When did you become a senior golfer?

[Tommy Williamsen]

I have resisted being labeled "senior golfer" even though I am 71. I have hated the designation. When I hear "senior golfer" I hear "the old guy can't play a lick anymore so he wants the world to know he is so old and incompetent he has to play the forward tees." Even the Senior Tour changed its name to the Champion's Tour. It was hard to move up from the back tees. I have even moved up to the 6400 yard tees. At our member/guest last month I even moved up to the 5600 yard tees. We still only came in second gross. I felt like I cheated. I will be attending my 50th college reunion but am not sure how long I'll last. I suspect there will be a bunch of old people there.

Everyone I play with knows I am a senior golfer. I might be the only one who doesn't know.

[Jeff Schley]

I guess you missed it for it was years ago for you I'm sorry to say.    As soon as you started getting AARP benefits past 50, senior citizen discount at 55, early social security benefits at 62 and full benefits at 65, congratulations you were considered a senior.

However I consider many are working late and consider 65 to be the age of senior citizen in my view.  Although you can still beat golfers half your age I'm sure, which is why we love the game for you can play it and play it well until late in life.

[Peter Pallotta]

Tommy - two thoughts
1. I think it was John Barrymore who said: "A man is old only when his regrets take the place of his dreams'.
2. I've been invited to play Monday with 2 fellows in their late 30s and one in his late 40s, all mid-to-higher handicaps.  They told me what course we're playing and what tees they want to play, i.e. the whites. I looked up the course: the whites play to 5,850 yards.
Which is to say:
1. You're not a senior golfer until you call yourself one, and/or focus on the fact that you used to be play from the tips.
2. There is certainly no shame at all (in a realistic/objective view) with playing at 6450 yards. That's still more golf course than most (younger) golfers can handle, or even choose to handle.
3. Maybe the only reason you came in 2nd place at the member-guest (at 5600 yards) was because there was a member-guest team that was actually better than yours! I mean, maybe if it was 15 years ago and the course was 7000 yards long they'd *still* have beaten you   

[Kevin_Reilly]

Playing in my club's senior member-guest this year for the first time, after ignoring notices about it the last couple of years. 


Comfortable playing regular flex graphite shafts (Recoil 95's) in my irons.


Accepting the fact that my youngest son (17) hits the ball farther than me, and that will never change even if I hit one well and he mis hits one.  That is the toughest one!

[David_Tepper]

2-3 years ago (at age 65-66), when I finally gave up carrying and bought a 3-wheel trolley for my rounds at Dornoch.

[John Cowden]

Within the last year or so (64-65), two distinct things occurred:  it seemed as though I was becoming just a little bit shorter every time I played the game; and, to accommodate a more pleasant walk, I started carrying a Sunday bag with only nine clubs.  It’s still golf. 

[Thomas Dai]

No specific age but a good indication is probably when your son or daughter starts to hit their tee shots past yours. And following the same pattern you become a super-senior when your grandchildren hit their tee shots past yours!
There’s a newish golf category emerging in the U.K., ‘veterans’, although it doesn’t refer to the military. I’m not exactly sure of the age in relation to this category though, maybe it’s different at different clubs?

Atb

[Jon Wiggett]

Up to 18 is junior then through to 25 youth after that senior.


Then super senior, ultra senior,.....

[Rees Milikin]

When you carry a ball retriever and have a suction cup on the end of your putter to pick up your ball.

[Steve Lang]

   I think it was when I realized I had been playing golf for 50 years, I much prefer "seasoned golfer" ...

[Terry Lavin]

I’m 64. “Too young for Medicare and too old for women to care.” Kinky Friedman.

[MCirba]

I won a long drive contest this year just before my 60th birthday in a tournament with about a hundred and sixty golfers, many half my age or less.


Fight fight against the dying of the light.

[Lou_Duran]

when I came to realize that most everyone in the mid single-digit handicap range blasts it by me 30+ yards

when identifying 2 or 3 places to relieve myself during a round is a priority

when 40-50 year-old guys refer to me as "Sir"

when these same guys get strokes, hit approaches from 30+ yards closer, and offer as consolation for the 4-3 thumping the "career round" line

when the cart girl doesn't even bother to flirt with me

when frequently given the false compliment: "I can't believe you are still able to walk and carry your clubs"

when I came to realize that my mind's eye is as bad as the real ones that can't follow a ball more than 100 yards

when I accepted the inevitability of diminishing skills without losing my interest in the game

when I was made aware that complaining about my various ailments before or after the round was not very becoming

when Mike Cirba can most likely outdrive me

[Tommy Williamsen]

when I came to realize that most everyone in the mid single-digit handicap range blasts it by me 30+ yards

when identifying 2 or 3 places to relieve myself during a round is a priority

when 40-50 year-old guys refer to me as "Sir"

when these same guys get strokes, hit approaches from 30+ yards closer, and offer as consolation for the 4-3 thumping the "career round" line

when the cart girl doesn't even bother to flirt with me

when frequently given the false compliment: "I can't believe you are still able to walk and carry your clubs"

when I came to realize that my mind's eye is as bad as the real ones that can't follow a ball more than 100 yards

when I accepted the inevitability of diminishing skills without losing my interest in the game

when I was made aware that complaining about my various ailments before or after the round was not very becoming

when Mike Cirba can most likely outdrive me

The one that really gets me is, "I sure hope I can play like you when I'm your age."

[Tommy Williamsen]

Tommy - 
3. Maybe the only reason you came in 2nd place at the member-guest (at 5600 yards) was because there was a member-guest team that was actually better than yours! I mean, maybe if it was 15 years ago and the course was 7000 yards long they'd   *still have beaten you 

Never thought of that. Novel idea that there are actually people who play better than I do. 

[James Brown]

I am 43 and was delighted that the Washington Metropolitan Golf Association has created a new category for tournaments:  pre-Senior for 45-50. 

[MCirba]

Lou Duran,


Priceless.


It may make you feel better to know that today I walked over 8 Miles and 27 hilly wooded holes in 90 degree heat high humidity with about a million mosquitoes carrying my bag and I'm likely to have West Nile Virus before the week is out.


Beyond that, I faded like a cheap suit in that willtering Heat and shot maybe my worst round in the last 6 months and right now feel like I'm about 80 years old.


When I get home I'm going to jump into a bathtub of Bactine.

[John Kavanaugh]

When the distance from my tits to my belt became less than my handicap.

[John McCarthy]

Yesterday the CDGA sent me an email advising me that my handicap index was 20.2. 


I was a 9 once. 


50 in less than two months. 

[Jeff Schley]

As evidence becoming an older golfer isn't a death sentence, my dad improved his game quite a bit after being retired.  He went from a 15 down to a 9 and his short game is as good as it ever was.  Now at 72 he plays to about a 13 I think.  So certainly you lengthen out a course to 7000 yards and he would struggle, but he is pretty straight so plays for bogey on long par 4's.  Because you can play so much more I think some people's game will improve.

[Robin_Hiseman]

When the distance from my tits to my belt became less than my handicap.

John


I suggest you adopt the metric measurement system. Things will suddenly become 2.54 times better for you.

[Sean_A]

When the distance from my tits to my belt became less than my handicap.

John

I suggest you adopt the metric measurement system. Things will suddenly become 2.471 times better for you.

You sir, are getting cheekier with age.  What awaits us in 10 years time?

Ciao

[Jay Mickle]

With the realization that younger/longer hitters would cry foul if the had to hit driver/hybrid to every green.
[/size]
[/size] Playing #2 with Sean Arble, he was kind enough to move up to the green tees with me. At the end of the round he noted that from that distance the pinch points and other elements of the architecture became relevant.
[/size]
[/size]I continue to walk and carry as that is the game. I am unsure if I would play much if I had to be a cartballer. At 72 I hope that day is still well in the future.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Love responses, and may request permission from Lou to re-use them in a different format.


In all seriousness, I feel I am one now, but have just recently realized it.  Its sort of a long process, accelerated the last few years as I notice my former 255 yard tee shots have dwindled to 225 or less.  Muscle mass slowly declines with age, but it takes the brain a while to figure it out.


In some ways, it starts earlier.  Got to play Pinehurst 2 with Rees after his renovation, and he insisted we all play 6100 yard tees so we could enjoy ourselves.  I did, and then it took me about ten years to realize moving up a tee did make golf fun (hitting mid irons to greens instead of hybrids, etc.)  I started by moving up a tee to accommodate other seniors, D players, grandkids, etc.   For a while, didn't want to admit I just liked playing shorter and shorter courses.  Maybe the final "straw" as it were, was choosing 5700 yards over 6100 yards one day.  Yes, it was cold, ball doesn't travel as far, but I soon realized I was getting pretty good at finding reasons to play at about 6000 yards or even less, the hallmark of senior golfdom, no?

[Joe Hancock]

when I came to realize that most everyone in the mid single-digit handicap range blasts it by me 30+ yards

when identifying 2 or 3 places to relieve myself during a round is a priority

when 40-50 year-old guys refer to me as "Sir"

when these same guys get strokes, hit approaches from 30+ yards closer, and offer as consolation for the 4-3 thumping the "career round" line

when the cart girl doesn't even bother to flirt with me

when frequently given the false compliment: "I can't believe you are still able to walk and carry your clubs"

when I came to realize that my mind's eye is as bad as the real ones that can't follow a ball more than 100 yards

when I accepted the inevitability of diminishing skills without losing my interest in the game

when I was made aware that complaining about my various ailments before or after the round was not very becoming

when Mike Cirba can most likely outdrive me

When number of golf balls gathered during the round is more important than the actual score


When the number of clubs in the bag are an inverted proportion to your age. If I play with 7 clubs now, at age 57, I expect to only be able to carry two around at age 80.....