She’s Still Playing Game in the 90s : Golf: Donna Murray’s score is classified, but not her age. She is 90 and still walks 18 holes a week.

Donna Murray is in a class by herself as a golfer. Not because she is too good, but because she can’t find anyone her age to compete with.

She is 90, plays 18 holes at least once a week at the Palm Springs municipal course and walks every hole.

Four years ago, she entered the first National Senior Olympics in St. Louis and won the silver medal in the 75-and-over division.

This year, she wants to try for the gold medal when the U.S. National Senior Sports Classic III (renamed after the U.S. Olympic Committee forbade the organization to use the word Olympics in its title) is held in Syracuse, N.Y., from June 28-July 3. Last month, she won a regional tournament in Palm Springs, beating three other women.

“They told me I would be playing with women over 85, but when no one showed up, they put me in the 80-and-over class,” Murray said. “I told them I didn’t think it was fair, me being 90, but I still managed to win by four strokes. I don’t know about playing against youngsters like that in the nationals. The officials told me there weren’t enough women as old as I am to have a 90-and-over class, but they say they’re going to have me play against 85-year-olds in Syracuse.

“We’ll see how it goes. I’ll be 91 in April, and you know, when you’re 26 it’s no big deal to get to 27, but when you’re 90, 91 makes a lot of difference.”

Champions from 75 regional tournaments are eligible for the 36-hole Senior Sports Classic finals at the Green Lakes and Drumline West courses in Syracuse.

Murray plays weekly with members of the Palm Springs Women’s Golf Club at the municipal course. She also works as a hospital volunteer one day a week, admitting patients, and teaches knitting to senior citizens.

“I don’t wear glasses, either,” she said proudly. “And this is my 27th year as a volunteer in the hospital.”

Murray did not play golf until she was 60, but she began an acting career early. When she was 4 she was performing on the stage in Dallas.

“In 1911 the leading man in the play decided to go to California to try that new thing called movies,” she said. “After he was here awhile, he wrote my mother and said, ‘Bring Donna out here and get her in the movies,’ and so my mother and her brother bought a Cadillac, and we got ready to leave Texas for Hollywood.

“Neither one of them knew how to drive, so my uncle took lessons. It was quite a trip. The roads weren’t quite like they are today, but we made it and settled in Pasadena.”

Donna Murray became a member of Mack Sennett’s Bathing Beauties.

“You look at those old pictures today and you wonder why they called us Bathing Beauties,” she said with a chuckle. “Of course, some of the matinee idols don’t look like much, either, by today’s standards.

“We bought the Wilson ranch around the old Sierra Madre Villa Inn, near where the Eaton Canyon golf course is today in east Pasadena. We lived on the west side of the canyon and farmed about 40 acres there until we could subdivide the property. The Inn is gone now, it burned down. Later we gave the city the property where most of the course is today.”

Pasadena traded the land to the county in 1961, and golf course architect Billy Bell Jr. designed a nine-hole course as part of the L.A. County Parks and Recreation Dept. golf program.

During her youth, Murray played tennis, not golf. Then she had a heart attack and moved to Palm Springs with her husband.

“My doctor put me to bed, took tennis away from me and cured me, made a new woman out of me,” she said. “After we moved to the desert, I took a look around and saw all those green courses, so I decided to try golf. I was 60 at the time, and I loved it.”

Her scores are classified, but according to members of the Palm Springs Women’s Golf Club, “Donna hits a good ball, 100 yards or more and usually straight down the middle.”

One of the secrets of her longevity, she says, is seeing her doctor once a month and watching her blood pressure.

“One time my doctor asked me how I managed to do so many things at my age,” she said. “He wanted my secret. I told him it was gin and See’s candy. I always used to have a drink of gin every night with my husband. He died eight years ago, but I’ve kept the tradition. And I eat a lot of sweets. See’s chocolates are my favorite.”