At 76-years-old and with eight major wins in the bag, Tom Watson is well placed to offer advice to the more senior golfers among us.
Watson enjoyed a glittering career and was a dominant force – especially at The Open – for much of the 70s and 80s.
Indeed, at 59, Watson nearly did the impossible when he came within a stroke of winning the 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry.
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Watson needed just a par on the last to win but made bogey after an errant second shot, before losing out in a playoff to Stewart Cink in one of the most gut-wrenching displays of golf in recent years.
Nevertheless, that performance at his age was a reminder that golf can still be played to a high standard by anyone and for the older golfer out there, Watson has some tips for being better at the game.
Tom Watson’s tips for senior golfers
With so much focus on hitting the ball far and draws and fades in the modern game, it’s sometimes easy to forget that a lot of the golf swing can come from not even hitting a ball.
Indeed, as age catches up with us all, the tools we need to help us perform and the work that goes into it start to look different.
And according to Tom Watson – speaking on Golf Secrets in 2024 – there are things golfers need to be doing before they even consider hitting the golf ball.
“When I’m asked about senior golf, there are a few things I talk about before we even get to the swing. The first thing is your equipment. This is your friend, a hybrid is your friend, all the way from four to eight hybrid, get something that has a big sole to it so if you hit a bit behind it, it’s going to go right through and you’ll get the elevation you need. The problem in senior golf is we don’t get the ball elevated enough,” Watson explained first.
Going into two more top tips, Watson explained further how older players can help themselves.
“The second thing is the golf ball. Don’t play with a pro golf ball or something like that. You can’t compress it anyway, so make sure that that hard ball will just jump off the club face and go further in distance.
“I talk to seniors about grip and set up and mainly the grip has to be light. It has to be light as you want to get your hands active in the golf swing. You can’t turn your body very much but you have to keep your hands as active as possible. 80% of your speed comes from your hands and arms and in senior golf, more like 100% as your body doesn’t help you so much.
“So, the thing I like to do, light grip pressure, in the stance, narrow it and pull the right foot back, that helps for more turn and so you can a little behind it with your left shoulder. The key is to get as far back as you can and with light grip pressure, you can just come in and hit it.”
What Tom Watson said amateurs can do to improve their putting
Listening to a legend like Tom Watson give out advice is always interesting and always worth taking on board.
For the older among us, the tips above are great.
However, Watson has also shared a putting tip that everyone can follow as well.
“Here’s a little trick I use on breaking putts. If you have trouble missing it on the low side, the amateur side, this is what I do.
“This is what I do to correct it, it’s just a little bit of a tweak with your grip. Take your left hand and turn it over so you can see one maybe two knuckles with it.
“What that will do is it will keep that clubface from opening up at all, in fact it may shut it down.“
Switching the script to putts dropping the other way for right-handers, Watson then carried on his explanation.
“If I’m consistently missing this putt to the left, I will take my left hand and go the opposite direction, turn it to the left a little bit.
“This keeps the putter face from turning to the left at all.
“If you continue to have problems missing putts on the low side of the hole, all you have to do is tweak your grip. Strengthen for a left to right putt and weaken it for a right to left putt.“
With these two nuggets of information from an eight-time major winner, any amateur at any age can surely improve their game.
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