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TGGS
Administrator
USA
2140 Posts |
 Posted - 10/14/2007 : 20:53:33
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Old Men on the Tee.
Old men play golf differently than the rest of us. Some play it well and some play it poorly but, as a class, their journey from the first tee to the last is worth studying. You can both improve your score and deepen the game's pleasures by paying attention when the elders lace up their spikes.
My own education began in a foursome that included three artificial joints: two hips and a knee. The orthopedic hardware was bolted to the bones of three men in their eighties, all residents of a gated community in Florida that includes my wife's mother. I joined them for a round during an annual holiday visit.
They eyed me warily as I walked toward them with the starter. I learned later that my own age was almost a deal breaker. As a reasonably fit "kid" of fifty, they feared I might disrupt the octogenarian rhythms of their round. We exchanged greetings, handicaps, picked teams and teed off. What followed was a post-graduate education in good manners, good fellowship and, in the end, what's so good about the game.
Like many retirees, they drove flamboyant golf carts: custom paint jobs, sound systems, flashy hood ornaments. There was the unmistakable echo of the Chryslers and Cadillac's they drove fifty years ago. One, apparently the group's quartermaster, had a year's supply of pencils and scorecards at the ready, wrapped in rubber bands and meticulously arranged in what, otherwise, appeared to be a medicine cabinet: Advil, prescription meds, band-aids, tubes of mentholated muscle cream, disinfectant and multiple grades of sun block. Sir Edmund Hillary conquered Everest with fewer provisions. Clearly, this would be no ordinary round of golf. This was a pilgrimage and the lessons unfolded on every fairway.
Golf Cartography - Old guys frequently have an encyclopedic knowledge of the natural world. After all, they've spent seven or eight decades walking around in it. If you're lucky, they'll map out the golf course for you, its landmarks, landscape and wildlife. Learning that your ball has come to rest under a "bougainvillea" and not a generic "bush" may be small consolation but it will better connect you to the golf course and, as the details accumulate, sharpen your appreciation of its architecture. Knowing that the bird cart-wheeling overhead is an American kestrel can turn an out-of-bounds tee shot into an occasion of wonder. Stop counting strokes and give more thought to the canvas you 're playing on.
There's No Swing Like An Old Swing - Their swings are miraculously constructed. In the best of them, there's a hint of the 50's Ben Hogan; in the worst, an homage to the same decade's Bob Hope. In all of them, you'll see ingenious compensations for body parts that don't work quite as well as they used to. Their swings aren't uniformly pretty but they're predictably consistent and give new meaning to the term "muscle memory". Remember, they've been tutoring their neuromuscular junctions since Ike was in the White House. Because their testosterone is taking flight, they worship at the altar of timing and tempo more than young Turks do. During your next round, genuflect with them and watch your score improve.
Splendor in the Grass: Because they grew up during America' first mass exodus to the suburbs, these guys love to landscape. They repair divots and rake bunkers unfailingly. They minister to ball! marks on the green as if they were bruises on a granddaughter's arm. They know, from the hard-won experience of guarding their own health, that living things need looking after. Whether you play at a private club or a pockmarked muni, leave every golf hole in better shape than you found it.
Take a Lesson - Remember, you're in the presence of men who have stopped punching the clock and can still afford a tee time. They have more or less successfully retired. They may not be able to lead you to the next Google, but any elder foursome can be full of sage advice on money, marriage and generally managing your life. Ask them about their lives and careers, turning points and blunders. Take notes.
The Wonders of the Wager: With their business careers behind them, a golf wager awakens a slumbering will to win. It is a kind of business deal, isn't it? Strokes are ferociously negotiated and the stakes, typically small, are agreed upon. They started playing golf when Byron Nelson ruled the sport and a buck was still a buck. It's not about the cash, it's about the contest and the unspeakable pleasure of extracting another ten spot from the flinty, New Englander they've been playing with since 1975. Bet smart, bet small, and play fiercely down the stretch.
The Killer Short Game - Every golfer has had a $5 Nassau slip from his grasp as some old guy gets up and down on a crucial hole. This is their wheelhouse, where they swallow the indignity of being out-driven by seventy yards, offer a sly wink and go one-up on the match. Because they're on life's final lap, they know that how you start matters less than how you finish. Inside 20 yards, this wisdom is decisive. It doesn't hurt, of course, to have memorized every subtle swale on the golf course and they have ! . If you 're lucky enough to meet one of these masters of the short game, share a beer with him after the round and pick up a tip or two.
Enjoy the Journey - When you tee it up with a man in his eighties, you might well be witness to his final round. As fit a fellow as he seems, the basic laws of probability insist that next week's foursome may be a man short and he knows it. I thought more than once when one of my foursome made his way to the bottom of a bunker that he may never come out. And that he might not mind that at all.
This must explain, in some measure, the simple joy they take in the journey. They generally play without anger or angst and, in an age of ball caps worn backwards and brawling basketball teams, they'll connect you to a gentler time.
They are the game's true historians and the keepers of its enduring civility. That golf remains such a grand, old game is largely thanks to the grand, old men who continue to play it.
AMEN!
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Tim Graves, PGA
timg@swinglikemoe.com |
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ejltamu49
Moderator
USA
89 Posts |
Posted - 10/14/2007 : 21:25:25
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 AMEN |
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nwnatural
USA
555 Posts |
Posted - 10/14/2007 : 22:13:50
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To my favorite Octogenarian, ED (ejltamu49), Thank you!!!! No wonder you want to play Riverbend all the time.
Thanks Tim for sharing, we should all take the time to smell the roses. I can attest to Ed's short game thats for sure. |
Hal
2007 Moe Memorial #3
GGA Alumni
2008 3 day school
2008 Moe Memorial #4 |
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edmp
USA
1514 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2007 : 05:34:11
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Why at 60 do I appreciate this more than I did at 30 ? What a great game we play!
Thanks Tim,
Chuck
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TGGS
Administrator
USA
2140 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2007 : 10:20:58
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There are so many to list... especially when you "lived" at a golf course much of your life....
1. "Stormy" Williams - now at least 90... (and still playing golf..) - remember hitting 100s of balls with Stormy in a park down the street from his house... amazing guy....
2. Romie Holder - in his 80s now... Amazing player.
I actually picked Romie as a partner (when I could pick any Amateur) when he was in his 70s... we beat up on all the "flat bellies" as Rommie called them.. they were in shock watching Romie's short game... I'd be 10 feet from the hole for birdie - Romie would be 20+ - I didn't even need to get out of the cart....
Romie had more of a chance to chip in then not get up and own.... Learned a ton from Romie.
To name a couple....
Tim Graves, PGA
timg@swinglikemoe.com |
Tim Graves, PGA
timg@swinglikemoe.com |
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edmp
USA
1514 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2007 : 15:22:27
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Guys,
As syncronicity would have it,the current (Nov 2007) Golf Digest has a story on page 132 "Young at Heart" it's about golfers ranging from mid 90's to over 100 yrs young and still playing. my favorite is Elsie Mc Lean 102 yrs young from Calif. I quote: "I never did anything to stay healthy. I drink lots of coffee and eat lots of salt. They say you shouldn't eat too much of it or you won't live a very long time.Well how come I've lived to be 102? If you want to keep playing golf, you have got to enjoy yourself,quit complaining about your aches and pains and stay away from doctors."
Hows that for an alert attitude of indifference?!! This story is worth the price of the issue.
Chuck |
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edmp
USA
1514 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2007 : 15:37:00
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| P.S. Sorry my other favorite is fom Ed Ervasti 93 London Ontario :"When people ask me did you shoot your age today? I always say-if I ever play that badly I will quit."LOL |
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straightshot
USA
110 Posts |
Posted - 10/16/2007 : 08:32:44
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Thanks Tim!
I passed the story on to about eight of my golfing buddies (some are now in their seventies) and they loved it.
John |
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cfabbot
USA
106 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2007 : 09:06:44
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| Brought a tear to my eyes! Actually, I play with a bunch of these old gentlemen...many of which have lived through, and fought in, past wars. To say that some of them are grizzled would be an understatement. Yet, I sit, watch, laugh, and thoroughly enjoy their shenanigans, their repartee before and after the round, and amaze at the sheer smoothness of their golf game. The best of these golfers have a swing that is unforced, easy, smooth, and obviously been done for many years. They play jokes on each other .. e.g., the other day one of the golfers, who is known to move his ball marker closer to the cup when he marks his ball, was presented with a huge frisbee as a ball marker. They don't like what he does but they make light of it. And life goes on..... |
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roadrunner
USA
14 Posts |
Posted - 10/31/2007 : 09:34:13
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Tim:
What a magnificent literary effort! I really appreciate the wisdom as expressed here, and the encouragement to adjust my style and expectations as I approach the category to which you refer. And the way of expressing the source's thoughts is really priceless.
Bob
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Bob |
Edited by - roadrunner on 10/31/2007 09:41:55 |
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whschwoob
1 Posts |
Posted - 10/31/2007 : 14:55:57
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| Just one suggestion. The old guys should include some aspirin in their survival kit. I was playiing with a partner who had a heart attack on the 11th green this summer. He had aspirin in his bag and managed to get me to find two pills for him. Later on at the hospital we were told the pills probably saved his life. |
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Just Woods and Wedges
USA
200 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2007 : 12:39:44
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Tim,
Nicely stated. May I suggest that you send this vignette of senior golf to Golf Digest or some other widely circulated golf publication so more golfers can share it?
Just Woods and Wedges |
Irons? Irons!? I don't need no stinkin' irons! |
Edited by - Just Woods and Wedges on 11/03/2007 12:40:36 |
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Received from an Alumni - "Old Man on the Tee"
