SNOQUALMIE — For a professional baseball or basketball player in his mid-30s, the end is near. And a pro football player, well, he’ll be lucky to reach his mid-30s.
But for the men who play golf for a living, the sporting life just goes on … and on … and on.
Not only are guys in their 40s competing and winning on the PGA Tour, but for those 50 and older there is the Champions Tour, where gray hair and still-great golf swings go hand in hand.
The Champions Tour visits the Puget Sound area this week for the annual Boeing Classic at TPC at Snoqualmie Ridge, and the three-day, 54-hole tournament will showcase some of golf’s best and brightest from years past — and fellows who are still darned good players.
Ben Crenshaw, for example, was one of the biggest names in golf from the mid-1970s until the mid-1990s, including a memorable 1995 when, at age 43, he won The Masters for the second time.
Crenshaw, who is 57, is in his eighth year on the Champions Tour, where he’s still having fun and still collecting paychecks.
“We’re very, very fortunate to be able to do this,” Crenshaw said. “And I think all of us out here feel that way. We’re really lucky, because there’s no other sport that does this after the age of 50.”
Being an older golfer on the PGA Tour means “you’re usually going against all those young guys,” 53-year-old Fred Funk said. “But then you come out here (on the Champions Tour) and you’re the young guy.”
Sure, most of the seniors don’t belt the ball as far as the kids on the PGA Tour — or as far as they themselves once did.
“But a lot of the golf is amazing out here,” pointed out Lanny Watkins, who is 59. “And that’s the one thing that really blows people away, is how good these guys out here can still play.”
“There are fellows (in their early 50s) straddling both tours,” agreed Mike Reid, “and they’re not just leaking oil on the regular tour. They’re playing pretty well out there.”
Reid, who is 55, is playing his fifth full season on the Champions Tour. He picked up his second career tour victory at last week’s JELD-WEN Tradition in Sunriver, Ore., beating John Cook in a playoff and winning close to $400,000.
The Champions Tour, Reid said, “has evolved, and I’ve seen it in the five years I’ve been out. In its infancy, the senior tour was kind of a well-provisioned rest home for the aging golfer. But now they’ve elevated the level of competition on this tour.
“The biggest place I’ve noticed it is on the driving range after the round. It used to be so easy to find a spot (to hit practice balls) five years ago, but now there are a lot of fellows putting in the time and the effort. And you can tell by the look in their eyes, they’re paying the price more than (they were) just a few years ago.”
The Champions Tour does make certain concessions to age. Golfers can use carts, if they choose. And there is no 36-hole cut, meaning everyone in the field plays all three rounds and takes home some cash.
There is also a more fraternal feeling at a Champions Tour event, which is maybe because many players have already made a good bit of money and the pressure is off somewhat.
And maybe, Crenshaw suggested, it’s just the time of life.
“I think you do enjoy things a little bit more,” he said. “We’re not as uptight, as a general rule. Yeah, we’re competing against each other, but we like to see players that we’ve known our whole lives do well. … It’s very competitive out here, but the atmosphere is different. Very different.”
A tournament week “kind of starts off as a somewhat relaxed atmosphere, compared to the big tour,” said Funk, who won the U.S. Senior Open four weeks ago. “But the minute you get in contention, all the same feelings are there. You want to win, you want to play well, and you’ve got all the butterflies going. So that’s all the same.
“And it is,” he added, “still very satisfying to win. It feeds that hunger you have.”
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