Not bad for an oul fella: The sports stars who defied the odds - and Father Time - in 2021

So if age is a number, what’s the number?

Fri, 31 Dec, 2021 - 10:45

Tony Leen

Richard Bland: 0-for-477 and then the putt fell

The oddest thing is that golfer Richard Bland almost won the Irish Open at Fota Island in his maiden season as a pro in 2002 – beaten in a four-way play-off by Soren Hansen.

Then over 19 years of Tour frustration followed.

In 2018, Bland lost his European Tour card, and was forced to play the Challenge Tour. “Everybody has doubts somewhere along the way,” Bland told the Wall Street Journal after. “Probably even the best players in the world have some. I knew that time was running out - but I always believed I had the game to do it.”

You know where this is going. In May, in tournament No. 478, Bland finally won, capturing the British Masters with a pressured play-off win of all things. He became the oldest first-time winner in European Tour history and an overnight poster boy for perseverance.

“It’s crazy,” Bland said. “I’m just a guy from Southampton who hits a white ball around a field.”

I'VEW DONE IT: Richard Bland is finally a winner after 477 tries on the European Tour - he won the British Masters in, of all things, a play-off. Pic: Richard Heathcote, Getty Images

Bland needed a 25-foot birdie putt on the Belfry’s 18th to make the playoff with Italy’s Guido Migliozzi. There, he won with a par putt on the first extra hole. Tim Barter, his coach but better knowns as a Sky Sports analyst, guided Bland over to a TV monitor where his family was huddled on the screen to congratulate him.

“You OK, mom?” Bland asked.

“No,” Ann Bland said, crying and laughing.

“I’ve been waiting for this for so long.”

“You and me both.”

Tom Brady: The ageless icon we all a want a piece of

When 44-year-old Tom Brady and his Tampa Bay offence were blanked last month by New Orleans (9-0), it was the first time the GOAT had been shut out in an NFL game since 2006 - 255 games ago. That may, in fact, be the least interesting and relevant number from 2021 regarding the non-pareil of quarterbacks, a man who is changing how sport thinks about age and detail.

When the seven-time SuperBowl winner signed for the Bucs, one of the first calls was to the centre who hands him the ball. To introduce himself? Not so much. Ryan Jensen was told to take his towel, coat it with baby powder and rub it on his backside to ensure it was (the ball, obviously) never sweaty when Brady takes the snap.

“That’s keeping his hands dry and keeping the ball dry,” Jensen explained. "You going to backtalk him? I just don’t think that’s how that works.”

Brady’s obsessive attention to detail, sleep schedules, infrared pyjamas, plyometrics, the famed diet - no carbs, dairy, white sugar or white flour – is better known and hence, less interesting, than his fascination with the wisdom of elder friends, whom he gravitates towards. One such is 98-year-old Sam Reeves, who made his fortune as a cotton merchant. He recently gave up bodysurfing but still plays 150 rounds of golf a year.

“I’m not really paying attention to the chronological,” he says.

Brady has been named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year 16 years after he previously won the accolade.

Sports Illustrated's sportsperson of the year, Tom Brady

He told SI writer Jon Wertheim: “I’d say there are parts of me that are 55, and I think there are parts of me that are 25. What parts? I think I’m wise beyond my years. I think I’ve had a lot of life experience packed into 44 years. When I go through the tunnel and onto the field? Probably mid-30s—and I’ve got to work really hard to feel good. It’s a demolition derby every Sunday. I feel 25 when I’m in the locker room with the guys. Which is probably why I still do it.”

Experts say he has achieved enough between the ages of 40 and 44 to be a Hall of Famer. But at his age, he shouldn’t be able to volunteer for those weekly car crashes behind the offensive line. The trick that everyone from Cristiano Ronaldo to Jonathan Sexton wants the skinny on? At the University of South Florida, Ross Andel, director of the School of Aging Studies explains: “His ability to stay disciplined is second to none. Other people look for a quick fix or go to extremes. He doesn’t mind hard work. He holds onto his schedule. There’s such a resilience.”

Andel also notes Brady’s constant willingness to adapt - ‘he is open to adventures’, to stimulate new parts of the brain and pleasure centres. Longevity is on its way to running up the score – and Brady is the one putting points om the board.

Phil Mickelson: So if age is a number, what’s the number?

At 115th in the world and 168th in the FedExCup, Phil Mickelson came into May’s PGA Championship at Kiawah Island as a massive longshot. He was 50 after all, and on a poor run of form.

Dan Rapaport in Golf Digest returned to what he called “the widening of a golfer’s championship window” afterwards.

“Armed with smarter workout routines, launch-monitor optimised games, data-based course-management systems and youthful hubris, kids strut out on tour ready to win from day one.

“This, then was the flip side of that conversation. The information revelation has made sports as a whole so much smarter, and the old guys are also reaping the spoils. Golfers used to have a 12-ish year window to fill their trophy mantle: Roughly from age 26 to 38. It’s grown so, so much wider in recent years.”

Mickelson held his nerve and his focus on a brutal Ocean Course at Kiawah to sign for a final round 73. He becomes the oldest men’s winner of a major, besting Julius Boros, who was 48 at the 1968 PGA. “It’s very possible that this is the last tournament I ever win,” Lefty reflected. “Like if I’m being realistic. But the point is that there’s no reason why I or anybody else can’t do it at a later age. It just takes a little bit more work.”

Of course, that info explosion works for the younger set too. Added Rapaport: “Just as the record for oldest major winner was broken, the mark for youngest will inevitably fall. A teenager will win one of these things sooner than you think.”