THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 3, 1995 TAG: 9507030142
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Having never been a fan of geriatric golf, I have only lately come to understand the appeal of the PGA Senior Tour.
This is the only major sport where people get an opportunity to improve on their former selves and first careers.
Returning in middle age to a large stage, the golfers can soak up the appreciation of the galleries, who politely remember all the best of their play and personalities, and forgive the worst.
Senior golf recycles careers. Golfers come back mellowed by age, tempered by wisdom. More affable, more lovable.
Or, at least, that's the perception.
Someone like Tom Weiskopf, who Sunday won the U.S. Senior Open at Congressional Country Club, can leave the game the first time an irascible, deeply flawed golfer, and return past the age of 50 a dignified elder statesman.
Talking to Tom Boswell of The Washington Post, Weiskopf said, ``We do things that when we look back we are not very proud of.''
Everyone does. But of all the athletes who were once young jerks, or who squandered talent, only these senior golfers get a chance for a do-over.
This alone makes them the envy of sports.
Pity the poor tennis players at Wimbledon this week. Senility creeps into their games at 28. Most are finished with serious competition before they have time to appreciate their gifts.
Barely into adulthood, they leave with regrets, and with a lifetime to consider what they could have done differently. They depart wondering how they will spend the rest of their lives.
Tennis allows for no meaningful second chances. One day, a professional tennis player is worried about acne. The next day, he or she is being pushed out.
The racket equivalent of a senior tour goes virtually unnoticed because, for a tennis player, the ravages of time are more obvious. Once the legs go, you risk embarrassment on the court.
Golfers have a built-in advantage. They do not have to run to reach their shots. A paunch does not prevent an excellent striker of the ball from recapturing past glories, or discovering new ones.
A senior golfer may not be as long off the tee, but this is a relative failing, easily overlooked by galleries and TV audiences predisposed to embracing the old-timers.
Once back into the golf spotlight, a player such as Weiskopf is afforded ample time and opportunity to reshape his legacy so as to make a more graceful exit. Only golfers get a mulligan like this.
At 63, Mickey Mantle talks about what he would change if he had baseball to do over again. He would be a nicer person, he says. He would treat fans better. He would take time to savor his own skills.
Senior golfers are given an opportunity Mickey never had. And they can make a lot of money in the bargain.
Remaking an image may be a necessary process for some athletes, as it is for some politicians. But another chance at success offers something even more important.
The key to a satisfied, vigorous life, medical and psychological experts tell us, is renewed ambition during the second phase of adulthood, the period that begins at about 50.
In that case, PGA seniors are luckier than other aging athletes. They still have goals to reach and an arena in which to perform. They can go on living in the present.
Time is the great destroyer, but for some of these golfers, it can also be a wonderful restorer of a career and a life that may not have gone as planned the first time around. ILLUSTRATION: Color ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Tom Weiskopf, so often the bridesmaid on the PGA Tour, turned the
tables with a four-stroke victory over Jack Nicklaus on Sunday in
the Senior Open in Bethesda, Md. by CNB