Erie woman helps kids develop love for golf

Associated Press

ERIE, Pa.

Rose Lapenz has enjoyed a long love affair with Gospel Hill Golf Course.

It was the first golf course that the 81-year-old Harborcreek Township native played, when she first picked up a club shortly after she and Bob Lapenz were married nearly 63 years ago.

It’s the first thing Rose Lapenz sees when she looks out the window of her Steimer Road home, as the 18-hole public course sits across the street.

It’s where Rose Lapenz sends Bob Lapenz on most days, as he tends to the course’s flower beds. And it’s where she has played countless rounds of golf.

But most important to Rose Lapenz, Gospel Hill is where she has introduced hundreds of boys and girls to golf, and where she has enjoyed watching them develop their own love affairs with the game.

The enjoyment continues on June 13, when Rose Lapenz begins another season as director of the Gospel Hill Junior Golf League.

“It’s wonderful. I just love it,” Rose Lapenz said on a sunny morning, as she enjoyed a warm breeze that blew into the clubhouse while Bob Lapenz raked up leaves near the first tee.

“I just enjoy it so much. I don’t know what else I would do on Monday mornings,” she said.

The league is open to children ages 7 to 17, and it attracts about 50 participants each year. The kids gather at the course each Monday morning, from mid-June to early August, to learn the game and to test their knowledge on the rolling fairways and slick greens.

The younger kids are sent out on the course with program volunteers. That’s how Rose Lapenz got her start in the program, when she was asked to assist with the children while her own grandchildren took part.

When the program coordinator at the time announced that she was moving to North Carolina about 15 years ago, Rose Lapenz volunteered to take over. She’s been running the show ever since.

“I enjoy working with the children. It’s just something I have enjoyed all of these years,” said Rose Lapenz, a retired personnel manager for Sears who has three children. “And we have a nice program.”

While the focus of the league is to teach kids how to play golf, Rose Lapenz said she stresses the importance of etiquette while they are on the course.

“Etiquette, etiquette, etiquette,” she said. “You don’t walk in front of someone, keep your mouth quiet. If they are willy-nilly swinging the club when someone is hitting, that’s not the thing to do.”

The highlight of each summer program for Rose Lapenz is the final event, when the kids team up to play in a scramble before they gather for pizza and an awards ceremony.

“Wow, they have so much fun,” she said. “And you should hear them. I just love it. When they chip in or something, the whole course knows somebody chipped in.”