Maryland Interclub Senior Golf Assn (MISGA)
By Dolores E. Pike

Will Hall loves golf.  He has been playing the game since age 14 thanks to an older brother who became interested in the sport because he wanted to impress the father of a girl he was dating.  Will’s brother had a set of clubs but the teenage Will did not. 

“I went out to my father’s workshop and found an old grass cutting scythe, straight-handled with a sickle on the end of it.  I noticed that where the blade was attached to the handle there was a triangular metal flange and bolts that held the blade. I unscrewed the bolts, took the blade off leaving me with the handle and the little ‘golf club head.’ 

“We had a walnut tree in the back yard and I began playing golf by hitting walnuts.  And I still play like I’m hitting walnuts with a scythe,” said Will.

As the club representative for the Maryland Interclub Senior Golf Association (MISGA) at the Ocean City Golf Club (OCGC), he will be one of 150 golfers who will gather in Ocean City on May 1 and 2 for the organization’s annual “spring fling” golf event. Held for a number of years at Ocean City, golfers will gather here to play the Ocean City Golf Club courses.

Will is an active promoter of the game of golf.  He points out that unlike playing football or basketball, golfers can continue golfing well into their later years. As an example he cited two members of the OCGC in their 90s who up until now have participated in MISGA’s twice weekly “mixers.”  Each participant’s name goes in the computer along with his handicap and the computer chooses the mix of guys from the clubs participating in the day’s event. A member can play in as many mixers a season as he wishes.

Each of the 60 clubs that make up MISGA has a club rep who is the coordinator between the parent organization, which is subdivided into six divisions, and the local club.  He attends statewide meetings, sets up the schedule for the coming year and keeps all the members abreast of MISGA activities.  

Each year MISGA organizes a trip in the spring and fall for the golfers and their wives.  Last fall MISGA scheduled two such trips; one to Amelia Island, Florida and the other to Sea Brook Island, Georgia for four days of golfing where the wives also participated in golfing events.  Sight-seeing was arranged for the non-golfing wives.

MISGA, a non-profit association, was founded in 1975 as a way to promote a greater interest in and enjoyment of the game of golf by senior members (50 years and older) of golf clubs in Maryland.  Since those early days of MISGA there are now several clubs in Delaware as well as one club in Pennsylvania and one on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.  The overall aim of the association is to foster friendship and camaraderie.

“It’s a chance for guys who have gotten to a point in life where they are able to dictate their own time more than they did at an earlier age.  It is competition yet the emphasis is more on camaraderie and friendships,” said Will, adding that MISGA men are at a time in their lives where they now appreciate the beauty a golf course has to offer.
 
Will, who had always wanted to be in radio, took speech courses at the University of Maryland while he was stationed at Andrews Air Force Base. 

“I had to give a speech to the class and they (the instructors) said it was best to choose a subject about which you knew a great deal.  I had played golf for a number of years and had read all the books so I gave a speech on golf. I was all of 19 or 20.  I talked about the aesthetics, beauty and camaraderie.  An air force officer later came up to me and said, ‘It always looked like such a stupid game to me but now I realize that there is so much more to it than just playing golf.’”

And it beats hitting walnuts with a scythe.

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