It’s possible that nothing has ever been so good for Bill Engel’s golf game as learning a second language.
Engel, now 77, spent most of his 33-year career in the Army as a couple-times-a-month-player but for a short period in 1988 when he was assigned temporary duty to the Monterey Language Institute for refresher training in Spanish. The one-on-one classes lasted each day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., at which point Engel was free to spend the rest of the day as he pleased. Naturally, he chose the golf course.
“For 30 days, I committed to hitting 500 balls a day — not all those were full shots, some of them were around the green – but I really got my golf game in tip-top shape,” he said.
That intense practice sharpened Engel’s game to the point that he won the All Army Golf Championship that year, a 72-hole event with a field made up of players stationed all over the world. Engel still considers that title to be the most prestigious victory of his career.
Golf has been a constant in Engel’s life throughout what he calls a “pretty typical field artillery career.” It culminated with Engel’s 2001 assignment as the Commander of White Sands Proving Ground/Missile Range in New Mexico, the premier test facility in all of the Department of Defense. Upon retiring in 2003, golf returned to the forefront and Engel is spending his days playing national senior-circuit events – something he never envisioned for his retirement but a life that suits him regardless.
“My first rule is I won’t play golf on any day that doesn’t end in day,” he joked. “I’ll play anywhere or anytime. I’ve got a tremendous love for the game of golf.”
War stories, real and metaphorical, are a common currency in senior golf. Engel loves that part of the circuit – the part where competitors get together after a round, go out to dinner, trade stories and find connections. Playing national events, Engel has run across many men with whom he shares some of the same memories – like Dan Parkinson, a Utah resident who finished second to Engel at that 1988 All Army Championship, or John Osborne, with whom he played high school and college golf and now partners with in four-ball events.
Originally, Engel, a native of Virginia, set out only to play senior events on the “January Swing.” He was also competing frequently in Virginia State Golf Association events post-retirement and won two Super Senior stroke-play events and a Super Senior match-play title.
In 2012, Engel teed it up in the Dave King Invitational, a national event, and lost to Ted Smith in a five-hole playoff. Smith was one of the top senior amateurs in the game.
“At that time, I knew I could compete, so that’s when I really got the urge to do this – to do this on the national level,” he said.
Engel has been playing golf since high school, picking up the game because he “couldn’t hit a curve ball on the baseball team.” He went on to compete at Virginia Tech and was a member of the 1967 team that finished fifth at the national championship. He remembers vividly playing behind Johnny Miller in the first round and how, backed up on the 18th tee, he realized while huddled under a big oak tree that he and Miller were tied. Engel watched Miller chunk a tee shot on the closing par 3, but then hole out from 75 yards for birdie. Engel, however, went on to make bogey.
“For a nostalgic trip I took my wife back there and we played two days,” Engel said of the Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort in Delaware, Pennsylvania. “It had been 55 years since I was there. . . . I shot the identical score from 55 years previous. I shot a 151 (for 36 holes) both times.”
Engel’s wife Linda plays heavily into his story. Engel believes firmly meeting Linda and raising their three children together has been his most significant accomplishment. And of all the stories in his life that he recounts, meeting Linda is the one that moves him to tears.
“That’s the best thing I’ve done in my life,” Engel said of his wife and children.
Engel’s days are now spent either on the road – he aims to compete nationally once or a twice a month – or playing Marsh Creek Country Club in St. Augustine, Florida, where he and Linda now live full-time. Engel shoots his age with some frequency, but he has devised a system to acknowledge it, log it and move on. Typically, he just writes the number on the ball and tosses it in a bag. He guesses there are about 60 balls in that bag by now.
In competition, Engel competes in the Super Legends division for players aged 75 and over. He marvels at how that age group has grown through the years – from what used to be just a handful of players to now, in some events, 25 or more.
“It’s so fascinating to watch how everybody deals with the aging process, the game of golf and how hard it is to maintain your concentration the older you get,” he said. “I think it’s very interesting how they keep moving the tees up for us old guys but we never score as low as the younger guys.”