GOLF
Tom Tomashek
The setting was perfect for Charlotte Balick’s final night in Israel.
On a spacious lawn surrounding a well-lighted pool, the U.S. women’s golf team was being wined, dined and entertained after a victory in the Maccabiah Games.
“It was gorgeous, but all of a sudden there was a big flash and an explosion,” Balick said shaking her head. “Some people at the table stood up, some stayed sitting, and others hit the ground.
“Me?” she repeated the question. “I went down.”
The scare was nothing more than fireworks, which went off a few seconds earlier than planned. For Balick, the incident is humorous now, but was no laughing matter at the time.
Tension was a constant during this month’s Maccabiah Games, the Jewish world’s Olympics. So was security, which was increased after an early incident of terrorism.
“We didn’t go a lot of places we went the last time I was here,” Balick said, looking back to her 1981 Maccabiah experience. “There was security everywhere. During the opening ceremony they even put [security] people in our uniform. “The security was great and you were glad because you figured if they [terrorists] were going to do anything, it sure was going to be us because that’s the kind of headlines they want.”
The golf course was a reasonable distance from the major areas of strife, so the American women’s golf team quickly slipped into a competitive mode and walked away with the team championship.
Team USA led by 10 after the first round with Balick’s 75 good for a share of the first-round individual lead. The six-time Delaware Women’s Amateur champion. and two-time Women’s Senior winner gradually slid off the individual pace, but helped the U.S. improve its lead 10 to 21 to 31 and 44 strokes in the final three rounds.
“The opening ceremony is a very moving experience. Just like the regular Olympics,” Balick said. “There were 55,000 people cheering you, and everybody likes to be cheered.
“But once the tournament began, everybody was extremely serious about the competition,” Balick said. “We were the first [women’s] team to win the gold medal.”
The conditions were sunny and hot with temperatures ranging from 90 to 105 each day. Every bag included 14 clubs and plenty of water.
“The heat was so intense, it did something to you right away,” Balick said. “You drank water every hole, whether you wanted to or not, and I wore· a hat.”
Balick likes Israel’s only course, set in the middle of the desert. She described the layout as interesting in design and because of the ancient Roman columns scattered along the perimeter.
The course was different from most American courses Balick has played, with the grass on the fairways and greens being extremely coarse. There is no out-of-bounds.
“I figure the out-of-bounds was Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Mediterranean,” Balick said.
The course’s condition was not as good as Balick remembered in 1981, but she wasn’t complaining.
“I don’t like to knock any golf course, especially when you’re a guest,” Balick said. “And besides, Israel is putting its money into defense and feeding the people.”
Balick’s two Maccabiah Games are among the high points of her brilliant amateur career. The competition was great, the overall experiences even greater.
But the 1989 Maccabiah Games were probably last for Wilmington and Brandywine Country Club golfer.
“Everybody is younger. I really felt like I didn’t fit in,” Balick said. “I felt like I was the mother.”
Originally published in The News Journal, Wilmington, Delaware, Sunday, July 30, 1989 – Page 28