Oak Harbor resident Joanie Gilmore has played golf for more than 30 years. Each time she steps onto the course, club in hand, gazing out at the pin flag in the distance, the game stays fresh in her mind.

“It’s a sport where you stand in awe of what the players can do with that little white ball,” she said.

Golf is a sport where size doesn’t matter.

“You can be six-feet-two inches, or four-feet-six inches, and still hit the ball equally well,” Gilmore said.

As Gilmore points in her story, “What’s Your Handicap?,” that is included in the recently published “Chicken Soup for the Woman Golfer’s Soul,” golf does not discriminate against gender, or age — or even temperament.

“We’ve seen those who cuss and throw their clubs and we’ve seen those who smile at their mistakes and go on to finish quite well,” Gilmore said.

And in golf, players are reminded of what the legendary Arnold Palmer said: “Focus not on the commotion around you, but on the opportunity ahead of you.”

It is that spirit of thought that brought Gilmore to write about her golf experiences and the incredible people she’s met out on the fairway.

This is the second Chicken Soup book in which Gilmore’s prose has been included. She previously penned a story called “This Ain’t No Bull” as part of Chicken Soup for the Grandmother’s Soul. It was the first story she sold, but certainly wasn’t the first of her writings.

Gilmore said she’s always been a writer, in one form or another.

For 25 years, she worked for the Oak Harbor School District as the executive assistant to the superintendent, also filling the capacity of public relations person which is now a separate job.

While working for the school district she became concerned about losing school history, so she gathered photos and information and wrote a book about it. “North Whidbey Pioneer Schools” was her first published work, in 1986.

“It got me stirred up,” she said of the experience.

She frequently attends writer’s conferences to hone her skills and network the publishing industry. She’s written another story that’s in contention to be a part of “Chicken Soup for the Tea Lover’s Soul.” She’s written two books she’s currently shopping around and doesn’t see herself stopping there.

Gilmore’s constant golf partner is her husband of 49 years, Bill. The couple will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this summer, along with their sons Rod Gilmore and Greg Gilmore, both of Oak Harbor, and their daughter Shelley Cumley of Everett.

“Chicken Soup for the Woman Golfer’s Soul” is about “trailblazing women who’ve changed the game forever,” and, no doubt, stories that will inspire them to change their own game of life, or golf.

It addresses how, since the dawning of the game of golf in the 16th century, women have played an understated role in the sport. While golfers like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are common pop trivia, many still do not know Babe Didrikson Zaharias who is considered to be not only a phenomenal golfer but one of the greatest all-around female athletes of all time. And many are only vaguely familiar with today’s show-stoppers like Michelle Wie and Annika Sorenstam.

Editors selected the “Woman Golfer’s Soul” stories for their ability to “entertain, inspire and validate other woman golfers who are trying to achieve balance, success, peace and happiness in their lives.”

The Chicken Soup for the Soul books were first published in 1993. Since then, more than 100 million copies of versions for mothers, teens, dog lovers, sports fans, dieters and countless other demographics have been printed. With each incarnation, the Chicken Soup for the Soul books continue to make the New York Times’ best-seller list.

Whenever the call is put out for a new Chicken Soup book, thousands of entries pour in, but only 67 were selected for inclusion in “Chicken Soup for the Woman Golfer’s Soul.”

“When people talk of handicap in golf they always think of the rating or score you are given. They don’t think of it as applying to the many people who play golf and also have a handicap of a different kind,” Gilmore explained of her story.

For 13 years, the Gilmores were snow birds who headed down to Arizona each winter. Each year they stayed at a senior community where golf was a favorite pastime. Every time she stepped onto the golf course she learned to look beyond someone’s handicap — in more ways than one.

“You’d be amazed at the number of people with handicaps in these communities who continue to golf,” Gilmore said.

She played on a league team with a woman who was blind.

“Her friend would line her up and she’d swing away,” Gilmore said. “She was good, too.”

A friend of Gilmore’s lost use of a leg due to a blood clot, but with the continued play of golf the leg returned to health in a few years. She and her group of golfing buddies kept track of one friend who developed Alzheimer’s.

“Sometimes she’d forget her clubs, other times she’d be late, but we just all helped her out so she could keep golfing,” Gilmore said.

The author said these golfers and others she’s met through the years speaks of the power of golf to be a driving force in people’s lives. To Gilmore, it’s the players themselves, as much as the game that brings much awe.

“These people I’ve met are such an inspiration to me,” she said. “It makes me think ‘never give up — you can do it’.”