Whether it is an irreversible trend, a freakish confluence or a hard harbinger of the future, Thomas Mitchell Morris Sr, one of golf’s seminal figures, would doubtless have approved.
Better known as Old Tom Morris, he hit the first shot at the inaugural British Open in 1860 and was born in venerable St Andrews, which is nicknamed the Auld Grey Toon – or Old Grey Town, for those without an ear for the Scottish inflection.
The sepia-tinted images of Morris, with his tweedy clothes, flowing grey beard and slight middle-age paunch, have never seemed more appropriate as the game’s best head to Royal Liverpool Golf Club for this week’s British Open.
Nearly 200 years after Morris was born, the game’s oldest major championship rarely has seemed more stately or distinguished than over the past three summers, when the winners had more in common than just having their names etched sequentially into the silver claret jug.
Check the numbers on their birth certificates, for one.
Victories by Darren Clarke, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson marked the first time in a century of major-championship golf that players in their 40s claimed the same title three years in succession.
Golf’s oldest tournament, indeed.
Old Tom won all four of his British Open titles while in his 40s, starting in 1861, which makes the symmetry perfect, because another old Tom started this tented revival show five years ago with one of the most memorable Opens in history. At age 59, Tom Watson lost in a play-off to Stewart Cink at the 2009 British Open but only after schooling the field in the nuances of links golf like a headmaster with chalk in hand.
The five-time Open champion, who described his state of mind as “serene”, opened with a 65 and did not blink until he bogeyed the 72nd hole.
“The first day here, ‘Yeah, let the old geezer have his day in the sun’,” Watson said before that final round. “The second day you said, ‘Well, that’s OK, that’s OK’. And now today you kind of perk up your ears and say, ‘This old geezer might have a chance to win the tournament’.”
By matching the 72-hole score of Cink, then 36, Watson inaugurated a memorable wrinkle: at four of the past five Opens, the lowest regulation score has been posted or equalled by a player of 42 or older.
While the streak’s context is difficult to track conclusively – documenting ages beyond the past 100 years is difficult because of spotty record keeping – that hardly diminishes the current middle-age craziness.
A year before Watson’s time-defying charge, semi-retired Greg Norman, at age 53, was the third-round leader, though he eventually faded with a closing 77 and finished joint third.
Still, turning back the clock is one thing. Erasing entire calendars is another.
“I don’t know that it is anything more than coincidence that the last three winners have been in their 40s,” said Mickelson, who was 43 when he won last July. “Golf is a game for all ages. Tom Watson’s Open performance in ’09 shows that.
“Experience comes into play in a big way on the final Sunday of any tournament, but Clarke was a links veteran and it was finally his time, and Ernie and I had won majors.”
That said, do not quickly assume that the three-year run is a mere historical curiosity.
Players arriving in the UK for the British Open annually mutter mantras about the importance of experience on the event’s unpredictable, and sometimes unfair, links venues.
First-time players, despite their talent, are usually well outside their comfort zone. Mickelson did not feel like he could contend to win the claret jug until about a decade ago, a dozen years into his pro career.
While the three other majors can offer distinctly different challenges, too, the British Open bears almost no resemblance to the week-in, week-out professional fare.
It demands adaptation.
When Clarke won three years ago, it was a dark, ugly, cool and sporadically rainy day. Sun-splashed Palm Springs it was not. He punched the ball under the wind and plotted, if not plodded, his way around.
“I grew up mostly on links and, as you can experience four seasons in one day in Northern Ireland, I’ve had plenty of experience in most conditions and particularly inclement ones,” said Clarke, who was 42 when he won. “It doesn’t bother me when the flag sticks are bending and the rain comes in horizontally.”
Words seldom uttered.
Clarke, like Mickelson and Els, has logged more than two decades as a pro. It is debatable whether Clarke had the qualities, mental or physical, to win under such tricky circumstances when in his mid-20s.
“Good question, but impossible to answer,” Clarke said. “When are you ready to win a major? I think I would have been able, but there are several factors that need to come together for it to happen.”
Els, who was 42 when he won, benefited from some largesse when Adam Scott bogeyed the last four holes in 2012. In that narrow regard, the three 40-something plots had little in common for the winners: Mickelson charged from behind by playing the last six holes in a stellar four under, Els was gifted the title and Clarke held on after starting the last day as the 54-hole leader.
Paul Azinger, an ESPN analyst, a major winner and former Ryder Cup captain, sees one more common denominator among the past three victors.
“All three have good attitudes,” Azinger said. “A good attitude usually comes with maturity. The same can be said for experience. Some learn from their [major] experiences and others never recover from them. The last three winners learnt.
“Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Colin Montgomerie, etc, haven’t recovered.”
While Mickelson, Els and Clarke are hardly renowned for their workout regimens, as a rule, player careers are lasting longer.
Three players in their 50s cracked the top 10 at the Masters in April.
Three-time major winner Vijay Singh reached world No 1 and claimed a PGA Tour-record 22 victories after turning 40.
No doubt, there is a big philosophical difference between old and older.
“What it says is that being over 40 does not necessarily mean over the hill,” Clarke said.
The numbers suggest that the streak represents a statistical novelty. Since 1960, the median age for major winners is 32. Interestingly, despite its unique challenges, the median British Open winner over that span is 31.
Overall, only 20 major winners (9.2 per cent) since 1960 have been in their 40s. In the 21st century, the three other majors have combined to produce one 40-something winner, the ageless Singh.
As for the early 1960s hook, there is no better place to discuss the streak than this week’s Open venue.
Fifty years ago, Liverpool produced The Beatles, a music group also known as the Fab Four, who dominated British billboards.
Now the Fab Forties are topping British scoreboards.
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