47 year old Stewart Cink captured his second PGA Tour title of the season this past Sunday to vault him to third place in the FedEx Cup Ranking. As he said, there aren’t a lot of players from his generation anymore on the PGA Tour but somehow he is on pace for perhaps his best season ever. So how is it possible to compete at that age?
Stewart has certainly been able to keep his desire to compete at a very high level burning which is the key to sustained success. With that desire, he created a plan to work on his physical performance, get his equipment right, and prepare for tournaments with a full commitment to excellence.
For so many veterans on Tour, age is the perfect excuse to say this is too hard or that the young guns are just too good, but Stewart decided to break it down and find ways to improve. In this era of golf, there is so much knowledge about how to improve physically and with one’s nutrition, tremendous expertise in clubfitting, understanding of swing mechanics and how to practice better, and of course the understanding of the mental game. With all this knowledge Stewart built a great team to help him in all of these areas and find those improvements to his game.
Stewart may not be from the same generation as many of the players today, but he is taking advantage of the great work done in many fields that relate to golf. He is showing us that age may not be exactly what we all think it is if you have the right plan. The human system is incredible at adapting based on the stimuli that you give it even at the age of 47.
