It was once written that by the age of fifty you have made yourself what you are, and if it is good it is better than your youth.
That optimistic observation, from the American journalist Marya Mannes, sits very comfortably with those promoting the European Seniors Tour, which gets underway this week.
Of course this being golf - the term European is rather loose - the first three weeks constitute an island-hopping jaunt around the Caribbean that includes visits to Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad.
Normally I tend to be rather cynical - not towards geographical anomalies - but the concept of those being past their sell by date trying to grab a share of the sporting limelight.
 Those who ply their trade on the Seniors Tour play to a standard much more relevant to the enthusiastic amateur |
In my previous role covering tennis I felt that the likes of McEnroe, Borg and co turning up at the Albert Hall could deflect from the real thing.
But there is no doubting the appetite for nostalgia and golf has several significant advantages when it comes to what its senior citizens can produce.
To enjoy a decent tennis match you need two well matched opponents. One of the most pathetically one-sided matches I have ever seen was also one of the most overhyped contests imaginable.
It was at Seniors level when John McEnroe thrashed an over-the-hill Jimmy Connors a couple of years ago - it wasn't pretty viewing.
The eternal contest between the golfer and the course makes for an altogether more appealing spectacle.
No opponent can ever render a golf shot impossible and it can be argued that those who ply their trade on the Seniors Tour play to a standard much more relevant to the enthusiastic amateur.
This may explain why the Tour is going from strength to strength. This year there will be 20 events spread over 13 countries and the total prize fund is set to exceed �4m.
But vital challenges will have to be met if it is to continue to flourish. The likes of Nick Faldo, Severiano Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam will all turn 50 in the next five years.
They will not want for invitations and there will be plenty from the European Tour's American rivals.
Andy Stubbs, managing director of the Tour on this side of the pond, is already exploring ways to entice these key players.
Don't be surprised if in future we will have tournaments bearing the stars' identities in their titles. The solution may well be to offer these big names the chance of event ownership.
In the calendar announced this week there is already the "Nigel Mansell Seniors Classic" in August. If it can work for a former racing driver then the Faldo generation should have little to fear.
That's for the future, but more immediately the European Tour will be bolstered by the arrival of Sam Torrance who turns 50 in August and has committed to play his first two Seniors events at the Roxburghe course in Scotland and at Woburn a week later.
Torrance will also play events in the US, and rest assured he will be keen to make sure that life after 50 is as much fun as in the days of his youth.
MMIX
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