Fitness Counts

Got Any Golfing Goals?

Last week I played my first round of golf this Spring. My talented, somewhat golf-obsessed, brother invited me out on one of the first sunny days we’ve had. I stumbled around looking for my ball, while he posted a respectable 84.

He improved on that his next two times out with a 79 & 78. “Game feels pretty good for 64 years old,” he said. I’d say that’s better than “pretty good” and it got me thinking about golf & age.

Older, serious golfers often have a goal of “scoring their age”. It’s a tremendously difficult feat to finish a par 72 course in 72 strokes as a 72 year old. A quick Google search suggests that only about 1% of golfers ever do that – and I’m guessing that’s 1% of serious golfers, not hackers like me.

Arnold Palmer was the last PGA professional to score his age. He marked a 1-under par 71 when he was 71 years old in 2001.

Arnie kept going from there. Palmer didn’t retire from PGA / Senior PGA events until he reached age 74 and played in his 50th Master’s Tournament. Jerry Barber is the oldest PGA golfer to tee up in a tournament. He was 77 years old in 1994. By comparison, the great Jack Nicklaus hung up his golf spikes at a relatively young 65. Bernard Langer was also 65 when he became the oldest player to ever win an event on the Senior PGA Tour.

I set goals for a lot of activities in my life, but not for golf. They say “a bad attitude is worse than a bad swing,” and my attitude is better if I don’t keep score. I just cheerfully hack my way around the course, enjoying a few good shots. I won’t ever shoot my age, but it sure is wonderful to be out on a sunny Spring day.

How is your golf game? Are you still competitive as you get older?

Image: (c) MrFireStation.com

9 thoughts on “Got Any Golfing Goals?”

    1. Terrific article & great guy. Such gratitude. I saw that ceremonial tee-off a few weeks ago. He really nailed it.

      Regarding fitness, I agree with his comment: “The gym is important but only a quarter as important as undereating”. You need to do both, but America is fat mostly because we eat too much. I worked for a packaged food MegaCorp and see it in my own life.

      Ice bath in the morning?
      No thanks!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. There is an old saying that for some reason isn’t advertised by gyms when they are trying to sell you a membership. “Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym.”

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      2. Here is same back story on eating less and taking ice baths. When I was at The UW, I worked part time taking care of instrumentation at the Veterinary Sciences Department on the farm that was across the street from CUNA. Dr. Weindruch was doing research on calorie restriction adequate nutrition CRAN first on rats, then on dogs and they were just starting testing on longer lived rhesus monkeys. Reducing calories is a good stressor that increasing longevity by 40%. The research animals actually get greyer later and have less age related diseases. Researchers are now trying to find therapies that mimic CRAN without the calorie restriction, to help those with less discipline. Intermittent fasting where eating is limited to an eight window is one method.

        https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/science/10aging.html

        Ice baths were used by Russian weightlifters before the advent of steroids to elevate their T-level by soaking certain parts of their body associated with Testosterone production in an ice bath. It also increases your available dopamine level while reducing cortisol. Since you are tricking your body into regulating its own hormones in a different manner, this mechanism doesn’t cause the negative feedback loop associated with steroids.

        You don’t actually have to take an ice bath. Take a three minute shower with only the cold water turned on. Any temperature at or below 60 degrees is enough to trigger the response. If you can’t stand 3 minutes, start off at a minute and work your way up. It feels horrible while doing it, but you will like how you feel afterwards.

        https://icebathlifestyle.com/cold-exposure-dopamine/

        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9518606/

        Gary Player was really ahead of his time and must be a student of health. Good stressors make you stronger.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Well, you learn something new every day. That’s new learning for me. It’s funny – I’ve seen athletes taking ice baths on TV, but I never once even wondered why they were doing that. I thought it just helped their muscles like an ice pack, or something. Now I see there is an interesting science behind it. Does living in frigid Minnesota count to some degree as cold weather therapy?! 🥶❄️⛄️

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      1. This is interesting. Gary Player’s ice baths are not so odd after all.

        Here is another thought. The Finns who settled Northern Wisconsin brought the tradition of saunas and then jumping into a frozen pond with a hole opened into it. They went from super hot saunas to jumping in a hole opened in a frozen pond. I actually had customer who moved from N. Wisconsin to Minneapolis and he told me his family actually did this when he was growing up. I think the Swedish may have done this as well.

        Sounds like you SIL has rediscovered old Scandinavian health care.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. My brother does that in Turtle Lake WI. We’re not Scandinavian, but he built a sauna and jumps in the lake!

        Liked by 1 person

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