I’VE often said to friends and work mates that there are a lot of old golfers. Which is meant as positive. It can’t be a bad thing.
Golf, as stressful as some days on the course can be at times, is a healthy pastime, involving time in the fresh air, walking (for some, jumping in and out of a cart for others) and a bit of mental stimulation. Albeit too much of the latter on occasion for many of us.
It keeps the competitive juices flowing and for those who have reached retirement age, golf is also a social outlet and gets many out of the house and interacting with others when they might not otherwise be inclined to do so.
The benefits are many which is why it is the greatest game of all, something we can all agree upon – most days at least!
At an elite level, while the long hitting youngsters emerge ready to challenge the best on the major tours around the world, a few ‘old dogs’ continue to be a force.
Look at Adam Scott, and apologies to him for his label as an ‘old dog’, however he enjoyed his best season for quite a few years in 2024 and at age 44 this year will play his 94th, 95th, 96th and 97th consecutive major championships. Scotty is in all the big four events in 2025, courtesy of his win at Augusta in 2013, world ranking and performances last year.
I’ve loved watching Lucas Glover of late. Now north of 45 he overcame the yips, is still a premier ball striker and is playing almost as well as when he won the 2009 US Open.
Justin Rose is another of the 40-somethings who burst onto the scene as an amateur at the Open Championship in 1997, turned pro in 1998 and is coming up on 30 years out on tour. He’s played in six European Ryder Cup teams and with two top 10’s already in 2025 and a world ranking of 34, who is game to bet against him making it seven Ryder Cup appearances when the biannual matches tee off at Bethpage Black later in 2025?
Over 50 but refusing to step away from the PGA TOUR is Stewart Cink, splitting his time between the over-50’s Champions Tour and the regular tour, where his name still crops up on the occasional leaderboard. While Padraig Harrigton is a gem. He has been on a speed/distance crusade for a few years now and hits the ball further than he ever has. At 53 years of age. If you haven’t seen his YouTube videos or social media content, do yourself a favour and check it out.
Our own Greg Chalmers has enjoyed a career renaissance since joining the senior brigade, beaten by just one shot at the recent Cologuard Classic, as has Richard Green who so nearly topped the Charles Schwab standing as the leading player on the Champions Tour last year.
There are a dozen Australians competing on the Champions Tour on a regular basis, another one of them is Michael Wright, the Queenslander returning home during our recent summer and managing to beat the ‘flat bellies’ in winning the Webex Players Series Victoria event at Rosebud.
Then there is Bernhard Langer, a man without peer when it comes to longevity and squeezing everything he can out of his career and his outstanding golf game. Langer has won 47 Champions Tour events, the last coming at age 67 in the final event of the 2024 season in Phoenix. See the page nine Q and A with Langer saying the 2025 Masters will be his last. I‘ll believe it when I don’t see his name on the entry list in 2026.
And we’ll see a collection of old champions tee it up alongside Langer at Augusta in early April. While the course is set up for the young bombers these days, a number will do themselves proud and I’d be surprised if a couple don’t make the 36-hole cut and play on the weekend.
Away from the bright lights of the professional tours, each month Inside Golf presents numerous articles on our older golfers achieving great things. Men and women breaking their age, still knocking the ball around, having fun, enjoying social connections and playing the game to a high level into their 70’s, 80’s, 90’s.
On the pages to follow we offer profile articles on an age breaker from Nudgee in Queensland and on a high achieving 80-year-old from the Sunshine Coast, while Muriel is still going strong on and off the course at the age of 97. And I could have filled more pages with similar content, but I’ve held back a couple of stories which will publish in May. Always interesting reads and stories well worth telling.
For me, I can’t help but get out onto the course at least a couple of times a week, if not for a club competition, for nine holes with my son, or just a half a dozen holes by myself, away from the phone, away from the office, for a walk, a little sunshine and some fresh air.
Golf is a game like no other. While the body remains willing, golfers will continue to embrace the challenge. Borrowing from a well-known phrase, when it comes to older golfers, ‘age shall not weary them’ and let’s hope golf continues to keep us all going for some time to come.
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