Mike McCombs

McCombs: Leo Luken lived a 'wow' kind of life

By MIKE McCOMBS - mmccombs@islandpacket.com

Updated August 7, 2014 3:15 AM

Leo Luken watches his bunker blast on No. 18 of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Course in Palmetto Dunes on Saturday. The 95-year-old was attempting to shoot lower than his age for the 1,000th time. He missed on Saturday, but did reach the mark on Tuesday. Jay Karr

It is quite often I read of someone's death in the newspaper and I immediately think about what could have been. I think of the things they missed out on, what they wouldn't be around to see, the accomplishments they fell short of.

When I read about Leo Luken, those thoughts never enter my mind.

Luken died Saturday at his daughters' home in Palmetto Dunes. He was 96. He and his wife of 71 years, Mickey, had lived with his daughters for the past 11 years.

It was there at Palmetto Dunes that Luken would play golf three days a week. And it was there on the George Fazio Course that Luken, on his fourth try, shot his age or better for the 1,000th time back in September 2013.

"I made my first hole-in-one when I was 71, when I shot my age for the first time," Luken said that early autumn Saturday. "Little did I realize that 24 years later, I would be playing for 1,000."

Luken almost made it sound like an accident. Don't buy it. He didn't know how to do anything halfway.

"I've been around some of the best athletes in the world," Palmetto Dunes director of instruction Doug Weaver said, dropping names like Mark McGwire, Julius Erving, Larry Bird and even Arnold Palmer. "As an athlete, he was as intense a competitor as I've ever known."

Weaver said Luken thrived on competition.

"Whatever he did, he wanted to win at it," he said. "His family will tell you the same. It didn't matter if it was horseshoes or cornhole."

It wasn't just sports. Luken seemed to be successful at whatever he did.

For 43 years he was a logistics and production manager for Zollner Pistons, who made pistons for B-29 bombers during World War II.

While working there, Luken got involved in fast-pitch softball, playing for 21 years. With a 53-game winning streak and a 12-0 record in world championships on his resume, Luken was inducted into the National ASA Softball Hall of Fame in 1993.

Leo and Mickey took up ballroom dancing because they enjoyed it. Like everything else he did, he excelled at it. So much so that the couple taught ballroom dancing in their home for 23 years to help put their kids through school.

"He offered to give my wife and I dance lessons at his last wedding anniversary," Weaver said.

And then there was golf. He got started late, but he didn't let that hold him back.

One of his proudest achievements was his win in the Inaugural Shoot Your Age Tournament in May 2006 in Florida.

Luken didn't just outplay the amateurs. Also in the field were Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.

"He's the type of guy that if he would have learned golf at 20, he would have been a competitive pro," Weaver said. "Give him a ball, he's an athlete, he'd figure it out and put the ball in the hole."

Luken seemed to know after getting to 1,000 in September that he might not play much longer. His wife Mickey has been ill for some time, and age was catching up to him, as well.

"To tell the truth, I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this," he said then.

Weaver said it wasn't long before he quit seeing Luken on the course.

It wasn't just the sports or the dancing at which he excelled. Leo helped raise a big family. Six daughters, 12 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren survive him.

In some way, all of them will learn something from his life example. And ultimately, Luken's positive attitude and drive to remain active well past the age most people do that made him an inspiration to others he came in contact with.

"He makes me want to do something similar with my life," Weaver said. "I want people to remember how fortunate we all were to be around him. If I played golf with him 20 times in 10 years, it wasn't enough. He had an Arnold Palmer type of charisma."

Leo Luken died Saturday at the age of 96. There wasn't much he left unfinished.

"Once you learned what Leo Luken had done, you'd go, 'wow,' " Weaver said. "He had a wow life, an incredible life."

More on Shooting Your Age

Longtime Moorhead (Minn.) State baseball and golf coach T. Edison Smith holds the record for most shooting his age or better 3,359 times, according to GolfDigest. He died Dec. 15, 2011 at the age of 95. He surpassed the record of Frank Bailey of Abilene, Texas, who did it 2,623 times from age 71 until his death at age 98.

Bob Kurtz of Cullman, Ala. shot his age 7 times in one day Aug. 1, 2012 to set a world record.

The youngest golfer to shoot his age was 1944 PGA Championship winner Bob Hamilton. He shot his age of 59 in 1975 at the Hamilton Golf Club in Evansville, Ind.

The youngest golfer to shoot his age on a major professional tours was Walter Morgan. In 2002, at age 61, Morgan shot a 60 in the Champions Tour's AT&T Canada Senior Open Championship.

The youngest golfer to shoot his age on the PGA Tour was Sam Snead, who shot a 67 at the Quad Cities Open in 1979, when he was 67. The next day he shot 66.

The oldest golfer to shoot his age was 103-year-old Arthur Thompson of Victoria, British Columbia in 1972 at the Uplands Golf Club in Victoria.

Lukens celebrate 70th anniversary, March 3, 2013

For this golfer, will to win is par for the course, March 17, 2012 Palmetto Dunes golfer doing better than his age, March 14, 2012 Luken shoots his age for 800th time, Nov. 4, 2010

This story was originally published August 7, 2014 at 2:55 AM with the headline "McCombs: Leo Luken lived a 'wow' kind of life."

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