Ranking the Best PGA Tour Golfers Who Are over 40
Some time ago, once a professional golf advanced into his 30s, it was assumed his productivity would start to go down as he got older.
As we have come to learn, life doesn't end at 30 or even 40 for professional golfers.
Here is a list of eight members of the PGA Tour who have had good, and even great, careers into their 40s.
They may not contend every week, but they can still play and show up on leaderboards fairly frequently.
Check it out.
8. Ken Duke
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Since turning 40 in 2009, Ken Duke has won twice: the 2013 Travelers Championship and the 2011 Nationwide Championship at Daniel Island.
He's also post a dozen top-10 finishes in that time and has earned nearly $3.7 million on the PGA Tour.
This is a man who played for a long time on the Web.com/Nationwide tours, trying to get to the PGA Tour.
Once he got his card as a result of the 2011 win, he's acquitted himself well, competing against players 20 years younger than himself.
7. Jerry Kelly
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Jerry Kelly's long career on the PGA Tour has been highlighted by three victories and more than $26 million in earnings.
One of wins, the 2009 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, came after he turned 40. So have 31 top-10 finishes playing against the "youngsters," as tour veterans call the 20-somethings out there.
Think about that. After he turned 40 late in 2006, he's cashed top-10 checks every year. In a couple of years, he only one top-10 finish, but it is an admirable streak anyway.
The man from Wisconsin loves his hockey and also seems to love playing golf on the PGA Tour at the level he's been at over the last eight seasons.
6. Stuart Appleby
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Things haven't gone all that well for Stuart Appleby since he turned 40 in 2011.
But the year before that, Appleby put together a historic victory at the Greenbrier Classic, shooting a 59 in the final round of the win. It was his first victory since 2006.
Since then, it's been slow going. He's had four top-10 finishes since turning 40, with three of those this year. He also nearly won the first event of the FedEx Cup, The Barclays, before finally finishing tied for second.
Does that mean he's about to turn things around and become a more frequent winner? Who knows, but what we do know is that his game is still capable of producing results like The Barclays in September.
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5. K.J. Choi
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K.J. Choi had very little knowledge of, and no interest in, golf until age 16. He was much more into powerlifting.
Once he starting concentrating on golf, however, he became very good at it. And he's continued to be good at it for a lot of years.
Since he's turned 40, he's posted nine top-10 finishes and won the biggest event of his career, the 2011 Players Championship.
He's never been a particularly long driver off the tee, but he's gotten shorter, and naturally that has affected the rest of his game. Choi's greens in regulation percentage in 2014 was not very good, and that's something he'll no doubt focus on during the offseason.
4. Angel Cabrera
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Every golfer who plays the game professionally gains a reputation over the years, and Angel Cabrera's is that he's a big-game player. He always seems to be in the hunt in the game's major championship and has won two: the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont and the 2009 Masters, a few months before he turned 40.
As a 40-year-old, he placed seventh at the Masters in 2011 and lost in a playoff to Adam Scott in 2013.
Cabrera is a bulldog who seems to grind exceptionally well; he's posted 11 top-10 finishes and earned more than $6 million.
There's still plenty of gas in the tank of the 45-year-old.
3. Phil Mickelson
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Phil Mickelson made a little more than $2.5 million in 2014 on the PGA Tour, which is amazing for a guy who didn't have a top-10 finish until the PGA Championship. That was the only top 10 he recorded all year, by the way.
Since he turned 40 in 2010, Mickelson has won five tournaments, including two in 2013.
His play was not very good this year, which has raised questions as to whether the psoriatic arthritis, his age of 44 and the general wear and tear of professional golf have begun to take their toll on him.
Mickelson remains one of the great faces of the game, and his fans will anxiously await the 2015 season to see how he rebounds.
2. Jim Furyk
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In terms of wins, the 40s have not been kind to Jim Furyk. He's won only once since, with the victory coming in the year he turned 40 at the 2010 Tour Championship at East Lake.
But when you look at how he did making a living since then, he's done just fine, earning nearly $18 million.
And, as the golf world knows, he's let some big wins slip through his fingers. The 2012 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club and the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational are the two most prominent.
Despite being much shorter off the tee than the youngsters he's playing against, Furyk was a regular contender in 2014. He finished four times, shooting 69, 69, 66, 65 in those four final rounds. He posted 11 top 10s, not missing one cut in 21 starts.
Furyk is the bar that 40-year-olds strive to reach right now.
1. Steve Stricker
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In the first year of his reduced schedule initiative, 47-year-old Steve Stricker did just fine.
He entered 11 tournaments, finished in the top 10 twice and earned $1.1 million.
Since turning 40, Stricker has won nine times on the PGA Tour. That puts him 13 victories behind Vijay Singh's total, but it is by far the best total of any of the current 40-plus players.
While he didn't win a major title in his career, he's posted four top 10s in the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship.
Admittedly, he's had a few more years in his 40s than some of the others on this list, but the fact is he's won nine times after 40 is impressive.
It's hard to do much better than that.
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