AFTON – John Lashway didn’t pick up the game of golf and play it seriously until he was past the age of 50. Now 73 and an Afton Golf Club member for 20 years, he had the stated goal of one day shooting his age – or lower. Until this season, a bad hole here and there conspired against him, and his best-ever score was a 74.

“My son, John Simonds said, ‘well your goal is to shoot you age, I guess you’ll have to keep playing an awful long time,’” Lashway said in a recent telephone interview.