But that’s exactly what 87-year-old Clive Austin has achieved.

Clive plays twice, sometimes three times a week, at his home course – Moss Vale Golf Club, in the New South Wales Southern Highlands. But golf hasn’t always been Clive’s first sporting choice.

He was a talented cricketer and played for an array of clubs around New South Wales, donning the whites into his early 40s and was the jack of all trades on the pitch – an opening batsman and an opening bowler – playing representative cricket in the state’s central west and starring in the first-grade competition in Orange with the Orange Rovers.

Growing up in a large family, sport was a constant in Clive’s life. His brother, Don, was also a representative cricketer, and it was alongside him that he picked up golf as a youngster playing socially on a Sunday all around the central west. But cricket was firmly a priority for the Austin boys at the time.

“I wasn’t real big, but I swung the ball a lot,” Clive said about his ability off the long run.

He also played first-grade rugby league in the Group 11 competition and was graded by Canterbury-Bankstown when he moved to Sydney.

Although occupied by his other sporting endeavours, Clive always seemed to find time to play golf. He became more invested and serious about playing when he retired from playing cricket, managing to get down to an official handicap of one at his best. Today, he still hits it as straight as ever and plays off a ten.

“I always hit the ball pretty straight, never long, but I have always hit the ball on the fairway; if you don’t wander around, particularly at Moss Vale, you can score pretty good, but if you miss those fairways you can get in a lot of trouble,” Clive said.

“The driver has always been the club to set a good score up.”

RIGHT: Clive Austin pulling the trigger on the best club in his bag, the driver. PHOTO: Brendan James.

Moss Vale’s club captain Howard McMillian backed up his regular playing partners’ words, describing just how impressive octogenarian is when he takes the headcover off the big stick.

“I tend to play with him probably once every fortnight, and he is forever hitting the fairways; he is very good off the tee,” McMillan said.

Clive first signed for a score better than his age in 2003 when, at the age of 68, he carded a one-under-par 67 at the western NSW Cumnock Golf Club, where he had been club champion of the sand scrapes course in 1961 and 1962.

In fact, Clive initiated getting the club back on its feet after it closed the gates following World War II.

“I was one of the first ones that started the club going again because it closed down over the war years, and it never opened again. So, I was the one that called the first meeting, and we got

the course going again. We arranged working bees; it was all volunteering work,” Clive said.

“I arranged with the New South Wales Golf Association to come and inspect it; they did that; one of the top amateurs at the time and I, being club captain, played the course, and they gave us a course rating, and we became affiliated, and the golf club is still going today.”

“I put it down to my parents and grandparents, country people; I think I got my mother’s genes; she was very active.” – Clive Austin.

Clive continues to take the opportunity to do his bit for his current club – where he has been a member since 2010 – being a part of Moss Vale’s ‘Dad’s Army’, a great initiative where a group of members get together on a Monday morning once a month to attend to the bits and pieces the greens staff can’t get to, to help look after the course.

“We do work that the greenkeepers can’t really get to, gardens that have been let go, car park clean up, trimming small trees around the golf course, and general cleaning up,” Clive said.

In his working life, Clive was in construction and civil works, specialising in soil stabilisation and overseeing large projects nationwide, including construction of the Bruce Highway in Queensland.

He eventually found himself based in Sydney, plucking off another club championship at Rosnay Golf Club in 1963. He also spent 28 years playing out of Liverpool Golf Club, representing the club’s Pennants and Senior Masters teams for 10 years.

It is incredible to think a golfer who has shown this kind of consistency and longevity is entirely self-taught.

“I was always self-taught; I just couldn’t understand some of the teachers, they are very good, but they didn’t fall into line with my idea of him trying to teach me how to swing the golf club the way he swung it,” Clive said. “You cannot teach someone to swing the golf club the same way you do.

“There is a terrible lot of young fellas ruined because they can take that natural ability away.”

The secret to Clive’s longevity is simple, he thinks he has great genetics for one, and keeping himself fit and healthy has been a constant throughout his life, so why would he stop now?

“I put it down to my parents and grandparents, country people; I think I got my mother’s genes; she was very active,” Clive smiled.

“I kept myself fighting fit all the time; I always had the idea that no matter what sport you are playing, you will always have an advantage over others if you are perfectly fit.

“It is just a matter of looking after yourself, don’t get involved in any substances. If you live a healthy lifestyle … I never smoked, very light drinker, I think that’s the answer.”

Clive has had a remarkable playing career over a long period and can still play to a level that is competitive anywhere. So, there is no doubt the impressive number of 120 will continue to climb and provide proof the golf ball doesn’t know how old you are.