Older Golfers Defy Their Age with Mental Golf
What are some aspects of the game where older golfers might have a disadvantage? Okay, so they might have a tendency to lose some driving distance. And putting can become more of a challenge. Why? Well David Kirschen, an optometrist with an expertise in sports, blames it mostly on their deteriorating vision. Diane Pucin, writer for the Los Angeles Times, mentioned that ”Kirschen listed acuity — how sharply one sees detail at a distance — as the first component in helping a putter. He also said depth perception and focus matter.” If golfers are aging, and along with it are not seeing as well as they used to, then they are become worse putters.
But age doesn’t have to play such a defining role in how well an older golfer performs. Why? Because older golfers defy their age with mental golf. How? I’ll tell you. But I first wanted to bring you an excerpt from that article by Pucin:
Reporting from La Jolla — Stand around the putting green at a PGA Tour event.
Look and listen. The players, who know that averaging one additional stroke a round can cost them millions of dollars over a season, are trying to give themselves every advantage on the greens. They try long putters so tall they practically tickle the golfer’s chin, belly putters, mallet-headed putters and blades, hoping to translate their strokes into the definition of success:
A made putt.
And as golfers age, that challenge can become even more difficult.
Even though it’s natural for players to lose driving distance as they get older, it is putting, which requires less physical power and more mental certainty, that can cause players real problems.
Many golfers go to extreme measures as their putting strokes deteriorate. Near the end of his Hall of Fame career, Sam Snead would straddle the line of his putt and use a stroke that resembled a croquet shot.
Golf eventually outlawed that stroke.
David Kirschen, an optometrist with an expertise in sports and a member of the faculty at UCLA, said that what many golfers don’t understand is how important vision is to putting well. And vision tends to worsen with age.
Kirschen listed acuity — how sharply one sees detail at a distance — as the first component in helping a putter. He also said depth perception and focus matter.
“Can I pick a flag out of the background? Can I see two different shades of green, can I pick up that texture?” Kirschen said. “And then there’s stereo vision. The way your two eyes work together is critical in your ability to read a green. Where it’s sloping, breaking left to right, depth to where the cup is.” [...]
Okay… so how many remember the 1977 Open Championship at Turnberry, Scotland? Or as golf history refers to it as the “Duel in the Sun”… It was Tom Watson vs. Jack Nicklaus. Legends. Saturday and Sunday they played head to head until the 72nd hole when Watson finally beat out Nicklaus in his final shot. It was spectacular – or as Tom puts it: it’s what golf is all about. Watson scored a 65 on both Saturday and Sunday. 32 years later, back at Turnberry for the 2009 British Open - Watson returned to his roots and shot a 65 once again. It was his lowest opening-score that he’d ever shot in a major. Watson was 59 when that happened. Yet when commenting on his age he said, ”I still feel as if I can compete against the kids”.
What’s the message? Age doesn’t matter. Older golfers defy their age with mental golf! Whether you’re in your 30s or in your late 50s – the course is the same. Somehow pros like Watson can stay on top of their golf game despite the disadvantages that come with age. What’s the secret? The secret is within a simple statement from Jim Flick, a master golf teacher with 53 years experience: “Golf is 90 percent mental, and the other 10 percent is mental.” What do you think about Kirschen’s assesment? Do you think older golfers are really at a disavangtage? Let me hear your opinion in the comments section below.
