At what age do you stop getting better?

[Bill_McBride]

Even at 29, I notice how much easier it is to make a strong, repeating swing and maintain concentration for 18 holes when I have been eating well and exercising, compared to those weeks or months where I've been grazing in a good paddock and foregoing exercise.

I can only imagine that becomes moreso as we age.

You have no idea!   

[Steve Lang]

Even at 29, I notice how much easier it is to make a strong, repeating swing and maintain concentration for 18 holes when I have been eating well and exercising, compared to those weeks or months where I've been grazing in a good paddock and foregoing exercise.

I can only imagine that becomes moreso as we age.

You have no idea!   

I'll second that..

[hhuffines]

It's happening to me at 49, despite lessons and exercise.... 65? 70?  At least maybe there's hope!

[A.G._Crockett]

I would prefer to think that I will be able to play better tomorrow than I did yesterday until the day they throw dirt in on me.

I see no reason or advantage in comparing myself at 60 to what I was at 30 or 40; I'm less in some ways, but better in so many others.  But of all the ways that I am better, perspective is the most important.

I'll add this to the collection of perspective stories on this thread.  Over the last 15 months, my 24 yr. old daughter has been battling cancer, a battle whose outcome is still very much in doubt.  My wife has been with her continuously, first in NYC and in NC since last August, and I've been living alone at our home in Georgia and commuting as much as possible.  I won't claim that golf has "saved my life" because I'm not the one who is sick, but golf HAS saved my sanity by giving me something to do and obsess about, and a great reason not to go back to an empty house in the afternoons.  In that respect, I continue to get better every day at golf; I'm thankful for the game every single day.

[Jason Topp]

At the age you have your first child.

Wow!  I have to second that one.  My handicap has risen in linear progression with my child's age.

This will reverse eventually.  I started to get it back when I decded to spend more of my limited golf time practicing rather than playing.

[Martin Toal]

"At what age do you stop getting better?"

No idea, but I am pretty sure I have passed it already.

[Tony_Muldoon]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0396047580/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used
 
Maybe a help.  He's my new mentor .

[Adrian_Stiff]

Assuming we are talking about 'better' and having played since a junior, as a rough rule I would say its 40. Very few players are better past 40, but if you have not taken it seriously at a young age or are playing more later in life it can be different. Athletic decline in most sports starts low thirties, golf is a bit different, being a great golfer is not totally about striking, learning strategy and plotting your way around, defending against pressure takes time to learn.

[Bob_Huntley]

Assuming we are talking about 'better' and having played since a junior, as a rough rule I would say its 40. Very few players are better past 40, but if you have not taken it seriously at a young age or are playing more later in life it can be different. Athletic decline in most sports starts low thirties, golf is a bit different, being a great golfer is not totally about striking, learning strategy and plotting your way around, defending against pressure takes time to learn.

I agree with Adrian here, the early forties seems about right. I was fortunate enough to return to Rhodesia for some nine months in 1972. During that time I played a great deal of golf, many times with Simon Hobday and David Leadbetter. I still have my handicap cards from Royal Salisbury and Chapman clubs showing me with a two handicap, my lowest ever. After that, it was never quite the same although I shot my age in 2006 with a seventy-six helped by an ace on the Strantz 11th hole on the Shore..

Sadly the decline has accelerated faster than I cold imagine.

Bob

[Don Hyslop]

I started out as a youngster with a set of clubs that were given to me by a friend. The woods actually had wooden shafts, by the time I graduated to persimmon woods, my handicap was around 12. Now at the age of 63 with the new Taylor Made drivers and hybrids and new balls, I am hitting the ball just as far if not farther than I ever did and scoring just as well. Technology is amazing.

[Doug Siebert]

I turned 65 this year.  It has dawned on me that I am closing in on 70.  70 seems old. I realize that 65 is just a number, but it is a BIG number. I still walk and carry my bag but will take a cart now on the second 18.  When I was 35 I was a 2 handicap and now my index is 5.9.  I have moved up a tee box and still think I can get better.  Im not sure that is true.  I don't hit as many greens as I used to and when I do I a am not as close to the pin as I used to be.  I can't hit the ball as high nor can I hit it as long.  My skills are slowly eroding.  I'd like to think that I can still get it around at 85 but am becoming more skeptical.  

For those of you who a little longer in the tooth, what have you discovered about your game?

Tommy,

I'm curious how you are defining "getting better" for the purposes of this question.  First you mention handicap, then you mention that you don't hit as many greens or as high or as long.  I'm pretty sure it is possible for some people to lower their handicap even as their actual skill with full shots dimishes, by playing smarter and improving their short game.  Is that getting better, or just scoring better?

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

I'm hoping it's 15+ years down the line for me.

I got down to a 5 handicap in my teens, but just couldn't get lower. I played very little for about 15 years and my handicap lapsed. When I joined a club 3 years ago, they gave me a 7.0 handicap. I've managed to get down to 6.2 and my short-term (1-2 years) target is to get back to 5.0. As I average 36 putts per round, I'm convinced that if I improve in this area, I can get down to 4.0. I can see so many areas where I can improve, without making wholesale changes to my swing. I'm sure that if I spend more time chipping and putting, my handicap will fall. I've decided to lose weight and since the start of March I've gone from 80.5 Kg to 74.5 Kg. Golf has been the main motivating factor for the weight loss.

As a 42 year old, I'm certainly more mature and sensible on the course. I expect to have one or two disasters per round, but I just shrug it off, and tell myself to hang in there. My post "mid-round disaster" scores are usually as good if not better than my scores pre-disaster. When I was younger, a double or triple bogey early in the round was curtains for me.

As a teenager, I'd try to hit my irons as long as I could. Now I don't care how long I hit it, as long as it hits the target. I hit my woods longer than I did 20 years ago. I hit 3W more often than driver, as hitting the fairway is now more important than hitting it long.

What is worrying is the lack of concentration, but this is not just confined to golf. I mark my score after each hole as I sometimes can't remember if I two or three putted a green earlier on the round. I've gone from a situation where I knew the rules very well as a teenager, to the present where I can't remember them no matter how many times I consult the book. I think this is due to my 15 year layoff and I'm sure I'll get to know the rules once again.

[Carl Johnson]

I think I'm lucky that I was never a highly skilled golfer, and that I did not start trying to play regularly (other than just once every five years or so and an "outing") until I was in my early 50s.  I'm 70 now.  Today I had my best round (lowest medal score) in nine or ten months, but still managed to come up a little short on the match money side.  I putted exceptionally well today.  Maybe I'm getting better at that (but realisticly, probably not), so there's hope.  I don't care what my handicap is.  It is what it is.  I don't measure my enjoyment of the game that way.

I frequently play with older men, in their 80s, who use to be scratch or close, and are continually frustrated by the fact that they can't score like the used to, and now hit more "bad" shots than the used to.  Skillwise I'm level with some of them now, and thrilled about where I am, while they're not.  One guy, now 92, shot his age at least three times last year, yet is often gloomy about his game.  As far as I'm concerned, if you in your 90s and shooting your age, you are a damn good player, no matter what you think.

As you get older your skills will surely decrease, and for many reasons it will happen at different ages for different people.  However, if you define "getting better" as I like to, as learning more about yourself, how to manage the game you have, how to enhance your skills at your reduced physical/mental capabilities and how to enjoy the game, then I think you can always get better.

[Jerry Kluger]

I am proud to say that last week I shot a 75 which is the best round of my life and I followed it up this week with a 79. I don't really feel that I have lost any distance although I never was a long hitter to begin with. It seems that I have been learning more about the game and the swing and how to score so that I am getting to be a better player.  I can look at a hole and understand how to play it with my skills. 

Interestingly, I went to a US Open Sectional Qualifier and I was really surprised at how unimaginative the players were.  They all had their favorite shot shape and wouldn't vary from it even when the hole and conditions called for it.  It appeared to me that their preference was clearly a draw which they used even when a pin was on the right side of the green.  With the wind blowing they missed a bunch of shots to the right of the green or long left. 

But getting back to this subject, the only thing stopping me from getting better at 65 is my arthritic knees.

[Jonathan Mallard]

I'm 40 now, and have a mild case of Cerebral Palsy. I took up the game at 9, and finally got down to a single digit handicap last year. I started going into the gym every day before work, and took up yoga semi-seriously (about once a week) a couple of years ago, and can see a difference.

I hope I've got 10-15 years to improve. I also think that technology will be a bigger driver than folks would like for it to be.

[Mike Hendren]

... but I also have moments when I look as if I have never played the game before. 

Rich, after failing to get up and down a single time last week with 8 simple tries (with three subsequent 3-putts to boot), I make the exact comment to my wife.  I have had what I term the chipping yips for about five years now.  Enough!  I'm getting a pitching lesson from Snedekers teacher Thursday, my first in many moons.  It's rally time.   

Bogey

[Matthew Petersen]

At the age you have your first child.

My thought, as well.

I was 30. Doubt I will ever again be as good as I was the summer before my son was born.

No regrets.

[Paul OConnor]

I was thinking about this thread relative to developing a swing that is built to last for the long term.  Many of the young bombers, like Bubba, JB Holmes, Tiger, Ricky Fowler, Dustin Johnson, and even Rory, swing with an extraordinarly violent and agressive swing.  I was comparing those swings to a guy like Jeff Maggert, featured a little in this weekends PGA tournament.  His swing is short, compact, and considerably less violent, and it seemed nearly unchanged in charater in all the years I've seen him play.  While certainly more of an old school type swing, I'm betting Maggert has a longer golf life than most of the bombers.  He only won three tournaments in his 26 year career, but has 171 top 25 finishes, and over $17 mil in earnings.  A pretty solid if not spectacular effort.    

None of the young superstars would probably even dream of dialing back their power in an effort to prolong their career, the focus is so much on the "now."  How likely are the young guns to stay injury free and healthy with their current motions?  Seems like all these guys are just begging for some injury to keep them from a long career.  Worse yet, of all the young kids I see, so many are trained to just smash the crap out of the ball by swinging as hard as they can.  Nobody is taught to swing like Maggert.

I think for the average good club player, the goal should be to develop a swing today that is good for the long haul, into one's 70's and beyond.  I suspect it involes giving up a fair amount of distance today ,in exchange for a much longer golf life expectancy.  

[Tony_Muldoon]

Very interesting thoughts guys.


No I take this very seriously.  At 53.5 years I asked my Teacher to help me start again and build a swing that was based on rotation and would take the pressure off my back. I'm resolved to accept whatever happens to my game this year and will stick with it.

When I started on this process I had two aims. 

To build a swing for an aging body to allow me to play on for a looong time.
To get to single figures (currently at an all time low of 12.4).

Although I see the handicap going up next time I play in a comp. I am encouraged enough to set 7 as my new target before I'm 60.

Attitude!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18346128 

[Craig_Rokke]

My skillset bodes well for continued improvement as I approach 49. My drives are better and longer than ever, and my terribly inconsistent short game just needs practice

[Joel_Stewart]

 I have moved up a tee box and still think I can get better.   

I'm good friends with Sandy Tatum, age 92.   He feels the same way, always trying to get better.   His legs are giving out on him so he can't really walk the courses anymore but he practices almost everyday at the Stanford team practice facility.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I think the guys who say in the 40's are right except for a rare few who are in their 50's no matter their conditioning. the caveat being if they never practiced until their 50's and then they will be better until some point in their late 50's or 60's when the body turns on them. For me it was a hard sudden 59. lol

[Patrick_Mucci]

If you think you're at your best and can't improve, you won't.

If you stop trying to improve, you won't.

Whether it's the pursuit of a lower handicap or the Holly Grail of Golf, you can't give up.

[Tommy Williamsen]

One of the interesting things I have discovered was I grow older is that I do get better at some things.  I mange my game better. I am smarter.  While I don't hit the ball as high and can't go pin seeking on some greens, my short game is better and I putt better. I don't play the back tees anymore but that's ok.  In some ways I enjoy the game better because I am a more complete player.  I will use the ground and the terrain to feed the ball onto the green, which is fun.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Tommy,

That's called "adapting" to your limitations.