M
MIND / RAP REPORT
Game for the Ages
Finding reward in crossgenerational golf friendships
M
By Dan Rapaport
y best golf buddy’s name is Bill. He and I text often and call each other “dog.” When I need an emergency fourth to fill out a group, Bill’s my go-to. He has been my partner in a memberguest and will be one of the first invites to my upcoming wedding. Bill is more than twice my age. Nearly every golfer has a friend in a wholly different stage of life. The playyour-own-ball nature of the game and the ingenuity of the handicap system make any foursome of players and abilities doable. In turn, golf fosters cross-generational friendships that don’t occur in the wild. I spent the majority of my childhood weekend mornings tagging along with dad’s regular game and teasing grey hairs about their shakiness over four-footers. I learned when to strike up conversation (after good shots) and when to avoid eye contact at all costs (after a water ball). I discovered that, vernacular differences aside, we all laugh at the same jokes. I came to
66
golfdigestme.com
june 2022
Great golf and great fun is an unbeatable combination.” Rory McIlroy is not quite retirementready, but the 33-year-old is no longer one of the young guns in world golf. He is, however, still very much in the Featured Group rotation, and the influx of even-younger talent on tour means he’s the oldest player in his group just as often as he’s the youngest. “When I play with Viktor Hovland or with Collin Morikawa or with Joaquin Niemann, it’s like, Oh, I remember those days,” McIlroy says. “Everything’s sort of new, you’re not quite as cynical, you’re a little more naive. That’s a really nice way to be. I play with these guys, and I see myself in them. “Golf is the game of a lifetime. I’ve played in a major championship against Tom Watson, and I’ve played in a major championship against someone born in the 2000s. That’s unbelievable.” Tiger Woods’ two most famous embrace these unique relationships, to take pride in my ability to mingle friendships are with people from other with my friends’ parents when other generations. The only witness to what kids couldn’t muster much more than Woods calls the greatest round of his life was a man double his age. When a “Hey, Mr Johnson!” It’s simple: Grown-ups are cool, too. 21-year-old Woods moved cross-counThe PGA Tour’s Matt Fitzpatrick knows try to Florida, famous as hell but low on this. While his pals chased girls on Fri- genuine friends, Mark O’Meara menday nights, he marked his golf balls. tored him. The pair would play count“That was my life growing up,” the two- less rounds together at Isleworth Golf & time Ryder Cupper says. “I’d sign up to Country Club — like the one on April 4, play in the Saturday morning games at 1997, six days before Woods’ first Masters as a professional. Woods the golf club, and I’d play on shot 59 that day, the lone my own with the grown-ups.” Dan Rapaport sub-60 round of his life. They His game blossomed, and has friends his teed it up again the next day, his people skills flourished. own age, too. as pals do. “We teed off on 10 “That’s one of the things — I birdied 10, I made a holeI’m most thankful for in this in-one on 11 — and Mark just game,” he says. “I learned at left,” Woods remembers with a young age how to interact a warm-your-soul laugh. “It with adults — how to ask was a helluva two days.” them questions, how to anO’Meara has since called it swer their questions, how to a career. Tiger’s new bestie on enjoy their company.” It goes the other way, too. Playing tour, Justin Thomas, is young enough with kids brings out the kid still inside to be his son and a mentor to his son. “We have become so close that I think you. (Or so I’m told.) Where else in life can you unleash a guttural yell? Bond Charlie is like the little brother Justin over a cocktail at noon? Spend four never had, and Justin has become the hours outside picking a brain moulded little brother I never had,” Woods said late last year. by a different era? As this golf season kicks into full“There is no other sport where you can truly compete in your advancing swing, make an effort to play with the years with young, strong bombers,” Bill (or Dan) in your life. If you don’t Bill says. I can only assume he’s talk- have one, find one. It shouldn’t be too ing about me. “But the real draw is the difficult. Literally any golfer is a candiswagger and lively, electric chatter. date. That’s the beauty of our game. ILLUSTRATION BY MADISON KETCHAM
