Oscar Masters – The Prince of Pomme Creek

Oscar Masters turns 93 in November. Yet the World War II veteran doesn’t let any grass grow under his feet except at Pomme Creek Golf Course in Arnold, Missouri, where he plays twice a week with a foursome of competitive good buddies.

On Mondays he plays with pals at other regional courses in a travel league. But Pomme Creek, which will host the Pomme Cup tourney to benefit the BackStoppers organization on Saturday, June 10, is his favorite course – he lives one block from the 11th hole.

“I play bogey golf,” declares Masters, meaning his score after playing 18 holes is generally one stroke above par for each hole – praiseworthy for a 90-something guy who is married with two grown daughters.

And it’s good enough to win money from his cronies when they wager on the links every time they play.

Born on November 18, 1924, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Masters grew up near Arnold until he graduated from Herculaneum High School in 1942 and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps at age 17.

“I didn’t want to carry a pack for the infantry,” says Masters, grinning. “I wanted to fly.” After basic training at Shephard’s Field in Wichita Falls, Texas, he became an Air Corps cadet and attended pre-flight school to become a bombardier on B-17 aircraft. He flew out of air bases in Clovis and Albuquerque, NM; Rapid City, SD; and Wendover, UT, logging hundreds of hours of flight time on B-17s.

“Those planes were so noisy you couldn’t talk to the man next to you and hear him except by radio – and they flew so high it was below freezing up there.”

As the war in Europe began winding down, Masters trained to be a bombardier on B-29 Superfortress bombers, the new type of warplane used for strategic missions over Japan, including bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

He never flew an overseas military mission, though Masters gained a commercial pilot’s license and flew small planes for years.

After the war ended, he moved to St. Louis, where his family lived, and married his wife Adele, now 84. They have two daughters, Pamela, 61, and Janet, 59.

In 1948, Masters and his brother, Rodney, founded a silica sand mining business on land they bought along Highway Z in Jefferson County. Silica is used in glass manufacturing and in construction industries. Silica sand mining is tough because it involves extracting sand from an open pit. When they started the business, the Masters brothers toiled with picks and shovels. Today, Oscar Masters’ muscular hands and forearms are testaments to that grueling work.

In 1972 they sold their successful business. Masters became plant manager for the parent company. He retired at age 68. (Rodney is now deceased.) “I retired just in time for the great flood of 1993,” Oscar laughs, then concedes, “That was the worst flood we ever had.”

He began playing golf in 1991 at age 67 and hasn’t quit. At Pomme Creek he is known for his perpetual smile, twinkling gray eyes, contagious sense of humor and the fact that he is one of few senior players to hit a hole-in- one.

As if playing 18 holes twice a week at Pomme Creek weren’t enough, he works at the snack bar in the pro shop every Saturday morning, spreading his jokes and jovial optimism with every golfer.

As the Prince of Pomme Creek, he is the oldest member among the course regulars and that bothers him not one bit.

“I stay active. I stay busy. I am always up to something – I bowl three nights a week, and I am at the Elks Club every Friday night to eat supper and drink beer with my friends,” Masters says with a crinkle-eyed grin.

“I am in pretty good shape thanks to my military training workouts and because I worked in manual labor for much of my life after I left the Army Air Corps. “

Masters is obviously proud of his World War II military service, and he is a former commander of the American Legion Rock Memorial Post 283.

What keeps him going as he approaches age 93? “I like being around people and playing golf. But I don’t like to sit,” Masters explains. “If you sit down, you get in trouble. “So I keep moving.”

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