GOLDEN YEARS ON THE GREENS

Wendell Kerr, left, and Harold Nothdurst divided up teams at the clubhouse before teeing off.

Every weekday about noon, a group of vintage gents gathers in the clubhouse at the Jaycee Municipal Golf Course. They kibitz, they joke, they hand over a little money and they get ready to play what amounts to a mini-tournament.

They are the Noon Group, a loose assemblage of golfers whose primary mission is to provide each other with ready-made playing partners.

A 12:30 p.m. tee time is reserved for them at the course every day except weekends and holidays. That includes the winter unless snow is on the ground.

Anybody is welcome to play no matter what their age -- teen-agers sometimes join the game -- level of skill or sex. Currently, only one woman, an employee at the course, participates.

"We don't turn down anybody who's got a dollar and a half," says Wendell Kerr, who organizes the event every day.

He handicaps the golfers by assigning them a number based on past scores. A No. 1 golfer averages between 35 and 40 (35 is par at the course) strokes for the first nine holes. A No. 2 golfer shoots 40-42, a NO. 3 golfer 43-45. Everybody above 45 is a No. 4.

Kerr's job is to arrange the golfers into competitive four-man teams. The team with the lowest score splits one pot and the golfer who hits his tee shot closest to the pin on a designated par 3 gets the other.

How much can they win? "About three bucks," Kerr said.

The Noon Group was born about 15 years ago, growing out of a regular foursome composed of Clyde Schwab, Fred Brinkopf, Lowrey Miller and Paul Bray.

"There were a lot of people out here who didn't have anybody to play with," Bray recalls. "...Fellowship -- that's all its for," he says.

Bray, a vital 80-year-old who still walks the course instead of driving a cart and carries his bag instead of using a pull cart, is the only member of the original foursome still alive.

Besides the camaraderie, the members of Noon Group also like golf, Bray says.

"We're all pretty serious about winning."

Kerr's list of people who play with the group from time to time numbers more than 60 people. Eight to 10 of the golfers play every day. "I'm one of them," he says.

Some of the golfers come from Sikeston, Chaffee, Oak Ridge and Gordonville. A Wednesday last week drew enough golfers for six teams.

All walks of life are represented. Bray takes exception to recent public statements critical of taxes being used to support a sport some believe is played only by the wealthy.

"That's a lot of baloney," he said. "I don't know of any rich golfers out here. We like to play golf and we pay our way."

Kerr, a former construction inspector for the state who also owned an archery business, didn't take up golf until he was 60. Now he's a No. 1 "most of the time."

George Heuer takes time out from raising beans, cattle and hay on his farm to play. He owns the land just across the road from the number two hole. Golfers cursed with a chronic slice keep him supplied with balls.

That's how he learned to play golf, hitting those lost balls.

"When I cut that hay they're just standing there like Easter eggs," he says, beaming.

Heuer has achieved one of the senior golfer's prized goals: In a recent round of 18 holes, he shot his age -- 79.

Howard Hinton, the oldest member of the group at nearly 81, has been playing with them for 12 years. A native of Allenville, he took up golf upon moving back to Southeast Missouri from Cleveland in 1980.

Once a shortstop for the Capahas, Hinton took to the sport readily.

"It's just hitting the damn ball," he says.

Bray has been playing the course since it opened about 40 years ago, and says age hasn't changed his love for golf or his game.

"Right now I'm hitting the ball as well as I ever have," he said.

The Noon Group provides exactly what many seniors are lacking -- recreation and contact with the rest of the world.

"When one of the guys doesn't play for a week or so I call them up to see what's wrong with them," Bray says.