Knicely Done: HVAC, campus, and golf clubs. Dandy Randy, nifty at 50
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Randy Christiansen is familiar with hard work.
His commercial HVAC business keeps him plenty busy, along with golf in his free time. The last thing Christiansen expected when he turned fifty in 2023, was to add college classes to his workload.
He heard the Bellevue University golf team might be a player short so he approached the Bruins Head Coach Rob Brown.
“I hardly knew him,” said Brown in an interview with 6 News. “He said, ‘Would you consider me,’ and I said, ‘Well how do you play?’ Turns out he plays very well and he showed it at Oak Hills C.C. that day, so I said, ‘giddy up.’”
Christiansen has two years of eligibility left having attended UNO back in the early 90′s. He signed up at Bellevue University last fall and first had to qualify in the classroom.
“I finished the semester with a 4.0,” he said.
Ironically, Christiansen has two kids in college at a different school.
“You know I want to be an example,” he explained. “Not just for my kids, for the other students, the golfers here to see that everything I can juggle. To see that anything is possible, and you just have to work on it.”
That work included weight room sessions during the offseason with his teammates at 6:30 in the morning. Since he lives about forty minutes from campus, it clearly took some juggling for Christiansen to be there at that early hour. After the workout it was either attend a class or head to the jobsite.
“Those workouts are hard,” he said while still catching his breath after three sets of dumbbell rows. “But my body feels great. Feels a lot better than before I was doing this. So, I’m pretty happy about it.”
There are six other members of the golf team with an average age of 21.
“He’s older than us, that’s the only difference,” said Sam Johnson. “He doesn’t act like he’s old.”
“Yeah, he plays like us,” added Nate Ishaya. “He’s a stud.”
It seems all the players like to kid the 50-year-old, claiming that he’s a little shorter off the tee box. With that in mind, 6 News put Christiansen to the test at Elmwood Golf Course in Omaha to see if he could pound a tee shot 280-yds and land on the green of the par four 6th hole.
His teammates crowded on the tee box, shouting with encouragement as the 50-year-old launched the ball with an effortless swing. With great fanfare he not only carried the green, but his ball also nestled just to the right side of the flagstick.
“Wow!” exclaimed Coach Brown. “280 yards, he probably has only a six-footer!”
Next week he tees it up in his first college golf tournament wearing Bellevue University gear and lugging a personalized golf bag loaded with “Bruin” golf balls.
“Seven months ago, you know I was living life, and this was always kind of a pipe dream. There are a lot of old feelings coming back of me wanting to do something like this when I was in college in the 90s. At 50 years old, my game is still there. Now I’m just another golfer, another student at college, and it’s unbelievable. I’m ready for my score to count.”
Knicely Done!
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