A golf star at 70 Ingram still going strong Revenge can be so sweet. Just ask Belleville's Betty In- gram. Competing at the Canadian Super Seniors golf championship in Prince Edward Island on the weekend Ingram avenged a loss she suffered 16 years ago. That defeat also came at the Belvedere Country Club in PEI when she was runner-up to Ann Googan for the Canadian ladies senior title. The positions were reversed this time around. "We were tied after two days then I beat her by four strokes/' Ingram says proudly after shoot- ing rounds of 80, 85, 81. "Same player, same course-- we played together the last round and she fell apart on the back nine--this time I won," says In- gram, who is no stranger to the winner's circle. In fact Ingram, who turns a young 71 in November, has won the Bay of Quinte Country Club (her home course) ladies club championship a record 28 times. But she won't be adding to that record. She's played her last club championship at the BQCC--and it's not because of her age that she won't play to defend her title. She's a little tired of an attitude problem. "I'm not going to play for the club championship again. They Belleville's first lady of golf, Betty Ingram. (many BQCC members) want me Ingram has been a member at to get beat," she claims, "and they the BQCC since 1952 winning don't make any bones about it so numerous other tournaments be- I just won't play again." sides the 28 ladies club champi- onships. She probably could have won more club titles but there have been times when she didn't bother to enter. ;* "If my name was up (entered) a lot of others wouldn't go in," she says. She last lost the title last year to rising young star Alison Knud- sen. The defeat ended a streak of over a decade in the winner's cir- cle for Ingram. Ingram, who now plays with a seven handicap (her lowest handicap, about 20 years ago, was a five, her best round at BQCC was a 73) has split her time playing this season at the BQCC and the Knowlton Country Club in Quebec where hse has been a member the past two years. She plays about once a week at the BQCC and to three times a week when she's at Knowlton. Known as 'Steady Betty' on the tour, Ingram says she's been able to maintain a solid level of play for so long because she be- lieves in practice, practice and more practice. "I've already shot 300 balls to- day," she says. And she shoots that many on the practice range of the BQCC everyday using every club in the bag. "I never miss a day." "You have to practice if you want to play consistently well. I've always practiced," she says. The day in day out practices of the past 42 years is probably the reason she can still smack a ball off the tee with the best of them. Even she's somewhat amazed. "There's a lot of good young girls coming up in the seniors (age limit begins at 50) but I can still keep up to them off the tee. Some guy asked me if I was on steroids last week." i Ingram hits the ball 200-230 yards off the tee regularly. She says a lot of players have gone to the oversized drivers in recent years but she's not making the switch. She's used the same driver for over a decade. "I can't believe I hit the ball as far as I do. I seem to be hitting it further the older I get." There were 106 entries in the Canadian Super Seniors (age 65 and over) with Ingram breaking a two-year reign of victory by United States based golfers. With literally dozens of cham- pionships to her credit, including the BQCC and Knowlton ladies club championships this sum- mer, Ingram still has a golf goal to realize. "My goal is to shoot my age," she says.