Teeing off with the next generation

I knew I was in trouble when a 19-year-old I was playing a practice round with called me "Uncle" right before splitting the fairway with a 350-yard bomb off the tee.

- Rahil Gangjee

"Good shot, beta," I replied. With a straight face. Because sometimes sarcasm is your only defense.

It's official. I'm the elder statesman now. When did that happen? One moment, I was the brash young rebel wearing bucket hats and triple-checking my hairstyle before a round. The next, I'm explaining to a kid what a fax machine was.

Golf, unlike most sports, has a long shelf life. That's the beauty of it. You can still shoot under par with a dodgy back and a smarter short game. But somewhere along the way, the locker room chatter shifted from Tiger and Phil to "Dude, did you see that Ludvig Aberg swing breakdown on YouTube?"

Half of these kids don't even know what Jeev Milkha Singh meant to Indian golf. "You mean the golfer before Anirban Lahiri?" one of them asked me with genuine innocence. I almost fainted.