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<\/a><\/p>\nThe game leaves you. Usually before you\u2019re ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m giving up so much yardage to the best players. They\u2019re hitting it 300 yards,\u201d said Haas, who averages about 260 yards off the tee. \u201cSometimes I get one out there pretty good, but other times it\u2019s not even close. So that makes it really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Browne was more blunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour body breaks down,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t pay as close attention as you used to. I just think it\u2019s physiological; you don\u2019t have the ability to channel your energy or your focus the way you did when you were younger. That\u2019s natural progression. We\u2019re all fighting that. But the longer you stay active, the fewer issues you have or will develop.\u201d<\/p>\n
That leads to the second question: How?<\/p>\n
The temperature at Scioto hit 97 degrees, with a heat index \u2013 air temp plus relative humidity \u2013 reaching 108. Yet Haas and Browne, as well as the other 28 players in the field who are 60 and over, played a brand of golf most of us never come close to touching. Browne shot 77? Ninety-nine percent of the golfing population would not break 80 at a Scioto course set up by the USGA to fool and frustrate the best senior golfers in the world.<\/p>\n
Golfers could have used getting hosed down in the high heat<\/p>\n
The heat turned players into puddles. Sweat-soaked Colin Montgomerie resembled a baggie floating in the ocean. Henrik Stenson\u2019s sopping designer shirt could have doubled as a Wet-Nap.<\/p>\n
Add to that the aches and pains all seniors experience and it\u2019s a wonder why, and how, the older guys ever leave their air-conditioned hotel rooms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had back surgery a couple years ago, very successful,\u201d Haas said. \u201cI had my shoulder scoped about 26 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Browne once tore a ligament in his wrist and has dealt with a bulging disc in his back, yet he refused to use injuries as an excuse for poor play.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody has something,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019m walking every week and still able to get it around, but it\u2019s not much fun anymore. This is probably my last [U.S. Senior Open].\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The aging athlete is viewed with a mix of respect and pity. For every Tom Brady, who won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay at age 43, there is a 40-year-old Johnny Unitas stumbling to a final season with the San Diego Chargers in 1973, or a 42-year-old Willie Mays hitting .211 for the 1972 New York Mets.<\/p>\n
If LeBron is an age-defying 41-year-old unicorn, Shaq was a bit of a broken-down nag when he retired at 39.<\/p>\n
Golf is different. A 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus wowed the world by winning the 1986 Masters, and 65-year-old Bernhard Langer stiff-armed Father Time by winning the 2023 U.S. Senior Open. The pros can produce impressive results longer than in other sports.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there still comes a time when it\u2019s time. Browne sees it. Haas does not want to. Respect to both.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Sports columnist Rob Oller can be reached at roller@dispatch.com and on X.com at@rollerCD<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 4, 2026, 8:04 a.m. ET Professional golfers Jay Haas and Olin Browne were the two oldest players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[58,44,1235,3595,3596,12873,65,12871,179,1103,193,1384,12872,67,62],"class_list":["post-31531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-accessfree","tag-golf","tag-sourcethe-columbus-dispatch","tag-sstssportsgolfchampions","tag-sstsnchampions","tag-tagcleveland-browns","tag-taggolf","tag-tagjimmy-haslam","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-negative","tag-tagpga-tour","tag-tagpga-tour-champions","tag-tagshaquille-oneal","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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