Time to hang up your boots?
Seeing Ernie Els perform so well yesterday in the Open aged 46 having won the Claret Jug in his forties I wondered about getting “over the hill” in different sports.
In golf a player never really knows whether he has another major or in the case of Ricky Fowler, Lee Westwood and before them Colin Montgomerie one at all. Tiger Woods’s back may prevent him from adding to his 14 but will that group of 28 year olds that followed him Rory McIlroy and Jason Day win another major ? New kids on the practice green like Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas are arriving all the time.
Marcus Trescothick
Cricket is one sport where after their test career is over you see players well in their forties like Marcus Trescothick, Chris Read, and Paul Collingwood still playing at county level.
Goalkeepers can play into their late thirties unlike outfield players though it is thought that some African footballers are playing longer as they come from from countries where its hard to certify births and knock a few years off.
Venus Williams at 37 was deemed aged for a finalist but Roger Federer at 35 marches on. Chris Froome aged 32 looks like winning his fourth yellow jersey but SKY attract the best riders for their team and some of them will surely be dissatisfied to play the support role. Thus Froome may be moved on just as Bradley Wiggins was before him.
Lee Westwood
Golf though is different as there is no team peer pressure. Lee Westwood gets irritated aged 47 when asked why he has no major.
He was for many years the world number one and has made a fortune from his sport. On the USPGA ther are golfers like Matt Kuchar and Charles Howell 111 who have never won a major but hoover up millions of dollars in tournament earnings
Perhaps it’s saddest in football to see a once great player plying his trade abroad or in the lower leagues never quite able to accept the fact his career is over. But back to golf. Players like Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player are not just considered great for the numbers of majors but the sheer length of their career and the determination to succeed again and again when there can be no financial motivation.
This is why its hard to understand the decision of Nico Rosberg to retire after winning the F1 championship just the once.
