He bought his first one--an Aeronca Chief with a propeller he had to crank by hand--in 1981 because he was tired of driving 300 miles a day in his pickup truck.
The Tipton Oaks course dates from 1981, when a group of golfers from Tipton (population 206) decided over several pitchers of beer that they were tired of driving 20 miles north to play at the sand-greens course north of Downs (population 898).