Sports are not an activity that easily lends itself to age. There are many physical demands which make it impossible to continue playing beyond a certain age. That is why retirement is the bane of most sports people and they normally retire once they start losing matches on a fairly regular basis. It is at that point that they recognize that the time is up. You can then not associate that sort of system with elderly care. We are going to try and do the impossible by bringing to the table a proposition for using the golf model to try and end the type of discrimination that we see in other areas of life. We know that the article has a propensity to create controversy but it is still an area which people can explore to see whether we can learn something from this sport.
Removing Barriers
Rather than outright ageism, many of the problems that older people face are due to ignorance. Some people completely refuse to accept that there is discrimination of any sort and they will go out of their way to avoid mentioning it as a factor in the work that they do. Some sports associations have always been guilty of this. Elderly people are left behind in barriers that do not allow them to enjoy the last few days of their lives. Golf is a wonderful pastime that gives elderly people the time and space to relax. The pace at which events are organized is also conducive to a semi retirement mind frame. Therefore you will have a situation whereby many golf clubs have a very good representation of elderly people who form the hub of the community.
It is not clear to me whether golf has reached this stage through planning or by accident. It might very well be that the golfing community has never decided that it wanted to promote elderly people as part of its clientele. Rather it might well be that the nature of the sport simply attracted that segment of the market. What is deliberate is the way they treat the people when they get there. You find that respect and gentleness are always valued in golf and for people with older fashioned values this can go a long way to gaining the loyalty of that particular customer base.
We would go as far as saying that in the same way that we have senior events in golf and tennis, other sports can follow suit. There is nothing stopping elderly people from playing football or badminton if they feel up to it. We would envisage that this would go beyond the traditional domain of ex professional players but could also include amateurs who just happen to be old but love the sport nonetheless. There does not have to be massive amounts of money. The participation itself might just do the trick and cause happiness and relief for many pensioners. If golf and other sports believe this is impossible, then they might want to consider sponsoring other initiative which supports elderly activities.
