AMAZING ACHIEVEMENTS -  RAY OLSON

Documented by Nancy Hettich, December 2011

RECORD GOLFING ACHIEVEMENT

Ray has been a Tam O'Shanter resident since 1977 and currently, in the year 2011, is 89 years old and a 19 handicap golfer.  He won the Men's Club Championship in 1984 and has three holes in one to his credit.

Remarkably, Ray has shot his age or better 94 TIMES, beginning the streak with a 76 in 1999.  In both the years 2008 and 2010 he shot his age fifteen times and his best round was seven shots less than his age.  Ray has kept all the balls from each of these rounds, marked with the dates and scores of the games.

Those of us in Tam O'Shanter in 2011 find it difficult to imagine another golfer soon meeting or exceeding this remarkable feat.

 WOOD CARVING

Ray was a Navy patrol bomber pilot in WWII and the Korean war, then a mechanical engineer at Boeing for 35 years.  In retirement he began wood carving as a casual hobby and is largely self-taught.  Flowers and birds are his favorite subjects, and to date he has collected 239 RIBBONS - 12 Best of Show, 15 People's Choice, 5 Judges' Choice, and 2 Carvers' Choice.  Of the 239 ribbons, 174 are first place or better.  Another remarkable feat.

Ray fishes every year in Alaska for salmon and trout and skis fifteen to twenty-five days a year in Sun Valley; Austria; Sun Peaks, Utah, and all the local areas.