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November 07, 2005
Old guys make good
I have to tip my hat to a couple of guys of a certain age who distinguished themselves on the PGA Tour this weekend. Highest honors go to Bart Bryant, who shot four rounds in the 60s en route to a six-shot win in the Tour Championship. Bryant, who was always a great ball striker but until recently underachieved because of poor putting, picked up his third PGA Tour win in the past 14 months with his victory at the Tour Championship. The part I like is that Bryant is about five months older than I am. Although Vijay Singh (a few weeks older than yours truly) has fallen out of the #1 spot in the world rankings, he and Bryant are proof positive that life does not end at 42!
The other elder-statesman overachiever was Loren Roberts, who didn't quite manage to win the Southern Farm Bureau Classic, but by finishing tied for second, won enough money to move up from 126th place on the money list and secure his tour card for next year. Roberts, having turned 50 this year and debuted successfully on the Champions Tour, now has the ability to write his own ticket next year, with full exemptions on both tours. I was hoping he'd win the Southern Farm Bureau and become the second senior-tour player to win on the regular tour -- but even without a win, his strong showing was a good sign, for those of us with more and more gray hairs becoming visible when we look in the mirror.
Why is it that in recent years, more older guys have been doing well on the PGA Tour? I think it's because of the Champions Tour (known as the senior tour to everyone who doesn't work for the PGA). It used to be that as professional golfers got on into their 40s, they began to realize that the end of the line was coming, so they'd lighten up their playing schedule and probably not practice as much, as they recognized the inevitable. With rare exceptions (e.g., Sam Snead, who still holds the record for oldest player to win a PGA Tour event, which he accomplished at 52), this was the pattern.
The senior tour has followed an interesting pattern. When it first came into being in 1980, it was basically a nostalgia tour -- a bunch of famous has-beens, most of whom still had some game but who were nowhere near competitive with the young guys anymore, having some fun playing tournaments for a nostalgic audience. As the tour matured a bit, players who had retired from active competition in their early to mid-40s would start getting their games in shape as they got to 48 or 49, in anticipation of some big paydays available if they could compete on the senior tour. And finally, in more recent years, it's reached the point where you get guys who didn't have to "come out of retirement" at all, because they never retired in the first place. Which leads to more competitiveness -- and more wins -- by the quadragenarian contingent on the regular tour. That's why guys like Roberts, Craig Stadler, Jay Haas, and Peter Jacobsen have done so well -- they never put the clubs away to begin with, so when they hit 50, they hit the ground running. And why you have more players like Stadler, Roberts, and Tom Kite, playing events on both tours.
We have some disagreement, in the Kafalas.com household, as to whether this is a good thing. I think it is -- and I love to see guys like Bruce Fleisher and Allen Doyle, who never made much noise on the regular tour, enjoying stellar careers after 50. Meg liked it better when the senior tour really was more of a nostalgia tour -- more fun, more joking around with the crowd, the occasional sabre dance after sinking a putt, and that sort of thing. Take your pick.
Posted by Urbie at November 7, 2005 08:33 AM