Getting Older Is Killing My Golf Game, Or What Is Left Of It

Lately my golf game has taken quite a dive. the mental aspect is a real struggle lately. I know what I want to do, but pulling it off is another story. I am having a hard time adjusting to this next stage in my life. The issue is too real. I really hope it is just an adjustment issue?

I sucked my whole life, golf in the 60's is about the same, lol

I'm pushing 70, four fused discs in my neck, so my game is not even close to where it was 10 years ago. My mind writes checks my body can't cash.

Yeah, I’m seeing that every golfer goes through this once and maybe twice. First when you have significant distance loss, and again when you become the old guy who hits driver, 4 wood on every hole. The sooner you accept it, the sooner you can start enjoying the game again.

So move up and/or take more club, and have fun.

I have a golf buddy who has similar issues with concentration. He takes a bunch of medications (blood thinners, high blood pressure, blood sugar). He's pretty sure one or more of them is the problem, but not taking them isn't an option. Concentration aside, he has a lot more fun when he plays from a much shorter yardage.

Look at the bright side ... YOU CAN STILL PLAY !!!!

I say this because my uncle who is now in his 80's had to give up golf completely about 5 years ago and it was devastating to him. He had played the game of golf for nearly 60-years and played almost every single day for many of those years .. he absolutely loved the game, he lived for golf and he made adjustments as he got older (senior shafts, playing senior tee's, lower compression ball etc) he enjoyed the game as he got older no matter if he shot an 85 or a 105 .. he was always positive

He lost his eyesight is why he had to give the game up

just enjoy golf, it's a wonderful sport that many of us can enjoy nearly our entire life like my uncle did. Yes we won't be able to hit those 275yd drives when we are 70yrs old or shape shots like we did when we were younger or be putting for eagles on par 5's

BUT WE CAN STILL PLAY !

I'm 76 now and the envy of my friends as i can still walk the 18 holes. Oh yeah, here everyone has a caddy pulling the trolley but the heat is extreme, 100* many days.

Grateful indeed.

Will be different for everyone, but I'm 72 and things have not changed much.

Handicap and distances pretty much the same.

Of course I haven't played much in the past 5 months so who knows.

I was fairly long in my youth. Have lost about two clubs in length. Through the miracle of modern technology and modern lofts, it's only one club length. My back is stiff and my ss is way down. Hitting more fairways and greens than I ever have.

Still miss popping it out there 260+

Since I retired 10 years ago at 58 I’ve become a much more efficient and smart player. I’ve lost a little distance but really not enough to make a difference at 6400-6500 yards that I’m comfortable at. I’ll occasionally play from longer tees but why do that other than to keep a foursome together.

Actually, all of my bucket-list moments have come post retirement. The only one remaining is to shoot a bogey-free round which is elusive to me. I’ve gone as low as -5 but still had a bogey. Thankfully I’m healthy and active which helps. Other than walking 18 twice a week I still take of horses which includes bucking 100 lb hay bales. It does take longer to recover from dings and dents, but for now I’m going to enjoy golf as long as I can as I know eventually the ability to score will diminish. That being said just the other week I got whooped by a guy who is 83 in league play. He played from the reds but I don’t think that made a big difference.

I think I posted this a few months ago.

I’m wintering in Arizona and playing mostly with guys in their 70s and 80s. I’m paying close attention because At 62 I hope to be proactive about this. The guys whose games age the worst are the ones who have always used a mad slasher swing. The ones who play better have smooth (but short) swings.

A cardinal sin I see in the struggling golfers is trying to make more turn or backswing than they are able to. That’s the opposite of the good short, smooth swings. Whether you work on flexibility and mobility or not, find the point where your turn begins to cause bad moves. Stop there. IMO.

Hey, it sucks to get old, but any day you can get out there and play is a good day!

I played with a guy once who was hunched over, had a little puff of white hair and had a bag full of woods and hybrids. He barely hit it out of his shadow, but kept it moving down the fairway. He never took a practice swing, so he played quickly.

After a few holes, I said that I hoped I'd be able to play like him when I got to be his age.

Turned out that he was two years younger than me.

LMFAO

change to weaker shafts...higher lofts...get lessons. make sure your fundamentals are spot on. work out, get flexible and strong..you can buy another 5 years

68 in a few months. Over the past 10 years life and arthritis helped drive my handicap from a 6 to a 16. Couple years ago I started working with PT to improve flexibility, resumed walking my golf rounds, switched to graphite senior shafts and most importantly tried to focus on smarter golf (reducing 3 putts, fat chips, bad sand play and penalties from bad drives). All of these efforts have brought the index back down to 12. My goal has been to get back to a single digit index. Guess time will tell on the reaching the goal, but I am happy to have pushed bogey golf back for at least a few more years!

I could not agree more with Monte.

I will be 76 in a couple of weeks and still play to a low handicap. Age emphasizes swing faults, as Monte says. In my case I had swing faults as well as chronic back issues from golf, and it caught up with me. I took up the Jimmy Ballard swing method because it is a sound method and is back-sparing - one of several methods that can be good for seniors. It took a lot of work to fix my swing problems and adapt to Ballard principles. I also adopted a simple exercise program that I do at home, without the need for special equipment, that is focused on maintaining strength and flexibilty in my golf muscles.

platgolf, start working on the next phase of your life. There’s a lot of golf left in those old bones, or I miss my guess. ;-)

I've played with guys in their 70's and even early 80s that walked 18 holes almost everyday. Maybe my outlook will change when it's my time but I see them and think to myself that I hope I can do that when I am their age.

I do play with a guy who is 60 and hits it over 300 yards... i sure hope i can do that in 7 years.

Weights, Cardio, Yoga. That last one is a big one. I don't particularly enjoy doing it but it definitely delivers results.

That’s a goal that I think is going to bring you disappointment. I play with a lot of seniors who are anywhere from plus handicap to high single digit, and some are very powerful hitters, and none of them comes close to hitting 300 yards drives on a consistent basis. I think it’s a bad goal, actually, because you probably won’t be able to do it, and then you will be discouraged. Distance is so over-rated for the typical amateur player. My handicap is a much better indicator of what sort of player I am, as I age, than how far I hit the ball. Not to say that distance isn’t important. It is. And I do everything I can to maintain good distance. And once you can’t hit it 230 or more you can’t play scratch golf from a pure distance standpoint. But, measuring one’s self by the ability to maintain humongous (and unnecessary) distance is almost certain to cause discouragement as life goes on.

Well said.

If there is there is a 60 yr old truly hitting it 300 yds, he is an outlier of the first magnitude. I'm 67 and play a LOT of senior tournaments at the state and local level; nobody is hitting it that far. For that matter, nobody on the Champions Tour averaged 300 last year; nobody. And when you get outside the Top 20, none of them are even averaging 280; think about that a minute.

At 53 I have decided to actually try to get longer off the tee, improve my mobility, etc. It's an interesting experiment - haha.... It's a lot to tackle because it, in my case, requires both an improvement in my swing sequence AND improved mobility. I'm actually improving. But I wish I would have started 50 years ago... I've retained good strength over the years, but that alone isn't enough. Tough game... I know I still have some tread left on my tires and I hope to enjoy it. Football certainly didn't help.

The things that have been tough for me are not what I expected. Age 60 now, index between 3 & 4 “Back in the day”of balata and persimmon I was was a plus capper. As expected I have lost speed, ball speed down around 155- 160 from the mid 170’s in my mid 40’s. My putting was the first to go, 2-3 footers yipped under pressure. Recovery from mysterious injuries take forever. (Sleeping wrong). Although I am in much better shape, I am not nearly as strong as when I weighed nearly 300. My swing which was a stack up of compensations based on a weak grip, stall and flip is now impossible since I no longer have the coordination or balance to pull it off. Finally I have arthritis issues which are episodic, and primary impacts my hands. I can go from breaking par to unable to hit the ball in a couple days just because of swollen hands. Also age has not brought me wisdom with regards to golf. I still try to pull off shots that I am not capable of anymore. I still enjoy the game and a fix is always just around the corner.

I am 63 last 2-3 years my HC went up 7-8 shots bad mobility injuries and the like and I became the guy Monte refers to in his post. Saw Monte when he was in Seattle last summer and I had almost zero turn because I was adding flex to right leg in my backswing. Back when I was playing decent I had too much Knee flex but I compensated well enough to Score. Monte gave me a few different feels one that worked for me was straightening the right leg and turn my chest to him. ( he was behind me looking DTL ). 2-3 swings later I was hitting 8 iron 160 yards the couple next to me stopped and were amazed by the sound of the strike and flight of ball. Monte didn't use anything but his phone the change was obvious. The best part is that as I continued to hit balls I could tell him when I reverted back too flexing right knee in BS .

Maybe it's my kidney stone talking, but it irks me when a guys starts a thread soliciting advice and then never responds to anything.