Bernie Rothenberg, 98, pulled eight colored balls from his jacket pockets and gripped a pitching wedge in his weathered hands.
“I’m addicted,” he said, hitting the balls across the modest playing field outside Building 624 in Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan on Wednesday. “I come out here every day, all year. I’ve played in the snow and had to wait till it thaws to find the balls.”
This was not a golf course — there are none in Manhattan — but rather Mr. Rothenberg’s practice range: a play area less than half the size of a football field and covered with artificial turf, outside his building.