24 September 09

The stellar performance of 59 year-old Tom Watson at the Open championship at Turnberry has brought into question the Royal and Ancient’s age limitation rules in the Open championship and more generally, sparked discussion as to the place of upper age limits in sport. Do they serve a valid role or are they arbitrary and unjustifiably discriminatory?  

By way of background to golf’s recent experience:

To automatically qualify for the tournament under rules brought about two years ago, past Open champions are required to be aged 60 or under on the final day of the tournament, a reduction from the previous maximum age of 65. The reduction was made in order give more spaces in the championship to younger players, allegedly in their prime, to compete. Watson was amongst those consulted on the matter and offered his support to the move.

As a consequence, his appearance in next year’s tournament at St Andrews will be his last as a past champion (he also qualifies by finishing in the top 10 this year). In subsequent years he would be required to finish in the top 10 the previous year, win the 2010 British Senior Open or qualify in order to compete in the tournament.

On the issue more generally:

• The current legal stance.
• Incidents of other arbitrary age limits in sport.
• Examples of Young and Old Sporting Achievements.

BASL Board Member, Jane Mulcahy of Blackstone Chambers, has said of the issue, "The prohibition against age discrimination could be a real problem for employers in sport. For example, can a well known football club justify giving footballers aged over 30 a year's contract only, when they are happy to give longer contracts to younger players? And can clubs really show that strikers have to retire before goalkeepers? The interesting anomaly about age discrimination is that there is no sporting exception, as there is (in some circumstances) for sex and race discrimination. So if actions based on age can't be justified as proportionate, there could be all sorts of trouble."

To share your own thoughts and experiences on the issue, please visit the discussion board.

* BASL would like to thank Andrew Harris for his considerable contribution to this article.