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On
the Back Nine, Eyeing a New Target By John Briley Luther Davis is 71, and when he swings a golf club his shots sail forward. Almost without fail, they head straight down the fairway toward the green. But whenever the ball goes farther than 100 yards, Davis needs help finding it; his fading eyesight can track the small sphere only so far. Tony Brito, 70, a golfing buddy of Davis's, offers help: "Don't worry, Luth, I saw where it went. So I'll play your ball and you can play mine. Mine only went 50 yards." Davis and Brito play at Rock Creek Golf Course in Northwest Washington almost daily, with a group that includes Vic Hopkins, 65, Rich Abelmann, 74, and Lee Jones, "70 plus." For this quintet, the habit is more than just a casual hobby. For one thing, they usually shoot around 90 or below for 18 holes, something most players half their age would be happy to accomplish on the par 71 course. But the games also help each man stay active socially, mentally and physically. From a physical health standpoint, golf is hardly a silver bullet. Most older players use carts and so don't reap the benefits of walking the course. Unlike, say, swimming or weight training, the golf swing doesn't build muscle. On the other hand, the game can help sustain or sharpen hand-eye coordination, flexibility and balance. But for many senior golfers, the most important benefits transcend the physiological, providing a channel for mental focus and competitive energy, and the invaluable camaraderie of mingling with contemporaries. And even when it's not social, some older golfers cannot stay away. For example, Pete Stathes, 84, plays Rock Creek every day, sometimes alone, weather be damned. "He's either out here in a winter coat or no shirt at all," says Jason Discini, head golf pro at Rock Creek. Stathes, he said, rode the cart a bit during last summer's heat wave, but playedshirtless through the unforgiving weather. Stathes shoots around par and uses a bent putter wrapped in duct tape -- the same putter he's been using since the Nixon administration. Alex Lively, the golf pro at the Leisure World retirement community in Silver Spring, recalls Ethel McCormick, who had knee replacement surgery at age 95 and played two more years -- frequently shooting scores at or below her age -- before passing away in the late 1990s. Stathes and McCormick might not represent the field -- golf participation among seniors over age 70 actually declined between 1995 and 2000, from 1.6 million to 1.47 million, according to the National Golf Foundation -- but they are testament to the importance some seniors put on golf as a pillar of their well-being. Hang around any local course for a few hours, especially around the middle of workdays, and the senior contingent is evident. After playing nine holes with Davis and company at Rock Creek, I bump into Cliff Brown, 80, another regular. "I play to relax," says Brown, who has been golfing for 60 years. "I remember when East Potomac Park had sand greens and we played with hickory-handled clubs." He says he continues to learn new tricks, like how to adjust his hands to intentionally push a shot left to right. Langston Golf Course in Northeast Washington has its Monday Morning Club, a group of about 30 men age 75 and older, the oldest in his nineties. "They're all pretty good," says Ernest Andrews, a Langston employee. "Most of 'em shoot between 90 and 110." But the scorecard isn't what brings them out, Andrews says. It's the sense of being part of something at an age when such opportunities have long since dwindled. "It really gives them something to look forward to," he says. Five years ago, the Senior Golfers Association of America (SGAA) started a "Legendary Seniors" tournament with a minimum age of 80. Among the contestants at a recent tournament at Sea Island, Ga., was Ed Rehmann, a 91-year-old Texan. SGAA Executive Director Bob Swanson reports that Rehmann refused to hit from the forward tees, the ones closest to the hole, as Legendary Seniors are permitted. "He hit from the middle tees and still shot his age -- a 91," Swanson says. SGAA also runs "Super Senior" tournaments for players age 70 to 80. The organization does not host activities in the Washington area, but it does hold events in Williamsburg, Va., and Hershey, Pa. Swanson calls the older players "very competitive. They fight like hell." And, he says, the benefits to the players are apparent. "You stay healthy if you have something to look forward to. These people really look forward to the tournaments. For the party afterwards, we always bring in a swing band to play 1940s music, and we make the men wear tuxedos and the ladies put on formal gowns. It really is something special for them." Jonathan Klein, a geriatric care physician in Falls Church, says seniors could get the physical health benefits of golfing from numerous activities, including walking, but, "the key benefit of golf is the socialization. When all your friends are dying or disabled, you go out on the golf course and find other people your age doing the same thing. That's a lot more beneficial overall than a boring walk." Klein reports that his patients who play golf seem healthier than his other patients, but he acknowledges that the golfers were healthy before they became old, and golfing into their late years is not the cause of their good health. "It is precisely because they are active and in good shape that they can golf," he notes. The Rock Creek crew exemplifies that point, bringing a youthful enthusiasm to the golf course. Abelmann's eyes light up when he lands a 140-yard five-iron shot on the green. Hopkins nods firmly when he sends a drive 220 yards toward the pin. Brito, after watching a seven-foot putt by Davis rim outDIAPHRAM of the hole, shakes his head: "Wasn't even close." It is clear that the ritual -- they gather every weekday morning between 10 and 11 -- is as therapeutic to these guys as is their ability to send 80 percent of their tee shots down the middle of the fairway. One day Hopkins shows up even though a sore shoulder prevents him from playing. Asked why they play -- the same holes, the same guys, day after day -- most offer the same answer. "Oh, it's just something to do," Hopkins tells me. A healthy outlook, especially considering that at some point no amount of practice will forestall the effects of aging. "They don't get better [at golf] at that age," says SGAA's Swanson. "Even if they play all the time." Bobby Duvall, a physical therapist at Club Golf Fitness Center, a Gaithersburg facility dedicated to golfer health and fitness, is slightly more optimistic. "There are no age limits to improving, but patterns of movement ingrained over a lifetime are hard to break," he observes. The seniors who best manage to keep golfing, he says, are those who focus on general strength and flexibility training -- i.e., regular weight lifting and stretching exercises. "These people realize they need balance, strength and flexibility," so they commit to an exercise regimen, Duvall says. "You spend a lot of energy swinging a golf club, believe it or not, and it takes time for the muscles to recover. Being in shape helps a lot." Common golf-related injuries among seniors include lower back strain and shoulder, elbow and wrist maladies. "Among older people, these are usually due to a failure to get the lower body involved," Duvall notes. "Seniors lose flexibility, especially in their hips, and they try to compensate by swinging harder with their upper body. We teach them to separate the parts of the body, which allows them to swing the club faster with less upper body effort and generate longer shots." Interestingly, Duvall sees the biggest and quickest gains in people who have been relatively inactive before coming to him: They have not yet approached their performance peak because they haven't even tried. And there are no bad habits to exorcise. Duvall holds that golf's primary physical health benefit for older folks is the motivation it provides them to stay in shape. He estimates that about 6 percent to 8 percent of his 350 members are over 65, and most of them come to him to learn what they need to do to stay fit enough to keep playing and, hopefully, improving. But he has seen bodies too decrepit to golf. "When you get severe degeneration in the spine -- significant curvature, for example -- or severe arthritic conditions in other joints, there is only so much you can do to improve it." Duvall and other fitness experts offer no suggestions for what may be golf's most daunting side effect: "This addiction is worse than heroin," says Doc Wilson, 61, from the clubhouse at the Leisure World golf course. Wilson, who practiced law in Potomac for 20 years, has been playing golf since he was 10, which may explain his even-par game. Short, stout and looking his age, Wilson is a Southerner by birth and pride ("150 years ago I would've been wearing gray, and I say that even knowin' what happened," he drawls). With us are Jeff Lawrence, 71, and Charles Marcus, 76. Wilson's drives leap off the tees, straight and sure. He is always on or near the green two shots before he needs to be in the hole. And after sinking his putts for par, which he does about 17 times per round, he retrieves the ball without stooping down, courtesy of a rubber suction cup on the handle end of his putter, a necessity since a knee operation two years ago. Leisure World, like most private courses, looks different than the public Rock Creek -- lusher fairways, more affluent, a little quieter -- but the older players sound similar. "We play for the camaraderie," Marcus says. "We just like being out here. Sometimes we go eight or nine holes before we even say much to each other." He is more reflective about his stage of life. "When I bought [property at Leisure World], I figured this is my last round. What do I have left, 15 years if I'm lucky? There's no moving on from here. It's the last stop. But this is what I worked for, you know, to relax and play golf." Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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