ROCKLAND – Dr. Emery “Doc” Howard Jr. vividly remembers the winter day years ago when a 26-inch snowstorm blew through the area.

He thought his golf season had come to a close, but when he happened to drive by Rockland Golf Club, he changed his mind.

“The wind must have been blowing 30, 40 miles an hour during the night,” the Rockland native said recently. “Half of every fairway was clear and the greens were bare.”

At that time, club members could play year-round if conditions permitted. He called a friend and they headed out.

“We played nine holes with no trouble, except on [No.] 7 when I sliced my tee shot into a 10-foot snow bank,” said Howard, a 73-year-old pediatrician.

“I’m standing in snow up to my crotch trying to find the ball,” he said. His playing partner asked why he didn’t wait until spring to collect the ball.

Odds were that Howard would have been the first one out there, too.

Round and round

To say Howard is addicted to golf is like saying billionaire businessman Bill Gates enjoys making money.

According to the Golf Handicapping and Information Network, a service of the United States Golf Association, Howard posted the most rounds in Maine last year with 166.

That ranked him 30th among members of seasonal associations such as the Maine State Golf Association. Among year-round associations, only 16 players posted more rounds. Men and women were included on both lists.

The highest number last year was 638 by John Furin of the Minnesota Golf Association, also a seasonal group.

Howard used to play a lot more than he does now.

“From the late ’70s through the mid-’90s, I averaged about 325 rounds a year,” he said.

“The most was 1979. I played 404 rounds that year,” he continued. “I used to keep track, but I don’t keep track anymore.

“They’re all in GHIN now, but of course there are a lot of rounds that don’t go in there – scrambles, for instance.”

He is well on his way to surpassing last year’s total.

“I’ve played 85 rounds already, and the season’s not even halfway done yet,” said Howard.

“The reason I’m addicted is you can never have the same shot twice in a row,” he said.

Getting started

“I started playing when I was 12,” he said. “I played in the caddie tournament and my dad gave me his clubs.

“I shot 157 for 18 holes.”

He progressed quickly.

“When I was 16, I won a junior tournament with 69,” he said. “From then on I was totally hooked.”

It’s not as if he didn’t experience other activities. They just didn’t hold the same interest.

“When I was 14 or 15, a friend of mine took me sailing,” said Howard. “We were out from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.

“He asked if I enjoyed it, and I did, but I told him that in the same amount of time, I could have played 54 holes. That’s when I walked and could get around pretty fast.”

He and his wife, Germaine, raised three children – Emery III, Greg, and Mark – and they learned to play golf, too.

“They knew if they wanted to see Dad, they had to play golf.

“Plus, it got them addicted, too.”

Speed demon

Fast only approximately describes how he plays.

On this Sunday, it’s not even 1 p.m. and he has already played 36 holes.

“We played 18 in carts [starting at 6 a.m.]. We got around in an hour and 50 minutes,” he said.

That got them back in time to join the regular Sunday morning crowd. He was off by 8:30.

“It took 3 1/2 hours the second time,” Howard said.

Mark Plummer of Manchester, 13-time Maine Amateur champion and 11-time winner of the Paul Bunyan Amateur, was paired with Howard in the past and remembers what it was like.

“He loves to play fast, so he and I got along real well,” said Plummer. “He’s a legend.”

Howard used to walk all the time, but times have changed.

“Most of the people I play with now ride, so I do a lot of riding now,” he said.

That doesn’t mean he has given up on man’s original mode of transportation.

“I try to walk,” he said.

In season, back when the club allowed it, he would start playing when it was light enough.

“I would start about 4:15 or 4:30,” he said. “By 7:30, if I took a cart, I could play 36 holes. I used to do that a lot.

“I could get away with that because people were sleeping then.”

Keenan Flanagan, who practically grew up at the club, joined Doc on some of those early-morning forays.

“We started about 4:30 in the morning,” he said with a laugh. “It was still dark when we headed down the first hole. We always had fun.”

Flanagan, now the head pro at Rockland, still sees him early in the morning.

“Most of the time he’s here when I get here,” said Flanagan. “He always has the first tee time.”

Ricky Jones of Thomaston, two-time Maine Amateur winner and four-time Bunyan champ, was another of the early players. He was a witness to the speed golf.

“He’d be waiting at the green if you took too long hitting an iron shot,” said Jones.

But Flanagan also said Howard would adjust if play was slower than his preferred pace.

Still competitive

The competitive bug bit Howard early and has stayed with him, although he admits to having to change his expectations.

“I used to get totally frustrated with my play” if it wasn’t going well, he said, “Now I just laugh and go on.”

He plays in a lot of tournaments, most through the MSGA, the Central Maine Seniors Golf Association, and the Eastern Maine Seniors Golf Association, and he had certain expectations.

“You didn’t want to play with him and not make birdie,” said Jones, who remembered one event involving he, Doc, Rockland pro Peter Hodgkins, and Troy Witham, himself a former Bunyan winner and state high school champion.

“We were playing in the [Maine chapter New England PGA] Pro-Am Championship at Augusta one year and Troy didn’t make a birdie,” said Jones, who then smiled. “That was all Troy heard all the way home, 50 straight minutes.”

While his handicap is 11 now, Howard said it used to be around 0. He was the 1955 state intercollegiate golf champion as a University of Maine senior, winning a playoff at Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono.

Then he was the pro at Rockland in 1956 and ’57 before going to Tufts Medical School in Medford, Mass., and his residency program at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

“I went six years without touching my clubs,” he said. After he finished his residency and moved back to Rockland, he started playing once a week.

At first it wasn’t possible to get his amateur status back. When that rule was changed, he still didn’t take advantage of it at first.

“I didn’t want to get sucked back in while I was trying to stamp out disease,” he said, laughing.

His tournament play in the last 20 years included being paired up with some of the state’s best golfers.

“I played with Plummer, [Mike] Norris, and [Bob] Girvan because I was playing that well,” Howard said, mentioning three Bunyan winners. “I never did that well, but it was a privilege to play with them.”

He also has played at St. Andrews in Scotland, has recorded nine holes-in-one (including a double-eagle on the par-4 17th hole), won five club championships, and once played 13 1/2 rounds of golf in one day (with Flanagan and sons Emery and Greg) as part of a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.

The future

Howard still maintains his pediatric practice, generally working four days a week. He doesn’t see any reason to retire.

“What do you do with yourself? … I like working with kids. I might pack it in sometime, but I’m not thinking about that yet,” he said.

He does see age creeping in.

“They say these are the golden years, but they lie,” he said with another laugh. “These are the iron years and we’re rusting like mad.

“I have a new back, survived a heart attack 25 years ago, and two stents, so I’m in remarkable shape.”

He noted that medicine has changed a lot in 44 years, but golf hasn’t.

“Except for technology,” he said. “I wish I had this technology years ago, but I’m glad to have it now.”

Germaine died on May 23, so he isn’t home much now.

“I don’t want to go home. It’s too lonely,” he said.

After the interview, he headed home to watch Daisuke Matsuzaka and the Boston Red Sox take on the Detroit Tigers.

Stephen Starbird is sitting in the pro shop downstairs. He and his son have played with Howard. He thought he might see him again later that day.

“He watches the radar religiously,” said Starbird. “He may play another 18 after the Red Sox game.”

That’s Doc.