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NEWS NCGA


The Good Doctor is In Dr. Leroy Leal Has Been an NCGA Member Since 1946


BY DENNIS TAYLOR A


n upside to living to be 100, according to Dr. Leroy Leal, is that it keeps getting mathemati- cally easier to shoot his age. And, quite honestly, he isn’t kidding. “Oh, I still do it once in a while.


You know, when you’re 100, it’s not so tough,” says the retired dentist, who celebrated a century of life June 14 at Tracy Golf and Country Club. “The best round I ever shot was a 79, and I was probably in my 40s then. You’re not going to shoot your age when you’re in your 40s, are you?” The clubs in his golf bag don’t


feel a whole lot different than the ones Leal used when he fi rst joined the NCGA back in 1946, he says. “Of course, the woods, in


those days, were really made out of wood—not metal, like they are today,” he remembers. “So I guess today’s clubs are a little bit better… but I still have to hit the ball. That part hasn’t changed.” Remarkably, Leal still plays golf


three or four days every week, some- thing he attributes to the good genes he inherited from his parents. “It’s that, and good luck, I guess,” he says. In 1955, Leal was president of


Russell Park Development Corp., and was on its board of directors, when that company oversaw the development of Tracy Golf and Country Club. He was at the opening ceremony in 1956, when Joseph Brichetto (whose family donated the 30-acre parcel of land), hit the fi rst ball to christen what originally was a nine-hole course. The rolling fairways, at the time, were lined with trees that stood in fi ve-gallon buckets, and the ninth hole was spackled with large rocks from the adjacent gravel pits. “The rocks were everywhere,”


he says. “We had to hire a crew to gather them all up and haul them out of there. It turned out to be a pretty nice golf course, though.” About 250 golfers—the original


shareholders of Russell Park Devel- opment—became charter members, paying $17 per month in dues. Leal is the last one living. “They don’t charge me green


fees anymore,” says Leal, who has recorded two aces on his home course. “But, you know what? They still make me pay for my cart.”


Even at age 100, Dr. Leal still plays three or four days a week.


54 / NCGA.ORG / SUMMER 2016


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