PHILLIPS – Many people have referred to golf as a good walk spoiled. There’s even a book with that as its title.

I agree.

Sometimes. (Or, when I shoot a score I don’t consider acceptable).

But I also forget from time to time that golf is supposed to be a game. It is supposed to be fun and, unless your name is on a list of PGA qualifiers, there is no reason to send your clubs flying into the lake when you miss a shot by a yard or 10. I bet that there aren’t too many people reading this column right now who can say they are on that list.

So make it fun.

Need a model? How about Winona Davenport, “almost 70,” of Phillips.

The former owner of the town’s hardware store, Davenport claims she couldn’t break 90 again if she tried. I tend to disagree, having seen her play a round, but I digress.

Davenport, since 1999, has operated Golf Opportunities for Children. At first, kids could come to her home and learn to have fun playing golf, but last year marked an important milestone in her venture’s brief history – she got a place of her own.

The learning center, as she calls it, known to her and to all that participate in her growing program as Just A Field Golf Teaching Center, is located on Route 4 just beyond the Avon town line in Phillips.

Sounds easy to find, right?

Sure, when there is a sign there in the summer. Otherwise, it is what it says it is – just a field. Guarding it from the main road are four trailers left stranded by big rigs. In the middle near the entrance is an old Texaco sign. Across the street is the town’s Texaco station, the owner of which also owns the field, which he donated to Davenport for use as a golf teaching center.

In the field are three “greens,” which may as well be your back yard. They are mowed like a back yard and putt even worse. But they are greens all the same.

On each green stand three flags – red, white and blue – and there are nine tee markers strewn about the field in order. The longest hole is 128 yards, and the shortest is 85.

“It doesn’t matter to us when we do this,” said Davenport. “The object is always to have fun.”

True to her word, she sets games up near a picnic table. Nearby are a bag rack, ball washer and two pull carts – all the amenities of a real course.

One game requires golfers to hit Velcro balls 10-15 yards from a mat to a hanging carpet marked with targets. (I beat her at this one, 13-2). Another asks golfers to chip from a predetermined distance to a target on the ground that electronically tallies points. (She won that one, 20-0).

Still more include barrels fastened at an angle. Golfers try to chip balls into them.

“Sometimes, with the kids, after they all try and if they miss, they are allowed to run up to the barrel and yell into it,” said Davenport, starting to laugh. “I had this one girl that would go up and was so afraid of the noise, that she would let out a small peep instead of yelling into it. Then, she would run all the way back and get in line again.”

There is also a measured 100-yard line from a teeing area to a white flag at the far end of the field.

“This is for accuracy,” said Davenport. (We didn’t try this one, but I bet she would have won).

In the summertime, a daycare of 10 children will saunter down to the course. No clubs? No problem. Davenport lends them to you for the summer, or until you get enough money to get your own. No golf balls? No problem. People have donated hundreds.

“I have people asking me all the time how to help,” said Davenport. “Some people come down and help with the kids, and I have others that come down to freshen up and learn, too.”

It takes nearly eight hours to mow the field, but Davenport is expecting delivery of a donated riding lawnmower soon in response to a plea in the local paper. That will cut down maintenance time, but only by a little. There are gopher holes to fill, bare spots to spread with seed, and a new sand trap to fill (if she could find any sand).

As for the teaching, Davenport is not a certified teaching professional, and while it would have been nice to get certified, she doesn’t really care.

“The whole goal is to have fun. If they leave here and they’ve had a good time, they’ll remember that they played golf, and they had fun. That’s what really matters.”

One of the highlights of my day was playing a round of nine with Davenport. For the record, she and I tied with matching 41s.

I guess my short game needs some work, but hey, at least we had fun.