I recently turned 59, the same age golfing legend Tom Watson was in 2009 when he lost a playoff for the British Open, the oldest golf championship in the world. Just last year, at age 68, he won the Par-3 contest at the Masters Tournament, beating players in the prime of their careers. It goes to show that golf truly is a game for a lifetime. Golf has been played for over 500 years by men and women; by young and old; by royalty and artisans; by CEOs and taxi drivers; by people with bad backs and creaky knees; by amputees and the blind. Some even play from wheelchairs.
In 2017, 23.8 million people played golf on a real course in the United States. Of those, about 8.5 million, or 35%, were age 50 and over (including about 1.7 million women.) Almost 2 million were age 70 and over (including some 350,000 women.) As Tom Watson has said, golf is like the opera, you might hate it at the beginning and may grow to like it over time, but if you don’t love it from the beginning you never will. For those who do love it, it hooks them for life. We get a thrill from hitting that silly white ball, and have since the game’s early days in this country. “No one who has wielded a club can forget,” declared The Gentlewoman’s Book of Sports in 1892, “the feeling of pleasure and pardonable self-satisfaction which was experienced by the sight of the clean-hit ball soaring into a wall of azure, a tiny, white speck in the far distance.”
David Forgan wrote a “Golfer’s Creed” in the late 19th century. To him, golf “means going into God’s out-of-doors, getting close to nature, fresh air, exercise, a sweeping away of mental cobwebs, genuine recreation of tired tissues.... It is a cure for care, an antidote to worry .” Michael Murphy, in his classic book Golf in the Kingdom, spoke of golf in terms of “walkin’ fast across the countryside and feelin’ the wind and watchin’ the sun go down and seein’ yer friends hit good shots and hittin’ some yourself. It’s love and it’s feelin’ the splendor o’ this good world.” Even though the game can drive one crazy, at the same time it’s addictive, and can be therapeutic to many.
For me, I find myself at peace on the golf course or driving range, trying to hit the ball where I want it to go. Even though back surgery a dozen years ago limits my being able to hit the ball as far as I used to, it’s still fun. I see the ball fall 20 yards shorter than it did a few years ago and I get a little depressed, but it isn’t the end of the world. I feel a connection to the earth out there, breathing the fresh air and feeling the breeze against my cheek.
As Sherwin Nutland wrote in The Art of Aging, “Whatever else aging may represent to us, it is first and foremost a state of mind.” The late President George H.W. Bush personified this ideal, skydiving to celebrate his 90th birthday. “Just ‘cause you’re an old guy,” he used to say, “you don’t have to sit around drooling in the corner. Get out and do something. Get out and enjoy life.” Yes, sir! There are plenty of older people continuing to play the game well into their later years. And since I am a golf historian who has studied the game for 45 years, I have found many examples of people who don’t let age hold them back, and their stories give me hope.
George Bush loved golf too, and he kept moving, kept doing, until ill health slowed him down. When my back acts up and I can’t swing a club, two words comfort me – patience and perseverance. Then I think of what others have done. Old Tom Morris, one of the game’s icons, played in the British Open until he was 75. Sam Snead, shot his age or better (67) in two consecutive rounds on the PGA Tour in 1979. He would also shoot an incredible 60 when he was 71 years old. Joe Jimenez shot a 62 at the age of 69 on the Senior PGA Tour. Jerry Barber, who won the PGA Championship in 1961 at age 45, shot his age or better in the 1992 U.S. Senior Open, when he was 76 years old, hitting his drives 210-225 yards and still wielding a deadly putter. Chuck Kocsis was a great amateur player who broke his back in a car accident, but came back and played golf with great success. At the age of age 89, he shot 72 on a 6,003 yard course.
These were all great golfers, but the stories of average players over the years also give me inspiration. Henry DeVries started playing golf at 60, and even after losing his left leg below the knee in a car accident, he kept playing. “One beauty of golf is that you must concentrate and think of nothing else. That’s why, on the course, I am never aware that I have lost a leg.” At age 92, he was playing 18 holes five days a week, and his daughter believed, “Golf has really kept him going.”
George “Dad” Miller shot three consecutive 79s on a regulation course when he was 92, and had three holes-in-one, two coming after age 82. At age 97 he played four times a week, shooting in the low 90s. Jean McCabe, 79, had chronic pulmonary disease, but kept playing two or three times a week with an oxygen tank. “I guess I’ve shown that you don’t have to be considered an invalid,” she declared. “You can get out and do almost anything you want.”
Elsie McLean made a hole-in-one the age of 102, getting her a spot on the Ellen DeGeneres show. “If you want to keep playing golf,” she said, “you’ve got to enjoy yourself, quit complaining about your aches and pains and stay away from doctors.” 92-year-old Louis Barch acknowledged the role golf played in his life. “I think it’s one of the reasons I lived so long.” He spoke of the game’s benefits: “It’s been the camaraderie, a chance to get acquainted with the fellows. I like the exercise and the scenery, and the game is good for your health .” Duffy Martin could still shoot in the low 80s at age 90. “I tell people to stay away from the whiskey and cigarettes and play golf every chance they get. If people will play more golf and exercise, age is just so many numbers.” Cy Perkins, 97, admonished people, “As you get older, you can’t get discouraged about how far you hit the ball…Keep playing until you can’t bend over and tee it up.”
Henry DeVries believed golf is “the world’s finest sport because it has no age limit,” adding that it “provides just the right exercise, and you can have lots of fun to boot.” George Selbach played nine holes three times a week at age 104. “If I did everything the doctors wanted me to do, I’d be dead. I use common sense.” Cy Breen, 95, contended that the most important thing about age is attitude. “If you’re a complainer, if your attitude is terrible, that’s when you’re going to have problems.” Bob Exter, 94, always tried to stay healthy. “I’m very careful about diet, and every morning I do my calisthenics, some sit-ups and some stretching.” Ed Ervasti shot a 72 at age 93, on a 96-degree day. The 21 shots under his age is a record. The secret to his longevity, he maintained, was exercise. “I walk every morning for almost two to three miles. I have for 20-30 years.”
Sid Beckwith, 96, played golf every day but Sundays. “I go out every day and try to get better. That’s what makes the game fun.” Dad Miller had to give up walking and use a cart after suffering a heart attack when he was 92. “I hated to give up walking, but as long as I don’t have to give up golf it was OK. I know I owe my good physical condition to golf .” Janet Travell was the personal physician to President John F. Kennedy, and lived into her 90s. She used to say that she would rather “wear out than rust out,” and I agree wholeheartedly with that motto. And I have role models in the people mentioned here to keep me going. Thanks for the encouragement!