Best Golf Tips for Seniors – Play Great Golf at Any Age!

It’s inevitable that we all will grow older and lose some of what we once could do. That is a simple fact of life.

However, as we age, we can still play great golf!

In fact, some golfers actually play better as they get older.

This article will lay out some great tips for senior golfers.

As you will see, with just a little bit of focused practice you can continue to, or even start to play better than you did when you were 20 years younger.

Best Golf Tips for Seniors (Key Takeaways)

• Focus on the scoring zone.
• Scoring zone practice plan
• Focus on your body – flexibility.
• Focus on your body – endurance.
• Swing thoughts for seniors – focus on pre-swing fundamentals.
• Swing thoughts for seniors – focus on good weight transfer and pressure shift.
• Swing thoughts for seniors – focus on rotation.
• Swing thoughts for seniors – stick the finish.
• Use technology to stay sharp.
• Equipment can help a great deal.

The Advantages of Being a Seasoned Golfer

Before I jump into my golf tips for seniors, I wanted to lay out a few initial thoughts.

There are indeed many advantages to being a more seasoned golfer. This is something that senior golfers really should take into account instead of feelings of having a game that is destined to decline.

For many golfers, the first thing they notice as they age is a lack of distance.

While this doesn’t have to be a given for golfers as they get older, it is a fact for many that the body cannot do what it did when they were younger.

Despite the aging process being a given, we can incorporate a fitness and stretching routine to help slow it down.

Many of the players on the Champions Tour are still able to hit the ball just as far as they did in their prime on the PGA Tour.

That is the case because of the daily workouts that many of these players do.

The biggest advantage that senior golfers have is the ability to draw on past experiences.

We all know that golf is largely mental.

Golfers that have been playing for many years, can draw on past successes to get through challenges they may face during a round. There is a lot to be said about that fact.

One other advantage that senior golfers with years of experience have over others is that they usually have sharp short games.

It never ceases to amaze me how good many senior golfer’s short games are. This is largely the case because of the years of repetition in making a putting stroke, or hitting chip and pitch shots.

Many older golfers can call on those past experiences to continue to score well.

They know that by playing smart and strategically, they can keep up with the younger, and more powerful players.

Top Tips for Senior Golfers

The following are some of my best tips for senior golfers. Incorporating these can help you in playing great golf as you get older.

Remember, as a senior, you do have a lot of tools in your toolbox already, so use those to your advantage.

The tips laid out here will only help to enhance your game as you age.

Focus on the Scoring Zone

For any golfer, regardless of age, having a sharp game from 100 yards and in is essential for scoring success. Senior golfers should really put an emphasis on practicing in this area.

If you can spend 3 days a week, for 2 hours each session practicing your scoring game shots, you will be able to stay sharp as you age.

The following is an example of how you can structure your practice time in this area.

Day 1 and 3

• 30 minutes short to medium length putts focusing on set up, line and path.
• 30 minutes on lag putting focusing on the same; set up, line and path.
• 30 minutes doing the up and down challenge.

Set up three “tee stations” from various points around the practice green. You will hit chip or pitch shots from these locations to a chosen hole location:

• Go through each of the three “tee stations” to each chosen hole 6 times, for 18 holes total.
• You will putt out each chip or pitch shot until the ball is holed.
• Your goal is to get up and down. One chip or pitch, and one putt.
• Set a goal for the percentage of up and down shots you want to achieve out of the 18 holes. A good benchmark is this: The PGA Tour percentage for getting up and down on missed greens is roughly 60%.

• 30 minutes working on both bunker shots and short sided and difficult up and downs.

Day 2

• 1 hour working on distance wedge control. If you have an area on the range where you can hit to flags at 40, 60, 80, and 100-yard shots, perfect! If not, you can use your best estimate on distances. Or another option would be purchasing a less expensive radar and use that to chart these yardages.
• 30 minutes short to medium length putts focusing on set up, line and path.
• 30 minutes on lag putting focusing on the same; set up, line and path.

Keeping your scoring zone in shape is a critical component of playing good golf at any age.

Focus on Your Body – Stretching

As mentioned previously, as we age, we tend to lose the flexibility and strength we once had. This doesn’t have to be the case, however.

While we can’t reverse father time, we can keep our bodies as healthy as possible.

When people think of working out, they generally think of a weight room and lifting to get strong.

While that is indeed part of fitness, what is more of a necessity from a physical standpoint in golf is our ability to be flexible.

Being able to stay flexible as we age will aid in our ability to continue to hit the ball respectable distances. A great stretching routine you can use can be found in my PGA.com article.

Focus on Your Body – Endurance

In sticking with the fitness theme, I feel very strongly that focusing on your endurance is key.

Not only is working on your endurance a great way to keep you playing better golf later in life, but it is also, a great way to help you live longer.

For 11 years of my career in golf, I was the golf professional at a very busy 9 hole municipal golf course in Central Florida.

This course is almost 90% a walking golf course. During the years I worked there, the average age of golfers that played was roughly 70.

We had many golfers well into their 80’s, a handful in their 90’s and two that I fondly remember that were 100, and 101, respectively.

What kept these golfers playing, and playing well I might add, was the fact that they were walking the golf course. Many would play 5 days a week, and in some cases, some would play every day.

A big lesson I learned from my years at the Winter Park Golf Course was this.

Walking the golf course is not only good for your health and longevity, but it also helps in being able to play good golf, longer.

Some Swing Thoughts for Seniors

No matter what age, many amateur golfers have very similar faults in their swing.

Examples include poor pre-swing fundamentals such as alignment and grip, or in swing elements such as poor rotation.

What is different for seniors is the increased potential for a loss of flexibility and strength.

With this in mind, it is even more important for the more seasoned golfer to focus on the basics of the game.

Some simple swing thoughts for seniors include:

Focus on maintaining good posture, good alignment, and a proper grip.

These are basic fundamentals that are important for all. For seniors, that are lacking in areas such as speed, being accurate is now of even more importance.

These pre-swing fundamentals aid in this.

Focus on making a good weight/pressure shift.

With the potential for lost flexibility being there as we age, working on shifting our weight from the lead side to the trail side in the backswing is key.

I have no problems with those that are less flexible lifting their lead foot in order to transfer their weight/pressure.

As long as a golfer doesn’t sway or get their weight to the outside of the trail foot as they swing back, this tip will help.

Try that as you swing back. It will help you be more powerful and get loaded in your backswing better.

Think Rotation.

Keep in mind, the golf swing is a rotational movement.

Our hips and upper body need to rotate around a fixed point, which is our spine, in order to build up potential energy and power.

A Tour Professional generally rotates their hips between 30 and 40 degrees, and their shoulders between 60 and 90 degrees.

Most amateur golfers have considerably less rotation in both their hips and shoulders.

One great tip for seniors to help increase their rotation lies in their trail knee.

While maintaining a flex in your trail knee is important in staying in your posture, many golfers maintain too much knee bend in that leg.

At set up, get a little less knee bend, maybe about 20 to 25 degrees. As you swing back to the top, allow your trail knee to get to about 18 to 22 degrees of flex.

As long as you can stay in your same degree of primary spine angle, roughly 35 to 45 degrees, you can lose some flex in that trail knee.

Doing so will allow you to turn better going back.

Stick Your Finish.

We covered the backswing and getting loaded and turning properly, now let’s look at the finish.

One of the best tips for any golfer is to “Stick the Finish.”

This is simply looking to make a good balanced finish with your weight on your lead foot and chest going towards or just left of the target (for righties).

I would look to hold your finish for at least 3 to 4 seconds.

Use Technology to Stay Sharp

There are countless pieces of great tech in the marketplace today. One of those that would be great for seniors to use is Hackmotion.

Why?

The reason is simple.

Accuracy is a potential superpower for seniors. Accuracy comes from having great control of the clubface.

There is no better piece of technology out there for working on having better face control than Hackmotion.

Equipment Can be Huge!

Having the correct equipment in your hands is critical for any golfer.

For senior golfers, this is of extreme importance.

Some specific things in regard to equipment that seniors should take note of include:

• Proper shaft flex – With swing speeds getting slower overall for seniors, having a lighter club will help increase speed.
• Club weight – Again, with swing speeds generally being slower overall for seniors, having a lighter weighted club will potentially help in increasing speed.
• Bigger Grips – Research has shown that seniors benefit from bigger grips. They are more comfortable, especially for the many seniors that deal with arthritis.

In Summary

As golfers age, there is inevitably going to be some degree of speed and power loss.

When that eventually happens, there are a handful of things that can be done by senior golfers to help combat it.

In addition, many senior golfers, especially those that have been playing for many years, have a built in superpower they can rely on. That is experience.

Senior golfers absolutely have the ability to continue to play great golf as they age. One of the coolest things about golf is the fact that it can be played for life.

Hopefully, the tips I have laid out today can help senior golfers continue to play for many years to come and find lots of success in doing so.