Golfer plays each month for 34 years
BUTLER TWP— Brett Favre and Cal Ripken Jr. set historic streaks for endurance in football and baseball.
Bill Uram Jr. might be doing the same in golf.
His streak won't be as well known, of course, but the 67-year-old Butler Township resident has endured in his own right. He has played at least one round of golf in Butler County each month for 34 consecutive years.
And he's still going.
Uram graduated from Butler High in 1959 and is retired after teaching chemistry at his alma mater. He's been a golfer since age 12.
"I never intended to put together a streak like this,"Uram said. "I guess I began to take it seriously in 1988, when it reached 13 years.'
<table width="300" height="275" border="0" align="right" valign="top" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><embed src="/assets/mov/BE63059115.MOV " width="320" height="250" autostart="true" loop="false" ></embed></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" target="_blank"><span class="style11">Requires Quicktime Media Player </a><br><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Times New Roman">Video by Brandon Gerthoffer</font></span><td></tr></table>The streak began in 1976, when Uram and Frank Ferens, another Butler teacher, played rounds together during the winter.They played at LakeVue North in winter "because that was the only course that let us go out when it was covered with snow,"Uram said.The streak nearly ended in the late 1980s, but Uram played a round in 12 inches of snow Jan. 31 at LakeVue to keep it alive."I used an orange ball, hit it in the air, looked for the hole in the snow, set the ball on top of the snow and hit it again,"Uram said. "I only lost two balls that entire round."Ferens died 15 years ago, and when Uram couldn't find another winter golf partner, his wife, Janet, began going with him.Though an accomplished golfer herself, she didn't play in the harsh winter weather. She merely accompanied her husband around the course."She figured if I was by myself and something happened out there, they wouldn't find me until the spring thaw,"Uram said, laughing."I'm happy he's able to do this because it gives him pleasure," Janet Uram said. "As long as he's able to do it, I'll support him."Uram recalled one round at Lake Arthur, when the pond was frozen and his shot came to rest on the ice.He wandered onto the ice in an attempt to play it."I was walking toward my ball when I heard the ice start to crack," Uram said. "I turned around and got back to the ground before falling through."Risking my life for a $1 golf ball didn't show very good judgment."Uram has kept annual logs of where and when he's played during his streak. A longtime member at Oakview Golf Club, he's been playing most of his rounds there in recent years.Uram has four holes-in-one in his career, including the first one at Oakview since the course was renamed from Armco in 2004. He had two aces that year.He's also scored holes-in-one at Krendale in 1998 and Armco in 1992. An enclosed glass case hangs on his living room wall with golf balls from those aces, tournament wins and other noted achievements."I'll play golf with him when the weather breaks, usually from the end of March through November,"Uram's wife said. "But Bill is year-round. He won't quit a round, no matter how bad it gets, until he's played at least nine holes."We've come home from winter vacations in Florida early so he can golf in Pennsylvania."Uram played golf 121 times in 2001, 108 of those outings at the then-named Armco Golf Club. He usually plays an average of once every three or four days a year.Uram plays in a league at Oakview during the spring and summer with 40 to 60 other retirees.It's all part of the streak."It's a little crazy, I guess,"Uram admitted. "But the weather's not always bad around here in the winter. I've golfed in short sleeves in January before."I don't play golf because I love the streak. The streak is because I love to play golf."
