However only one yr earlier, she had been fretting that she would not slot in amongst classmates some 40 years youthful.
As one of many oldest pupil athletes within the US, her mates name her “Historic Eagle,” after Reinhardt’s mascot. “Historic” could also be a gross exaggeration of Blount’s age, however she likes to suppose she imparts some knowledge on her younger teammates.
“It is a sport, we’re on this collectively … we’re actually fortunate to do that,” she mentioned of the issues she retains in thoughts whereas enjoying. “There are much more severe issues in life than enjoying golf, and I feel they’re selecting up on a few of it.”
She pursued school golf after her husband’s dying
School wasn’t within the playing cards for Blount when she graduated from highschool in 1976. Her dad and mom nudged her towards changing into an X-ray technician, telling her it might be a secure profession. They have been proper, she mentioned, although she had a hunch she would’ve made an excellent P.E. instructor, too.
However earlier than she set her thoughts on changing into an X-ray tech, she mentioned the potential for school with a steerage counselor, who steered just one faculty — Reinhardt College in Waleska, Georgia, not removed from the place Blount grew up.
“Reinhardt was all the time behind my thoughts,” she mentioned.
Golf, initially, was not. Blount first acquired onto a golf course at age 33 — after she met her husband, Ben. Her husband cherished the sport, and she or he needed to spend extra time with him, so she picked up golf as a interest. However Blount, ever the athlete, felt herself get a “little pushed.” She made up for misplaced time with fixed follow, ultimately competing in some native championships. Golf turned a part of her weekly routine.
When her husband died after a years-long sickness, she moved to Vail, Colorado, to show snowboarding full-time. However when her father died just a few months after her husband, she discovered herself rudderless.
“I used to be a bit of bit misplaced,” she mentioned.
After their deaths, she got here throughout a Seventies yearbook from Reinhardt College, the place her husband’s mom had labored at a dorm — one other signal “calling to Reinhardt,” she mentioned.
“I discovered myself wanting by these yearbooks, questioning if it might’ve been me.”
In the meantime, her golf sport was getting stale. She misplaced a championship competing in opposition to her mates at her golf membership. She requested a younger caddy at her membership the place he performed. Reinhardt College, he advised her.
“There it’s once more,” Blount thought.
The thought of beginning faculty at 62 was daunting at first. Blount wasn’t certain if she may sustain with full-time courses — however “the golf was calling,” she mentioned, so after assembly with a Reinhardt coach and exhibiting off her abilities, she dedicated herself to beginning over as a university freshman.
She’s been with the crew now for a yr. Whereas it might be simple to complain about her packed faculty schedule or the get-togethers she’s canceled after a protracted day of follow, Blount mentioned she’s simply grateful for the chance — one she earned with talent and grit.
“I am attending to reside the dream,” she mentioned. “I go searching right here and I can not imagine I get to do it.”
She matches in along with her youthful teammates
Throughout a latest Monday afternoon follow on the driving vary, Blount was relaxed and giddy along with her teammates, all of them of their late teenagers or very early 20s. She made them giggle and cheered them on (at a golf-appropriate quantity). “The women,” as she calls her youthful teammates, thought-about what matching equipment they will put on to their subsequent match.
“We’re gettin’ sharp,” she mentioned of her swing at one level. “However my final identify’s Blount, I can not be sharp.”
Blount missed a putt throughout a drill, shrugging it off with a smile. She believes optimistic pondering is the important thing to success, however possibly she wasn’t pondering positively sufficient for that putt.
She talks about her youthful teammates with the identical effusive love she makes use of when she talks about her expensive mates at her golf membership. Blount by no means had kids, however she mentioned being across the group of close-knit younger girls so usually reveals her what it may need been wish to have a daughter round their age. Their dad and mom write Blount notes, thanking her for the “knowledge” she’s dropped at their crew, she mentioned.
Blount mentioned she was afraid she “would not carry something to the crew,” however these fears have been unfounded. Lauren Welte, a participant Blount praised as a formidable chief, mentioned the 63-year-old is an “unbelievable” addition to the crew. Welte wasn’t initially thrilled about enjoying alongside a sexagenarian, however after trudging by 18 holes collectively within the pouring rain — their first time assembly — she was fully bought.
Totally different people have totally different takes on what makes Blount such a vital member of the Reinhardt crew. Abilities-wise, although she does not ship the ball fairly so far as her teammates on her first play, Blount “hits it the straightest out of all of us,” Welte mentioned, and sometimes shoots within the mid-80s.
Evans Nichols, the 26-year-old head coach of the ladies’s golf crew, praised the “good vitality” she brings to the crew, a residing reminder that “golf is a lifelong sport.” And whereas youthful gamers might lash out after a nasty play, Blount is a logo of stability, mentioned Invoice Popp, Reinhardt’s vp for enrollment and athletics, a job mannequin for college students who have not honed their emotional sport but.
Motivating the younger girls on her crew to enhance their sport has given her an concept of what she’ll do when she graduates. Although she should “journey off into the sundown” along with her boyfriend and “do the retirement sport,” she thinks she’ll in all probability find yourself teaching younger folks — possibly as a graduate assistant at Reinhardt.
For now, although, she’s desirous about the short-term: She’s simply been nominated for homecoming queen. She’s already recruited the women to assist her discover a gown for the occasion, a request they fortunately accepted.
