What I've gathered from this thread is that if I want to be a strong player I need to retire this year at age 29.

    I started playing at 38. I got down to a hdcp of 8, (actually once got it down to 7.8 for about a week!) but it was mostly a vanity cap in my opinion because I played easier courses where my wildness off the tee didn't hurt me much. Just go in the next fairway and hit it back. I was reasonably long back then. My hdcp didn't travel well.
    Now at 60 I'm way more consistent, rarely hitting a drive OB. I'm waaay shorter, not due to age as I'm in pretty good shape but I think due to a concentration on accuracy. But I only play once a week and I can't putt worth a lick. My hdcp is around 12 now, but I plan to retire in June and hopefully work on putting and short game to get back to single digits.

    mikeintopeka First off, our group plays for QUARTERS! One of the first times I played with them I tried to pay my "debt" in dimes and nickels. Was emphatically told they did NOT play for pennies, nickels, or dimes. It's QUARTERS!! :>)
    And, there's no "2 a side". We all play straight up with no strokes given or taken. Bring your flat-belly A game and you might take us old geezers to the cleaners for a buck or buck and a half. Or, we may send you back to Topeka with you tail between your legs, 50 cents poorer!!!!

      While I started playing when I was 20 my real love was baseball and fast pitch softball. I worked for three startup companies over the next 28 years and played golf off and on during that time. I retired in 1990 and that was when I started to play golf a lot. For the next 15 years I played to a single digit handicap. Since then my scoring has gone from the med 70's low 80's to mid 80's with an occasional visit to the 70's and a rare visit to the 90's. I now just play to enjoy the walk and to get some exercise. I play year around and only play 9 holes in the winter months and try to get 18 during the summer.

      For sure, a lot of the difference is made up with the ability to play and practice more.

      Where the technology boundaries exist between the differences of playing more and better equipment?

      Who knows.

      But, the player in me will always suggest that being more active, playing more, practicing more, will most always take the lion's share of the credit over technology is it relates to better scoring and execution.

      And I say that as a former fan of playing/practicing on a regular basis, and a current fan of the bigger, more forgiving club faces and 4-pc balls to make up for the latter.

      sdandrea1 Sheesh! Government employees were never known for their reading ability... while working or after retirement!! The use of 70/71 was talking about my 2017 rounds of golf. My birthday is November 3rd. So, most of my 2017 round were when I was 70. As stated in the post, our handicap season ended November 15th. We also had a mild November/December and played many round beyond the end of the handicap season... at age 71. So... my 2017 golf was played while I was 70/71 years old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go back to gluing old Pings together and let me alone!!!!😀

          livegolf My best golf has been before 40

          You're too young to post in this thread........................and nobody likes a showoff.😎

            For me, my best golf was from 45-55 years of age. I played in tournaments of some kind almost every weekend. Most of them were 3 man or 4 man team tournaments. Since age 55 it's been a constant downhill grind for my golf game.

            Before 40.

            When I was a college student, I played about 5 days a week, weather permitting, walking and carrying my clubs. I consistently shot between about 75 and maybe 82, with most rounds in the high 70s.

            Now my scores vary between 80 and about 95, with the vast majority of them being between 82 and 87. 84 is my most common score. So I'm about 6 shots worse than I was in my 20s.

            My best golf was around age 45-50, distance was good, but fought the occasional high-right tee shot. Now at 73, my distance is shot, but I'll hit 10/14 fairways and my irons are more accurate. Putting is like a fart in a windstorm, it's all over the place. With a bum knee, still enjoy getting out once a week.

            I have enjoyed playing more after turning 40 but I scored far better prior to 40.

            After 40. I did not play till I was 22 and then only occasionally. I was about 40 when I began to play more than two or three times a year. In my early 40's I had the opportunity to begin to play several times a week, took lessons and started to practice. My best golf was in my late 40's. In all the sports I have played, baseball, tennis, and basketball, I tend to be hot and cold, but when I was hot I was hot. In golf I set a new course record for several courses in our area of SW Michigan during a 2-3 year stretch. My game was still solid as I entered my 50's and moved to KY, until I injured my left knee. I had to go under the knife and was a year and a half rehab. Although I still can occasionally play well, I have never gotten my former game back. I simply can not put the strain on my left knee I did prior to injury.

            I get hot once in a while even now, but it is unusual and does not last. When, I was 68 my low round playing from the blue tees at my club was a -2 (70) round. Last year, I played in a "beat the pro event" at our club. I beat the pro and the field with a 73, from the senior tees - hey I was 72. I don't normally play the senior tees. I regularly play with some seniors that still play with some length off the tee. So we play from the blue tees and we are generally in the low to high 80's.