Life and golf after 50 for players at the U.S. Senior Open
Rob Namnoum
Professional golfers don’t have to retire from competitive golf.
“What do you do when you when you reach the age of 45 to 50? I mean, you have nowhere to go but this is this is great,” says Hall of Fame golfer, Vijay Singh.
The greats continue on the Champions tour.
“You know, when you hear other players retire in other sports, they say the one thing they miss is the camaraderie,” says Bo Van Pelt.
Singh adds, “Past the age of 45, you over the hill a little bit and but this is a you know, it’s a second life for a lot of a lot of players out here.”
Ernie Els adds, “We did our thing back in our heyday. Now we are old and we still want to play competitively.”
It’s a way for them to fulfill any competitive juices they have left.
“Well, I’m not sure how you know, I don’t like running. Yeah. You know, and I don’t think I’ll do that triathlon anytime soon. But yeah, I would have found something. But it’s so nice to have your first love, uh, at this age to still be able to compete and drive yourself crazy every now and again,” says Els.
Singh wonders, “You know, What do you do? I mean, unless you have a business or you have a, you know, golf course design, you know, company or something like that, I mean, you know, you’re not going to go back to a pro shop and start teaching golf. And, you know, and it’s given a lot of, uh, you know, how can I say a good living for a lot of players?”
A good living indeed, compared to when most of these players started out.
“So when you’re 22 and broke and I’m a career million-dollar golfer, and multimillion-dollar golfers out here, there’s a lot less pressure. Yes, we’re not worried about eating tomorrow,” says Ted Purdy.
Their stomachs and pockets may be filled, but being able to compete fills their souls.
“You know, we’ve got our retirement set and all of that set and, you know, we’re pretty comfortable, but we still want to kind of beat each other,” says Els.
Van Pelt adds, “You realize we’re closer to the end than the beginning, because I think that’s the one thing about athletes is like, you don’t ever turn that off and still get that scratch that edge of competitive juice.”
Singh says, “I’ve done it all my life. You know, why stop now right?”