382 Golf Rounds Posted in 365 Days

 

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. (January 18, 2017) -- Forty-eight golfers in the Carolinas posted at least 250 scores during 2016. The top score posters are listed below. We caught up with the top male and female score posters to find out how they managed to play so many rounds of golf. 

Last year's top male score poster, Jim Ludden of Belfair Golf Club, posted 50 less scores than his 2015 total of 357.  

 

2016's Top Female Score Posters in the Carolinas
 

NAME		ROUNDS POSTED	CLUB
MO	SPADA	347	SEA TRAIL GOLF ASSOCIATION
CARRIE	DILLARD	246	RESERVE CLUB AT WOODSIDE PLANTATION
LYNN	MCQUAY	243	BERKELEY HALL CLUB
ANN	ORMAN	205	COLOLNIAL CHARTERS GOLF CLUB
IRENE	BROWNLIE	199	BELFAIR GOLF CLUB
WENDY	DUNNAN	199	YEAMANS HALL CLUB
KAYE	CASTELLUCCI	197	BELFAIR GOLF CLUB
WANDA	ELMORE	197	DATAW ISLAND CLUB
DEBORAH	LEVY	200	PINEHURST COUNTRY CLUB
CINDY	CASEY	197	FSC GOLF CLUB
HARDY	JOHNSON	196	PROVIDENCE COUNTRY CLUB

 

 

Mo Spada

For the second consecutive year, Maureen ‘Mo’ Spada of Sunset Beach, N.C., recorded the most golf rounds played in the Carolinas by a female, according to Carolinas Golf Association records.

And her 2016 total crushed her mark from 2015.

Spada posted an amazing 347 rounds for the calculation of her handicap with the amateur golf organization. That is up from 275 rounds in 2015, which was the most among women in the Carolinas by 32 rounds.

Spada, 61, often plays with her husband, Rick, and his total of 321 posted rounds is nearly equally impressive considering he’s 72, has a troublesome back and was coming off hand surgery.

“He still suffers from a bad back but he would rather play golf than sit at home,” Spada said. “He tells people that golf is his version of physical therapy and is better than joining a gym. We are so fortunate that we both love to play golf and would rather play together than with anyone else.”

They walk many of their rounds. Though the couple lives at Sea Trail Golf Resort – Spada estimates she played 200 rounds on its three courses – they joined Sandpiper Bay Golf Club in October because it allows walking anytime, and have a multiple play pass at The Valley at Eastport because of its walking policy.

“We are ecstatic to have a membership at a club that allows us to walk and it makes playing during the winter easy as you stay so much warmer,” Spada said.

The gaudy number isn’t even a true reflection of the amount of golf Spada played, because there are rounds in scramble tournaments and incomplete rounds meant for practice that weren’t registered for her handicap.

Rick is a retired high school social studies teacher and Mo was a school and reference librarian.

The couple purchased a vacation home at Sea Trail Golf Resort 12 years ago and moved to Sea Trail full-time nearly five years ago from Accord, N.Y. That move freed Spada up to play incessantly.

She is on two traveling teams from Sea Trail called Interclub and the Ladybirds, and travels to play three times a week with the Sandpiper Dragons.

Not much will stop Spada from playing. She tells a story of playing on one of the coldest days of 2016 in December at Sandpiper, when the high was 36 degrees. She forgot to set the handbrake on her push cart and it rolled into a pond. Rick took off his shoes and socks and waded in to pull the bag and cart out. Thankfully, her GPS device fell onto the bank and her wallet and cell phone were not in the bag.

“So, some guys came out and brought us a cart to get our stuff back to our SUV where we put my soaking wet bag in the back and went on to finish walking our 18 holes with me playing out of my husband's bag,” Spada said.

A vacation is no excuse not to play daily, either. They went to Cozumel, Mexico, for 10 days last February and played 36 holes a day at Cozumel Country Club, and participated in a four-day couples’ tournament at Port Royal Golf Course in Bermuda.

“I loved my career as a librarian but now that I am retired for almost five years my ‘new job’ fits me to a tee,” Spada said.