Older players on the PGA Tour are motivated to continue to play with the "young guys" in preparation for the Champions Tour.

Al Geiberger

This is a little theory of my own based on playing the Senior PGA Tour (now, of course, named The Champions Tour) for many years. Have you noticed that there are instances when several older players play well on the PGA Tour? Hale Irwin, Tom Kite and Tom Watson all had excellent “twilight” years on the PGA Tour. In 1949, a year before going on the Senior Tour, Irwin at age 49 made 19 cuts out of 22 events on the regular Tour with 6 Top Ten finishes and a victory at the MCI Heritage Classic. He earned totaling $814,436 and finished 10th on the PGA Tour’s money list that year. Remember, this is at age 49.

Kite, in 1997 at age 47, made 15 cuts out of 22 events on the regular Tour with 5 Top Ten and 8 Top 25 finishes, earning $631,252 for the year, ranked 35th on the money list.

Tom Watson had three tremendous years on the regular Tour before joining the Senior circuit. In 1996 at age 46, Watson made 14 cuts out of 15 events, earning $761,238, and finished 25th on the regular Tour’s money list. In ’97 at age 47, Watson made 12 cuts of 16 events entered, won $479,146, and ranked 45th on the PGA Tour money list. Then in ’98 at age 48, Watson wins at Colonial for his 34th PGA Tour victory, comes in second twice, and takes home $976,585 (29th) for the year. Not bad for a golfer pushing 50!

Why did all these players come on later in their careers? Because for many of us that played on the PGA Tour, when we grew up we used to think that once you got to 30, you were at your peak, at 35 you started to go down, and at 40 you were over the hill. You were just concerned whether or not you could just scrape on after 40. That was what you were told and that was, to some degree, a mental barrier and a yardstick you went by. Now with the Champions Tour, its tremendous growth and the senior players playing so well, I think a lot of the players on the regular Tour have realized that their career doesn’t end there and realize how well some of the senior players play. So, it’s motivated them that if they keep themselves in shape and keep playing, that they have an advantage over the younger players because they have experience. That’s why you see so many of the older players doing well on the regular Tour now. You used to never see that. It was always the young ones came along and pushed all the rest away.

The Champions Tour is now definitely an incentive for older players on the PGA Tour to play at there best, so when they enter the senior circuit, they are primed and ready to play their best. I know the Champions Tour has been a great uplift for all the senior citizens around the world because it says, “Hey, look how active they can be. Look how well they can play.” There is so much more attention on seniors these days, because so much of our population fits that age group. As I tell all my friends, I am so very thankful for the Champions Tour. It was a rebirth for me, and for thousands of other professional golfers, and millions who watch and are inspired by what these “old men” can do.

Al Geiberger, the one and only original Mr. 59, has 22 PGA and Champions Tour victories. Geiberger is the author of the best seller TEMPO available at your favorite bookstore.