokane. He wanted a warmer area and found it here.
Sivils has been able to play golf to his heart's content at Desert Aire. His game has declined, but that's probably a function of aging.
In a way, it has made him more competitive. While big hitters search the sagebrush and Mt. St. Helens ash for wayward balls, he struts down the middle.
And he just laughs about it all.
"By the time you get to where you can afford a golf ball, you can't hit if far enough to lose it," he said.