TAMPA, Fla. — Frank George steers his Toyota Corolla a short 10-minute drive from his Tampa home to Rocky Point Golf Course. He trades his car keys for keys to the golf cart. His coral short-sleeve polo tucks into a pair of pink shorts held up by suspenders. As a ranger, George, 93, patrols the fairways he’s spent six decades around — and counting. “They asked me every year, ‘Are you coming ...

This index card is how Frank George keeps track of his holes-in-one through the decades.

Lucy Glynn/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

TAMPA, Fla. — Frank George steers his Toyota Corolla a short 10-minute drive from his Tampa home to Rocky Point Golf Course. He trades his car keys for keys to the golf cart.

His coral short-sleeve polo tucks into a pair of pink shorts held up by suspenders. As a ranger, George, 93, patrols the fairways he’s spent six decades around — and counting.

“They asked me every year, ‘Are you coming back?’” George said. “I say, ‘Why not?’”

Nearing a century of life — he’ll celebrate his next birthday July 28 — George still spends his summer Saturdays at Rocky Point. Across his six- to 10-hour shift, he keeps groups on pace, nudging slower ones forward or waving others through. He feeds popcorn to the ducks that have learned to recognize the ranger flag on his cart. On quieter days, he pulls out his iron to take a few swings.

George has no intent on slowing down. In fact, he’s still chasing.

A small notecard lists the nine hole-in-ones George has recorded. It’s been 48 years since he sunk his first ace on Diamond Hill Golf Club’s course in 1978. It’s been less than three months since he scored his ninth: a 126-yard shot on Rocky Point’s sixth hole.

The last row on the 3-by-5 index card shows the number 10, with nothing written beside it.

“I haven’t got 10 yet,” he said. “Not yet.”

The note card captures only a part of George’s story. Decade after decade, he has navigated the courses of classrooms, sidelines and fairways. Teacher is a title he continues to hold to this day as a substitute at Plant High School.

The Oklahoma native began his career in education in Peoria, Ill., in 1958, while coaching basketball, football and baseball.

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Frank George, who turns 94 near the end of July 2026, still substitute teaches and is looking for that 10th career hole-in-one.

Ashley Neyra/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

“They gave me $150 for the year to coach, but back then gas was 20 cents a gallon,” George said. “You could paddle back then with a big wooden board that the kids were bad.”

While wooden paddles have been phased out as a form of school discipline, George’s commitment to education continues. In 1968, he moved to Tampa and began working at Chamberlain High School. Naturally, he became a coach.

Over the next three decades, George built an accomplished resume: three straight girls golf state titles, seven consecutive district and Western Conference titles and three straight Florida Athletic Coaches Association Coach of the Year honors. He has those achievements, along with many others, typed onto a sheet of paper titled “Major Achievements.”

Coach George still boasts about his champions.

“One thrill I had two years in a row. One year, I had a boy from Japan play for me, Akio Sadakata, and he won the state,” George said. “The next year I had a girl win the state.”

That was Whitney (Code) Waechter, now 43. The 1999 state champion fondly remembers her old coach.

“He was just the nicest guy,” Waechter said. “It didn’t matter whether you were having a bad day on the course or a good day on the course. He just always just kept everyone’s head up.”

Even after retiring from full-time teaching in 2000 and stepping down as Chamberlain’s golf coach in 2002, George could not stay away long.

“My wife wants me out of the house a little while, so I got on as a substitute teacher, and I taught at Wilson and Coleman (middle schools), and then I got a job at Plant,” George said. “I’ve been at Plant about 20 years.

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Frank George, 93, smiles as he gets ready to drive off in his golf cart at Rocky Point Golf Course, where he works six- to 10- hour shifts on Saturdays as a ranger.

Ashley Neyra/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

He tells his students stories of growing up in the Great Depression and serving in the Korean War, while sharing the secrets of the discipline needed to make it to 93: a good wife and good diet.

“My wife is very good. She’s very gentle,” George said. “Diet is important, eat the right foods. She keeps me on a good diet and we enjoy life.”

At 88, he was named Hillsborough County’s Substitute Teacher of the Year. At 93, he eyes another year with the students.

“I start in August; keeps me busy,” George said.

“He’s just influenced a lot of kids over a lot of years and has just spent his life pouring into students and mentoring and coaching and teaching,” Waechter said. “It’s just a life well lived.”

He’ll spend the rest of summer watching the fairways as a ranger and, when needed, a starter. George prefers the former because, as he put it, “you’re moving around.” When the shift ends, his tee time begins.

His wife Susanna’s nephew, Chong Kim, 71, joins him most weekends for a few holes. Over their 20 years of playing together, Kim said competitiveness is a staple of George’s play, as is his humor.

“He has a lot of jokes,” Kim said. “He brings jokes from the newspaper. He writes down, then he reads them for me almost every weekend.”

George shared one of his favorites:

“Do you know why they wear two pairs of socks in Ireland when they play golf?” he said. “They might get a hole in one.”

George would know a thing — or nine — about those.

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