One of the many benefits of golfing is that you can play it into your 80’s and 90’s even.  As we age, we may lose some strength but if you can maintain some flexibility, your ability to golf will continue on. As a competitive long driver, I was usually 20 years older than most of my fellow competitors and they were significantly stronger than me. To maintain my edge, I did Yoga. I practised 3 times a week and it kept me loose and flexible. You can achieve the same concept with Pilates, stretching or even playing other sports. Ultimately, “motion is lotion” so the idea is to keep moving. I have always been a bit of a jock and I think they all contributed to my ability to golf well. I played competitive tennis as a junior and played for McMaster University. Tennis helped build my leg muscles and the upper body rotation. Badminton helped me with my wrist and forearm strength and soccer helped keep me in shape for when I had to hike up hilly fairways!  A lot of very talented long drivers are ex baseball, and javelin throwers as well.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that they think baseball has hindered their golf swing, but I will challenge that. The golf swing is essentially a baseball swing on a different plane. A lot of baseball players can hit the golf ball really far! There may need to be some swing thought changes, but I believe you can use all your previous movement experiences to play golf well into your years. I had to very careful while I was competitive on the tour not to injure myself playing other sports, but all in all, motion is lotion so keep moving to play better golf.