Over 40? Golf’s Biggest Secret to Winning

Today’s climate of physical fitness has produced 40-year-old professional quarterbacks, aging baseball players still making millions and many professional golfers bringing their own training vans and physical therapists to every tournament. Interestingly, one has to wonder if the professional, competitive life of tour players has been lengthened?

Well, here is a little pop quiz:
How many majors were won by golfers over 40 in this century?
Answer: None.
How many majors were won by men over 40 in the 46-year span from 1921-1967?
Answer: None.
In the last 90 years, how many majors were won by graybeards?
Answer: To surprise you, only five.

The last oldster to win a major was 45-year-old Hale Irwin in the 1990 U.S. Open. Before 1986, Jack Nicklaus at 46 and Raymond Floyd at 43 won the Masters and U.S. Open respectively. Then, we have to jump back to the 1968 PGA Tournament when Julius Boros at 48 became the oldest player ever to win a major. And, finally, 44-year-old Robert de Vincenzo won the 1967 British Open.

With these facts in mind, one has to marvel at 60-year-old Tom Watson’s performance in last year’s British Open when he lost only in a playoff. One also has to wonder, why not? Surely, with talented men like Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, etc., etc., playing in the majors until they were long in the tooth, there has to be a common thread that explains the absence of wins.

The common thread that has been a detrimental effect on all golfers over 40 is conditioning. The legs simply don’t hold up and, thus, no matter how perfect the swing or how much experience and course knowledge they possess, they can’t keep up with the four-day, 72-hole pace. That’s why the Senior Tour is only 54 holes and golfers get to ride between holes in a cart.

So, golfers take heed. You will spend hours and hours on the driving range pounding out woods and irons trying to cut a stroke or two off your handicap or get that extra 10 yards in distance. You will spend endless hours on the putting green or the living room carpet practicing your putting stroke. And, you might even lift a few weights dreaming of those six-pack abs and bulging biceps.

That all might be well and good, but it is not the best golf exercise.

The best golf exercise is walking or running. The average golf course straight down the middle is 7,000 yards and that equals four miles. Adding in the distances between the greens and tee boxes, along with meandering on the green and the Zorro walk down the fairways to your ball, you can safely figure on walking around six miles in 18 holes. Even if you ride the entire 18 holes, you will walk a minimum of one or two miles. And this does not take into account the physical effort involved to reach elevated greens or tee boxes and climbing in and out of sand traps.

Thus, if you want to use the long winter days to improve your golf game, get on the treadmill or get out in the open and walk. Try and build yourself up to a solid four or five miles a day if you are on a treadmill, and a good three miles a day if you are outdoors and changing terrain. Then, when the season comes, you will find yourself way ahead of your armchair golfing pals. The next thought is how we can extend this into the golfing season since we live in a mountain area that is not very conducive to golf course walking. If you think about it, there are several courses here that are walking friendly: The River Course at Osage National, Dogwood Hills, Rolling Hills, Hidden Lakes at Tan-Tar-A and Lake Valley Country Club. With a little effort, Kinderhook can be walked and so can the front nine at Deer Chase.

In fact, you could walk the front nine on almost every course at the Lake and then grab a cart for the back nine. If you do this extra in a season — walking once or twice a week — you will notice two things:

One, your golf game will improve significantly. When you do ride, you will find the 18 holes to be a physical snap and you will feel just as good from an energy perspective on the 18th green as you did on the first tee box.

Two, you will have done your heart, lungs and entire vascular/pulmonary system a tremendous favor that will most likely result in a longer life and many additional rounds of golf.

As my father used to say: You can’t beat Father Time, but you sure can delay him.

Tags: excercise, Golf, Osage, over 40, Tan-Tar-A, US Open

Category: Blog, Sports & Toys