New driver’s license in hand, 16-year-old Jerry Deaton entered the 1952 Portsmouth City Amateur golf tournament. Unnerved more by the competition than the roads, he shot a front-nine 60.
“I did not get the ball airborne,” Deaton said.
Discouraged and embarrassed, he headed for the parking lot, only to be stopped by Chandler Harper, the Portsmouth native who two years earlier had won the PGA Championship. You need to finish the round, Harper told him.
And finish Deaton did, with a back-side 39 that earned him a notice in the newspaper for his unusual route to breaking 100.
“It was a good experience,” Deaton said. “I’ve never quit since.”
He certainly hasn’t quit volunteering for professional tournaments at Kingsmill. This week marks the 36th pro event at the James City County resort, the first 22 showcasing the PGA Tour, the last 14 the LPGA Tour.
Deaton has served as a marshal on the 14th hole for all 36.
“It’s been a fun trip,” he said.
“He loves golf,” said his wife of 58 years, Janet. “He loves sports, period.”
Deaton bowled and played basketball and softball. He pitched for KirkWood Presbyterian’s co-ed team until his late 70s, when the York County church no longer fielded a team. An avid golfer and tennis player, Janet was his softball catcher until she tore a meniscus in a knee.
But it’s golf where Deaton, a retired NASA engineer living in Poquoson, truly excels.
He could walk to the Portsmouth municipal course from his home and began caddying and playing as a kid. Once a scratch player, he first shot his age at 70, carding a 69. He’s done it “three or four times” this year at 81.
Then there are the aces. He’s had four holes-in-one, all at Langley Air Force Base’s course, all since his 1995 retirement, all with clubs he crafted by hand.
Separated by mere weeks, his first and second aces came with balls from the same three-ball sleeve of Titleists.
Deaton tries to play at least twice a week, most frequently with his NASA Golf Association crew, and earlier this month he and 31 friends drove to Myrtle Beach for several days of non-stop golf.
It’s through the NASA Golf Association that Deaton has become a staple on the 14th hole of Kingsmill’s River Course.
The NGA volunteered a group to marshal the hole for the resort’s inaugural PGA Tour event, in 1981. So many signed up that Deaton was relegated to alternate status.
But a NASA co-worker from Pennsylvania unaccustomed to Virginia’s July heat and humidity bailed after the first round.
“He gave me his shirt and his hat and I worked (the final) three days,” Deaton said. “And the next year I was a regular.”
Now No. 14’s chief marshal and organizer of the 20-plus required to administer a hole — one group works the morning wave, a second the afternoon — Deaton has since endured triple-digit heat indexes and been soaked more times than he cares to count. He’s witnessed several holes-in-one at the adjacent par-3 13th hole and comforted a fellow marshal who slipped on a wet incline and broke his leg.
He was even cursed by a PGA Tour player he declined to identify who had just three-putted No. 13. All Deaton was trying to do was warn him about a nest of yellow jackets near the water cooler on the 14th tee.
Karma, Deaton thought when the player drove the ball into the trees.
More karma, Deaton figured when the player hit his approach over the green.
So much for karma, Deaton concluded when the player chipped in for birdie.
With a twinkle in his blue eyes, Deaton spins wonderful stories, recites significant dates and brags about his family.
He and Janet have three daughters: Jill, Julie and Jeane. Don’t worry, the family dog was named Mandy.
All three daughters are teachers on the Peninsula, and two are cancer survivors. The Deatons have six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, with a fourth on the way.
A diehard Hokie, Deaton graduated from Virginia Tech on June 7, 1959. He and Janet, a fellow Churchland High graduate, were married June 14, 1959, and their oldest daughter was born June 21. Deaton pauses for the punchline: two years later.
Thursday was another big date. After his morning shift on the 14th tee, Deaton had a doctor’s appointment, where he learned he has prostate cancer. Additional tests will determine treatment options.
“The C in Christ is bigger than the c in cancer,” daughter Jill texted him Thursday night.
The message resonated with her dad, who remains active at KirkWood and last week planted begonias outside the church.
Friday morning, still no quit in him, Deaton was back at his Kingsmill post.
“I still feel great,” he said.
Deaton excused himself as Morgan Pressel, Mi Jung Hur and Tiffany Chan approached the tee.
“Time to do my job,” he said with a smile.
