SALEM — One of the greatest thrills a golfer in his 60s or older can experience is firing an 18-hole score at or below his age.

Pardon 88-year-old Bristol resident Charlie Hawkins, though, if he doesn’t get nearly as excited about it as the typical senior player.

Not to diminish its impressiveness, but when you’ve accomplished the feat as many times as Hawkins has, it’s not exactly breaking news anymore.

“I first shot my age when I was 68. I shot 66 and that was here,” Hawkins said last week after the final round of the Senior Men’s County Open at Spring Valley Country Club.

“When I was 74, I had shot 74 four times and I quit counting. But it’s probably a couple thousand. For 20 years, I went to Florida and played golf in the winter. So I was playing 12 months a year.”

Hawkins did it again at the Senior Open, shooting 76-75 and finishing sixth overall in the 70-player field. Sure, he got to hit from the forward tees — a new rule put in this year for players 80-and-older — but give the guy a break, he is after all 88.

“That was right down my alley,” Hawkins said of the rule change. “I haven’t been over 78 since,” which could easily pass for Hawkins’ age if not for the fact that he bravely served his country for 31 months as a U.S. Marine in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Hawkins, who plays four times a week with a group of 15-25 players at Spring Valley, admitted there aren’t any fancy secrets to playing so well in his golden years.

“Well, first of all I’m just real lucky that my genes are good. My mother lived to be 100, and secondly I think part of getting old is just keeping busy,” Hawkins said. “I walk a mile every morning, I have a great big garden and I take care of my own lawn. I keep active all the time, and I think that’s part of the key to it. I do situps and physically keep myself in condition.

“The other reason is that I was born into the golf business. My parents (Fred and Jennie) built Antioch Country Club in 1923 when I was 2 years old.”

Hawkins has twice won his age division at the national Senior Olympics, once in Pittsburgh and once in Louisville. Despite growing up on a golf course, he admitted to never having the desire to turn professional like his brother Fred, 85, who won two tournaments while playing the PGA Tour from 1947-65.

Fred Hawkins, who now lives in Sebring, Fla., also finished second to Arnold Palmer at the 1958 Masters, fifth in two U.S. Opens and was a member of the 1957 U.S. Ryder Cup team.

Instead, after returning from World War II, Charlie owned and operated a grocery store/butcher shop in Kenosha County for about 25 years, a profitable business he eventually sold. He later went into farming cash crops with his son Rob, one of his four children (along with daughters Ellen, Laurie and Janet).

Longtime Central High School boys golf coach Mark Olsen, who also coaches the UW-Parkside men’s golf team, grew up down the street from Hawkins. Over the past few years, Olsen also coached Hawkins’ grandson, Sam Hawkins, at Central.

Olsen said Charlie’s dedication to physical fitness and warm personality makes him someone all older golfers should aspire to be.

“I’m 63 now and I’m looking to see how long can I continue to play decently,” Olsen said. “When you look at him he’s probably, like some of the guys out (at Spring Valley) say, ‘a freak of nature’ as good as he is at that age.

“But it’s something you’ve got to shoot for and just hope that you can stay healthy and continue to have fun out there. Everybody knows him to be a great gentleman, and that’s obviously (part of being) a good role model, too.

“... Some of us get kind of crotchety when we get older, and he’s just maintained his pleasant demeanor. Everybody looks forward to seeing him, and if they get a chance to play with him they generally enjoy it.”

For Hawkins, the feeling is mutual — on and off the course.

“I’ve enjoyed life,” he said. “If I had it to do over, I wouldn’t change anything.”