12:00a.m. 20th August 2008

| By Toby Walker

At 93, Jim Granger still loves his regular games at Chancellor Park Golf Range. Photo: Michaela O’Neill/ 177652

Legends were being made the year 16-year-old Jim Granger became a member of Sydney’s Pennant Hills Golf Club.

It was 1931, the same year archetypal mafia boss Al Capone was jailed for tax evasion and US Open winner Billy Burke became the first golfer to win a major using steel-shafted clubs.

Fast forward to the 21st century and a now 93-year-old Jim Granger can be found testing out a new set of Callaway clubs at the Chancellor Park Golf Range or pounding the fairways during his mid-week game at the Caloundra Golf Club.

Having used the same set of clubs for close to 30 years, Jim recently decided to trade them in for something a little more lightweight on the advice of Chancellor Park golf pro Steve Smith.

“Steve gave me this club that he had bought for his daughter and said I should give it a go,” he said.

“I had a few swings and came back and told him he better get me a set – they were beaut.”

A quick call to Jim Hughes and Drummond Golf in Maroochydore, and Jim senior was in business.

The new clubs have added some distance to his drive but the veteran golfer admits even the most hi-tech clubs would struggle to reel in his handicap these days.

“I’ve had both hips replaced, a triple bypass and I’ve got a pacemaker, so add all those together and it makes it a bit more difficult.”

But he hasn’t let those setbacks get in the way of his weekly game.

“You only stop when you get old,” he quipped.

The golfing bug bites back through generations of Jim’s family.

He remembers caddying for his father at Sydney’s Oatlands Golf Club, the same club he himself joined 56 years ago.

Last year Jim met NSW Governor Marie Bashir there when the club flew him down as its oldest living member for its 75th anniversary celebrations.