Golf... The Real Fountain of Youth

If there is one thing that I love about golf it's the fact that it's a game that you can take up at any age and play it until your final dying breaths. Personally, I know of two 90 year-old men that are both very spry who still play the game very well... besting their age. My coach who himself is 70 can still hit a golf ball very well and far for his age. I've seen him blast the ball past younger 20-something golfers. Golf is at an age where age doesn't have to be a factor... even on Tour.

Photo Credit: Family Guy

In the last couple of weeks we have seen some great golf turned in by guys over the age of 40. I wrote an article a little bit ago right on the heels of the win in Portugal by Padraig Harrington. Padraig (45) won for the first time on the European Tour in 8 years that week but it didn't stop there. That same week Anders Hansen (46) who only plays part-time finished third. Think about it... a 46 year-old part-time golfer finishing third in a tournament chock full of "millenials". Many of whom are towards the younger end of that spectrum. It's exciting when you really think about it... after all remember when a few years ago World Golf Hall of Fame inductee Tom Watson contended a few years ago in the Open Championship? The excitement that was in the air... of course much of that was sentimentality hoping that the "youngster" could pull it off. He didn't as we all know but here was right there. Then this week happened. "Only in Vegas Baby" a place where dreams of big payoffs can come true. Played at TPC Summerlin the Shriner's Open was won by another elder statesmen. Australian Rod Pampling found himself collecting his first victory in over a decade. Pampling (47) a Srixon staffer using a mixed bag of clubs consisting of TaylorMade Golf, PING, Titleist (Scotty Cameron putter), Cleveland and Srixon started his week by firing a 60 and ending with a 65 en route to a -20 total two strokes clear of runner-up Brooks Koepka. Pampling's dramatic putt on 18 was fun to watch as he started to "walk it in" from about 4 feet.

Photo Credit: PGA Tour

In a way, these types of occurrences on Tour sort of reminds me of the scene in the movie "Cocoon" where all of the geriatric folks jump into the pool and party. If you haven't seen the film from 1985 (by Ron Howard) it's about a group of elderly people rejuvenated by aliens (extra-terrestials). Well I think that the movie really is a symbolic metaphor for what is occurring in golf. Where guys like Pampling, Harrington and Hansen to name a few are the elderly people (guys you really aren't) the aliens in this case is played by the respective equipment manufacturers. Fitting resources never used before aided by Doppler, R&D that could easily be used (or might have already been) by the aerospace industry (Callaway Golf and Boeing XR-16) and space-aged materials are all largely instrumental in the new found "youth". Not to mention that golf fitness and nutrition are a thing... for some. Thanks to these gentlemen and the golf industry it gives old guys like me... hope. 

Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox

Until The Next Tee!