Can senior golfers keep swinging a club in the golden years? Can they return to the sport after years away or take it up as a newbie? Especially if you are moving to an active adult community with access to a golf course, these questions may be on your mind, for you or your partner. Writer Eric Wallace looks at barriers and solutions.
I write a lot about the outdoors. Activities like downhill mountain biking, long-distance backpacking, snowboarding, and whitewater paddling are my bread and butter. But the older I get, the tougher it is to recover from bouts of intense action. The gap between major adventures expands a little each year, while the desire to tackle them takes longer to rekindle.
This was worrying me when I noticed longtime colleague and outdoor adventure writer extraordinaire, Graham Averill, had not only added golf to his repertoire in the wake of turning 50, but had become obsessed with it.
“So I’m wondering,” he wrote in a recent column about Dylan Thomas’s most famous poem, “do I continue to rage against the dying of the light, or do I accept the constraints of my advancing age and take a more graceful approach to the next chapter?”
The answer was simple: Dust off those old golf clubs and hit the links. The more I thought about it, the more the hobby made sense. It offered a way to stay active, spend more time outside, and even make new friends well into one’s twilight years.
Here, I outline some real and perceived barriers that I had to overcome to return to the sport later in life. I also share why I believe the effort was well spent.
Expenses… what expenses?
Most people stereotype the sport as stodgy or wildly expensive, but it doesn’t have to be either of those. There’s a public course about a half-mile from my home in Staunton, Virginia, for instance, where green fees run just over a buck a hole. There’s a another one about five miles down the road that costs $23 a round.
Regulars tend to wear collared shirts, khakis, and name-brand golf shoes. But no one turns a nose at my athletic tee, Columbia stretch shorts, and trail runners.
Yes, you can drop well over $1,000 on a set of shiny, state-of-the-art clubs. A trip to a used equipment store like Play It Again Sports, however, can land you a slightly older iteration of the equipment for less than $200. Online auction sites like eBay can also bring great deals.
If you know where to look, “affordable golf is actually easy to find,” Averill wrote in a recent story for Outside Magazine. “I play twice a week, mostly on public courses that are cheap and built over repurposed farmland.”
Learning curve for returning and new senior golfers
I played a ton of rounds at my local country club as a middle and high schooler. Then other interests intervened, and I doubt I so much as swung an iron more than a dozen times in the next 25 years.
Was getting back into the literal swing of things hard? Yes and no. I chose to work out the kinks at a small, outdoor driving range that sits about 20 minutes from my house. They’re a BYOB-friendly operation and boast incredible views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I’m a competitive guy. Those factors, I thought, would help mitigate any frustration I felt while knocking off the rust.
It took exactly one swing to realize my body was not happy about the obligatory hard twist that drives the sport. Years of injuries and unnecessary falls had taken their toll. I’d obviously need to adapt a stretching routine to limber up.
“You get into your mid-40s and your ability to physically play the way you used to begins to diminish,” writes chiropractor Dr. Patrick Mahoney for Grey Dog Golf, a website that specializes in helping seniors navigate reentry into or taking up the sport. “A dynamic warm-up routine is vital to prepare the body for the physical demands.”
Mahoney goes on to outline a wonderful list of pre-round exercises and stretches that help protect against injury and maximize enjoyment. As a bonus: The habit could net you a longer, healthier life.
Next came reining in my swing. Lack of practice and the aforementioned bodily abuse had made it much harder to execute. Lessons with a local enthusiast or club pro can help. But online outlets like Grey Dog are chock full of videos and how-to articles that can help you adapt to the physical changes brought by time and play your best game.
Related: Relieving Wrist Pain from Swing Sports
Walking is good
Walking is great for your overall health, and it grants a wealth of other benefits, too, from boosting immune function and easing joint pain to reducing the risk of breast cancer and taming your sweet tooth. Seniors Guide has reported on great ways to help you reach that goal – and golf is an under-the-radar but efficient solution.
While most players boat around in motorized carts, it isn’t mandatory. The United States Golf Association estimates an average 18-hole course is about 6,100 yards long. Walk it and you’ll reap the benefits. Golf Monthly contributor Mark Townshend writes that, when you factor in strolls to and from tees and zigzags across fairways, you’ll likely tally more than 15,000 steps—or 6.5 miles.
Up the challenge factor by carrying your bag, playing faster rounds, or taking on hillier courses. If the weight is uncomfortable, a pull-behind cart can ease the strain.
Enjoy the air
Let’s face it, golf courses tend to be scenic. The art of landscaping is front and center, with manicured stands of high trees, groves of mature forests, white islands of sand, tiered layers of grass, and shapely ponds or creeks. But it goes beyond that, offering physical and mental benefits of time outdoors.
The neighborhood course I mentioned earlier, for instance, unfurls across high hillsides that bring incredible views of the city. My favorite regional cheapie flows across a blunted ridgeline above the Blue Ridge Parkway. Most shots from tee boxes and fairways are paired with 2,400-foot vistas of the George Washington National Forest and Shenandoah National Park. Fresh mountain air and bird songs abound.
With that kind of eye candy, it’s hard to get upset about a botched shot. And hey, I’m no pro, so I take a mulligan whenever I want.
