Ethel Van Duzee, 97, will take the ceremonial first tee shot at the Canadian Mid-Am and Senior Championship at the Osoyoos Golf Club later this month. Van Duzee has been golfing since age 50. (Vanessa Broadbent / Osoyoos Times)

By Dale Boyd

Osoyoos Times

At 97 years old, Ethel Van Duzee is starting to suspect that the sports accolades she is collecting are only due to her age.

“The BC Summer Games gave me a medal … I think it was only for being old,” Van Duzee laughed.

Now, Van Duzee is set to take the ceremonial first tee shot at the Canadian Women’s Mid-Am and Senior Championship at the Osoyoos Golf Club this month.

“I’m going to try,” she laughed. “I’ve never been a good golfer. I was 50 years old before I started, but I’ve loved it so much, everything about golf. I still do, I still love to be out there. It’s not only the beauty and everything, it’s the association with the people. Everyone is so kind.”

As far as she knows, Van Duzee is the only female surviving charter member of the golf club. Van Duzee has been living in Osoyoos since June of 1948 after coming to British Columbia in 1941.

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She is well known around the golf club,  and over the last nearly 50 years she has played thousands of rounds of golf and continues to play until this day.

“If I didn’t golf and play bridge, I wouldn’t have any friends,” Van Duzee said, though she notes her friends keep getting younger.

“It’s a different type of relationship, and now that I’m in Sunshine Ridge I’m even more convinced that I need to maintain my outside interests because your life can get very small,” Van Duzee said.

Over 150 golfers are coming to Osoyoos for the the 49th Canadian Women’s Mid-Am and Senior Championship, a 54-hole tournament starting with practice rounds on Aug. 17, and proceeding with championship rounds on Aug. 18.

Van Duzee’s ceremonial tee-off is on Aug. 17 at 5:30 p.m. at the number 10 tee on the Park Meadows course.