The Wisdom of Age – Lessons from the US Senior Open

It doesn’t take much for pro golfers in their 50s to start sounding downright philosophical

By Jim Bebbington

At the U.S.Senior Open in June at The Broadmoor, many of the game’s top players were escorted from the 18th green and scoring tent straight into the interview tent.

The best questions typically ask them to talk a little about how they feel about performing at this high level at this stage of their careers.

Few other sports give their athletes this opportunity – to continue to compete against each other in front of thousands of fans well past their athletic peaks. So while the players were still dog-fighting for position, they also took the time to dole out some lessons on what success can look like when you get a little older.

#1 ENJOY THE JOURNEY

Padraig Harrington, 53, after his victory, when asked what it meant to win with his wife and one of his sons on-hand: “It’s brilliant when you get to celebrate with your family, especially when my wife is here and one of my kids is here. The other is watching from around the world. But it’s really nice because, as much as I’ve won tournaments back in the day, I didn’t get to enjoy the experience with my kids. They were there for some of them, but they were only little. Now they understand it.

“I suppose that’s another great thing about the Champions Tour and the Senior Tour. It gives us this opportunity to relive our past glories.”

Denver-native Brandt Jobe, 59, after his Sunday round of 73, knocked him back in the field: “Obviously, I enjoyed being here. That was something I really wanted to do. As you get older, you don’t know how many more of these you’re going to play in.

I know I probably won’t make the next one here. I’ve had some success obviously up here at The Broadmoor and the state of Colorado. So to come back and be able ot play this was very enjoyable.”

Harrington: “If you want to win tournaments, you’ve got to be exceptionally fresh and mentally fresh on Sunday. You’ve got to have the least amount of stress all the way you can during the week….I definitely make an effort to enjoy my life on Wednesday night, I went for an In-N-Out burger. I didn’t eat a french fry or a burger for 10, 15 years of my career.

I was all about everything was get the right diet, all that sort of thing. I actually had two double-doubles. You might think that’s not the best in terms of everything should be perfect, but at this stage of my career, I’ve got to enjoy my life out here.”

Harrington: “We’re so much better together at this stage of our careers. Everybody is happier and friendlier. We’re not half as grumpy as we were when we were young guys.

I think, as you get older, you realize that you don’t actually have all the secrets and that you can actually tell everybody everything, and it’s up to them to figure it out too. We’re much more relaxed than– we’re still competitive when we’re on the golf course.

We want to play great golf, but I think the environment around the Champions Tour is really nice. Most of us would have burnt out in golf. You put so much into your golfing career, you burn out. Usually, you last about 20 years. The Champions Tour is a new lease on life.”

Winning at golf can be subtle; come prepared, give it your best shot, and good things may happen. Stewart Cink, 52, after losing by 1 stroke to Padraig Harrington in his first U.S. Senior Open: “This is the first time I’ve played in this one. Having played in quite a few championship events, it feels like the biggest tournament of the year. Rightfully so. The crowd energy and the field is excellent, golf course setup, everything.

I’m proud of the way I hung in there and the way I battled. Fought all the way to the very finish. I stayed in the present and accomplished some of the goals that I have always had for golf tournaments. It does nothing except solidify that my place in senior professional golf is right here at the top.

One day me and Padraig are going to flip places. I’m going ot be getting the trophy, and he’s going to be sitting here talking to you guys.”

Harrington: “You never realize in a tournament, sometimes it’s avoiding bad breaks. It’s not always getting obvious good breaks. Sometimes you might hit a bad shot into a green, and it’s 15 feet underneath the pin, and not realize that everybody who hit a good shot actually bounced past the hole and ended up three-putting.”

#3 SUCCESS IS RARELY ACHIEVED ALONE

Jason Caron, 52, who finished tied for 9th place after a Sunday round of 5-under: “I’m the head golf professional at the Mil River Club in Oyster Bay, New York, which is on Long Island. I’ll be back to work on Tuesday. We have Monday off.
Splitting time out here on the PGA TOUR Champions and working at Mil River – it’s a good balance. My wife works with me, which helps. She can kind of keep me in the loop of what’s going on. I’ve got some great assistants. It’s been working great.”

#4 PLAY YOUR GAME

Mark Hensby, the 54-year-old Australian, who shared the day three lead with Padraig Harrington and Stewart Cink, on how to handle pressure. He started Saturday’s round slowly and was three shots back at one point before rallying: “When you get two great players like that who start off as well as they did, especially Padraig, you kind ofexpect it to a certain extent, but I just felt like l’ve just got to play my game and tryand just dot h e best I can do all day and see what happens. Fortunately, some things started to go my way, got a couple of nice breaks.

#5 DON’T BLAME THE WEATHER

Ernie Els, 55, after a Saturday rain delay, derailed a strong start for him: “We’re not in our 20s anymore, so you stand around for 30, 40 minutes, you feel a little bit different. That’s really the case to me. I could never quite get my driver going. But I’m just making excuses. I just didn’t play good on the back. It’s happened a lot to us, weather conditions, so we just have to deal with that.”

Jim Bebbington is the Director of Content at Colorado AvidGolfer and can be reached at [email protected]

Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram