Wichita ? Howard Nor-dyke doesn’t particularly care for plans when he’s building something from wood, calling them too cut-and-dried.

“I like the latitude to do what I want, start it and go where I want to go,” he said.

The 72-year-old Nordyke, who said he took his first woodshop class in seventh grade, decided in January 2009 to build something he’d never seen before: a wooden golf cart. With no plans to follow, Nordyke designed it in his head and used cardboard pieces to determine how the wooden parts would fit.

After about 2,000 hours of work, the cart is finished, and golfers at Crestview Country Club might see Nordyke, whose house backs up to the course, driving “Birdie” around.

“You get a lot of looks,” he said. “People want to see it.”

The cart, made mainly of African mahogany, has the motor and tires of a regular golf cart. Nordyke built the rest of it, fashioning it after a combination of antique car models.

“Birdie” features drink holders, a drawer for golf balls and spots for golf bags, all made from wood. Something not made out of wood is his Wichita State University baseball license plate on the front of the cart.

The cart also has an “ooga” horn, as Nordyke calls it, and leather seats. Nordyke said neighborhood children have enjoyed riding in the leather rumble seat that pops up in the back of the cart.

“They think they’re king of the mountains in the rumble seat,” he said.

Driving around Crestview with the wind blowing through the cart’s windows, Nordyke smiled and waved at a passing golf cart. For him, the project has simply been fun and something to keep him moving after he retired, he said.

Nordyke opened Howard’s Optical in 1968 and worked there until he was hospitalized in March 2009 with Guillain-Barre syndrome, which attacks the body’s nerves. Although his illness forced him to slow down, he was still determined to finish the golf cart, said his wife, Lana Nordyke.

“He’s always got to be busy, he’s never wanted to sit,” she said.