Q & A spotlight: Anne Carr, state, local private-club champion
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Q: You are the reigning King County and state private-club champion and yet you've only taken one lesson from a pro in your life. At times you have played competitively for a couple summers in a row but you have taken breaks of 3, 4, 5, 9 and 12 years between "golf summers." Explain why you've left golf at times.
A: Most of those years I was single. To be a tournament-caliber player, I had to give it 100 percent and so all I did in the summer was play golf, work and eat. I didn't have a social life. The next spring would come around and I'd say, "I don't want to put my life on hold for golf." I loved to backpack, travel and do things with friends who didn't play golf.
Q: How did you get started in golf?
A: I grew up on a private course in Leesburg, Fla., but I didn't play until I was 12. That's when a new course superintendent — Jack Bumgarner — was hired. He was the brother of actor James Garner. Jack was the handsomest man I'd ever seen. I started to play golf just to be on the course and see him. He was a scratch golfer and I memorized his swing. I would sit by him and watch him hit balls for an hour. To him I was just a little kid, but he was nice to me, like a second father. He was a friend of my parents and one day he called and said, "My family and I want to visit at 7 o'clock Sunday. Have the TV turned on." He came and we watched the premiere of "Maverick." He said, "That's my little brother."
Q: You belong to Fairwood Golf and Country Club in Renton. With all the good public courses around, why did you choose to join a private club?
A: A major reason is practice facilities. When I didn't belong to a club, I was driving all over the place in rush-hour traffic to practice different things — 80-yard shots at Jefferson Park, bunker shots at Riverbend, long irons at ranges where they were allowing you to hit off grass. I told this to Sue Ursino of Sahalee and she said, "Anne, you and Joe (husband) live one mile from Fairwood. Bite the bullet and join." One of my concerns was playing the same course over and over but if you play tournaments, monthly sweeps and other events you wind up playing a lot of good courses and often for free. We've also made a lot of friends at Fairwood.
Q: Didn't you race cars at one time? Hitchhike in Europe? Did you really quit your computer programming job in Denver and move to Wyoming?
A: I raced a Lotus Europa when I was in my 20s. (She is 57.) I saw one, got a ride and then couldn't sleep — I just had to have one. I never lost a race, either. Yes, I hitchhiked alone in Europe in 1982. I've also done competitive cross-country skiing, backpacked in the Rockies, ridden horses and done bicycle touring. One day when I was 37 and working in Denver, I decided within two minutes to sell everything and go live in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and that's what I did.
Q: Is it true there was someone who wanted to back you on the LPGA Tour?
A: Yes. The owner of our club in Florida made that offer. But at the time (mid-1960s) there was no glamour and no TV in the LPGA. The No. 1 player, Kathy Whitworth, made $15,000 a year and it looked like a tough life of constant travel. If my father had encouraged me, I probably would have done it, but he wanted me to get my degree (geology, Florida State) and then steered me to take a job as a computer programmer at Cape Canaveral. Sometimes I wonder how I would have done if I'd become a pro.