About four decades ago, Del Summers took his young grandson out onto the golf course with Summers' golfing buddies.

While they were waiting to tee off, Summers told little Danny he could hit a few balls around.

"But whatever you do," he told his grandson, pointing to his prized putter in the golf bag, "don't use that one."

So, being a typical 6- or 7-year-old, the boy pulled the putter out of the bag, walked up in full view of Summers' friends and took a swing.

And broke the putter right in half.

"I turned around and all the guys looked at (Summers) and go, "Ohhhhh," said Dan Needle, who now lives in Atlanta but remembers the day as if it were yesterday. "He turned around and I'm sure he saw the look on my face. He just picked it up and didn't say too much about it.

"And when we got home, back to his house, he went down to his workbench and found a grip of another club he had and put it back on the foot-and-a-half that he had, taped it up with electrical tape and gave it to me for my own putter."

Today, more then 40 years after his grandfather taught him love and patience on a golf course, Needle plays with two putters in his bag. And when people ask, that's the story he tells them.

"I mean, what kind of guy has some kid break his favorite putter and then turns around and makes it for him?" said Needle, who says his grandfather is also his best friend.

Summers recently turned 90 and still takes in a round of golf every few weeks; he started playing golf when he worked as a caddy at age 14.

If you ask him about his game, he's modest, recalling perhaps one game where he shot a 77 as his finest moment - although at this point, it's happened a good 20 years ago, or more. (Others contend he's shot in the 60s on more than one occasion.)

"If you talk to him, his game is terrible," Needle said. "But I can tell you, we played (on his 90th birthday) and at 90, he was not the low man in the group."

But if Summers could, he admits he'd be out on the course a few times a week. His drives are straight down the fairway - although the ball doesn't go as far as it used to - and his putting game is spot-on.

But that's the mark of a true golfer - it's a game you continue to work at and you're only as good as the last game you played.

At 90, though, your body doesn't always cooperate, Summers said. Still, he always has the golf bag in the back of the car, waiting for that perfect moment to get out to the driving range or even try to take in a full round.

"Down here after I retired I had a group of 12 and we'd meet every Tuesday and go someplace," said the retired World War II Navy veteran. "Then if we had the chance we might play another day of the week. But all of us got older - aches and pains in backs and knees and eyes - you know, coming apart. So we've kind of disintegrated in the last year or so."

So mainly Summers gets together with Needle for a round. And even though Summers is always the senior member of the group, he's never the one scoring the most strokes.

At his 90th birthday party, and at his wedding anniversary celebration a few years ago before his wife Mildred died, the running gag was his friends reminding Summers how many nickels he'd won from them over the years. He and his friends would bet on making putts, and the winner got a nickel.

For his birthday, his daughter set up a phone line where friends from all over the world would call and leave messages - many of them reminding him of how much money he won from them over the years.

But it's all in good fun.

Needle said his grandfather is the kind of guy everyone wants to play a round with.

Every person who plays with him - he's very sought after not only because he's a good player but because he's a genuine friend to everybody," he said. "He's great; you can't have a bad time with him. He's very engaging, and that's his key to life."

His advice to any other frustrated golfer, no matter their age or skill level? Keep at it.

"Go to it. Stay with it and practice, practice, practice," he said. "It's just like anything else. It's the kind of game where you're not dependent on anyone else. You make your own game."

Sometimes, he said, it's his body telling his mind that he's not 25 or 30 years old anymore, which keeps him off the course more than he'd like. "But I wouldn't give it up for anything," he said.

"It's fairly easy exercise; it's not like tennis where you're running all over the court," he added. "Don't think I can do that anymore. But I can walk slow."

And now that perseverance and love of the sport is being passed to Needle's daughter, who is now 7.

When she is out on the golf course with her dad she uses the taped-up putter given to her father some 40 years ago.

"That's her putter that she uses," Needle said. "I keep it in my bag as an example of what kind of love and temperament you can have with your own children."