Aging Golfer
Let’s start the ramble with the pros and cons of being an aging golfer.
Cons
Loss of swing speed. One of the cool things that the Champions Tour is doing is showing their swing speeds… it is awesome to watch them getting slower the same way we are!
Body issues. Any timing issues and my shoulders hurt. Try and move the right shoulder under the ball and my back hurts. My hands and wrists are way weaker— so losing speed there and a bad hit hurts. Both of my ankles routinely refuse to hold my weight on the follow-through… looks pretty funny, I’m sure, when a foot literally drops to the ground.
Hand / eye coordination is fleeting. It’s no secret that older golfers routinely suffer the “yips” or at the very least lose confidence in speed and the strike on the ball. With diminished speed comes less ability to count on the proper amount of spin.
Our priorities change. We tend to be way less aggressive. This can really affect how low an older golfer can go. They can still play very well! They just can’t dominate. We tend to move towards appreciating consistency over distance… because we have to. But we miss mightily really sending a drive or fairway wood.
Pros
We have more time. For the most part, our kids are gone, our jobs have started to wind down. We can actually find the time to practice… :)
We’ve been playing for a long time. We know way more about the game, our swings, what to focus on.
It is kind of amazing to watch my golf game “crystalize” as I get older. With more time to work on the game, and enough aches and pains to not want to hit thousands of balls at the range, I’m “stuck” working on my short game way more… :)
Plus, I simply can’t swing as hard.