MOWEAQUA, Ill. (WAND) - America won't be the only one celebrating a milestone birthday on the Fourth of July.
Bob Lawton, an avid golfer at Moweaqua Golf Course, will turn 100 years old Saturday. His love of golf hasn't wavered one bit after all these years.
“A couple years ago he had lost his clubs in a fire,” Brad Burcham, the golf pro at Moweaqua Golf Course, said. “At 98 years old, he comes out and orders a whole new set of clubs custom-built for him. His exact words to me were, ‘I might be a little optimistic buying new clubs.’”
For Lawton, the course is where he finds joy. Asked about his favorite club, he didn’t hesitate.
“Probably a wedge,” Lawton said.
But like many golfers, he said the part of the game that continues to challenge him is putting.
Lawton said he really began playing more seriously after retiring from teaching trigonometry and physics at Moweaqua High School.
“Once a year back in the day, but when I retired, I think I was probably 63 when I started playing in earnest,” he said.
As Lawton nears his 100th birthday, he jokes that life now comes with a different kind of scorekeeping, especially when it comes to family.
“I have probably 11 grandkids and probably 11 great-grandkids. I don’t know. I don’t keep track,” he said, laughing.
However many extended family members Lawton has, they’ll be with him celebrating on July 4, along with the rest of Moweaqua.
Village City Council recently declared Saturday as “Bob Lawton Day.”
“Celebrate big,” Burcham said. “Fireworks, parades, cookouts, whatever you need to do to celebrate Bob’s 100th birthday.”
When asked what he credits for his long life, Lawton jokingly pointed to a belief he learned early from his mother.
“I grew up with a mother who believed that you don’t get sick, and so I just never got sick,” he laughed.
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