While he didn’t win the Master’s, 63-year-old Bernard Langer is the embodiment of the advantages of being over 50 when you want to perform. He demonstrated that due to the mental process and skills, performance can be better as you get older.

Many people assume that if you are over 50, you will not be as sharp in business and life, and the “young guns” have more to contribute and will perform at a higher level. A business research study proved just the opposite; older people had a better set of overall business skills. That portfolio of talents can be used from a start-up to a sports version of chess, golf. So what makes Langer so good, and what can you learn from him?

Having a strong and consistent social structure is a factor in later mental and physical performance. Langer has a stable family, personal faith, and friend structure. Talk to people, and they will tell you he is essentially the same person he was 30 years ago in almost all respects.

From a fundamental thinking perspective, golf is a beneficial activity, mostly if you play different courses all the time. Like they do on the Senior PGA Tour. You have to remember facts, both verbally and visually. And more importantly, you have to put it together in sequences that make some rational sense and flow. Reading Walt Whitman & similar and playing Sudoku might get you some verbal skills, yet the key here is to do something that puts it all together in a way that requires reasoning and thinking. Golf, languages, music, and similar are these kinds of combination activities that enhance high-level cognitive function.

An oft-overlooked factor in the performance of older individuals is a bit psychological and sociological in combination. How you read other people, especially your friends or acquaintances, should be much better over 50. With a simple definition of how you read people and situations, Social Intelligence is a prime factor in business and civic productivity. Closely related is Emotional Intelligence, quite simply how you tune in to your own emotions and those of others. Over 50, you should be at the top of your game in these related areas. Many seniors assume they are good at these skills, yet best to do a little check and ask those you know if you are picking up all their signals. This is one of the big reasons very successful people over 50 flourish in group situations. They can read the signs. A big help to Langer as he plays with so many different people in his groups, how he cues on their personalities actually lets him focus more on his game.

And yes, Langer at 63 does not possess the strength or physical skills he had at 29. Your body was relatively “plastic” in how it functioned and adapted to activity under 30. Hence, all you had to do was step into a situation, and you likely had enough physical skills. In the case of Langer, regular exercise away from golf is part of how he has stayed in his prime. And because of that plasticity factor diminishing as you get older, you can’t count on sports participation to maintain or improve fitness factors. A good axiom is one day of physical training for every day of sports performance like golf, tennis, or skiing.

Many people look at Langer’s performance as unique. Actually, it should be more of the norm if you pay attention to the various cognitive and physical factors that can be maintained over 50.

If Langer can compete in the Master’s, what can you do in your world?

References

Amdurer E, Boyatzis RE, Saatcioglu A, Smith ML, Taylor SN. 2014. Long term impact of emotional, social and cognitive intelligence competencies and GMAT on career and life satisfaction and career success. Front Psychol. 2014;5:1447.

Chen Y, Peng Y, Fang P. 2016. Emotional Intelligence Mediates the Relationship between Age and Subjective Well-Being. Int J Aging Hum Dev. 2016;83(2):91-107.

Gow, A. J., Bielak, A. A. M., & Gerstorf, D. 2012. Lifestyle factors and cognitive ageing: Variation across ability and lifestyle domains. Journal of Aging Research, 2012.

Joubert, C., & Chainay, H. 2018. Aging brain: the effect of combined cognitive and physical training on cognition as compared to cognitive and physical training alone – a systematic review. Clinical interventions in aging, 13, 1267–1301.

Jones, F. Benjamin, Pierre Azoulay, and Javier Miranda. 2019. Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship. American Economic Review: Insights.

Kopp A, Jekauc D. 2018. The Influence of Emotional Intelligence on Performance in Competitive Sports: A Meta-Analytical Investigation. Sports (Basel). 2018;6(4):175.

Lövdén, M., Fratiglioni, L., Glymour, M. M., Lindenberger, U., & Tucker-Drob, E. M. 2020. Education and Cognitive Functioning Across the Life Span. Psychological science in the public interest : a journal of the American Psychological Society, 21(1), 6–41.

Marin MM, Bhattacharya J. 2013. Getting into the musical zone: trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists. Front Psychol. 2013;4:853.

Rutjes, A. W., Denton, D. A., Di Nisio, M., Chong, L. Y., Abraham, R. P., Al-Assaf, A. S., Anderson, J. L., Malik, M. A., Vernooij, R. W., Martínez, G., Tabet, N., & McCleery, J. 2018. Vitamin and mineral supplementation for maintaining cognitive function in cognitively healthy people in mid and late life. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 12(12), CD011906.

Lan, Lin & Wang, Jingxuan & Zhenrong, F & Xuetao, W & Shuicai, W. 2019. A review on brain age prediction in brain ageing. Journal of biomedical engineering. 36. 493-497.

Soto-Quijano DA. 2017. The Competitive Senior Athlete. Phys Med Rehabil Clin N Am. 2017;28(4):767–776. 2019. Peggy McFall, Kirstie L. McDermott, Roger A. Dixon.2019. Modifiable Risk Factors Discriminate Memory Trajectories in Non-Demented Aging: Precision Factors and Targets for Promoting Healthier Brain Aging and Preventing Dementia?Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2019;70(s1):S101-S118.

Ubago-Jiménez, J. L., González-Valero, G., Puertas-Molero, P., & García-Martínez, I. 2019. Development of Emotional Intelligence through Physical Activity and Sport Practice. A Systematic Review. Behavioral sciences, 9(4), 44.

Weis, Susanne & Süß, Heinz-Martin. 2005. Social Intelligence–A Review and Critical Discussion of Measurement Concepts.

Wilson, R. S., et al. 2004. Religious Orders Study: Overview and change in cognitive and motor speed. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 11, 280–303.