Jon Super / AP, Getty Images, Icon SMI

Tom Watson joined swimmer Dara Torres, left, and pitcher Nolan Ryan in showing that athletes can succeed after their primes.

The key, Torres said, is learning to use your head just as much as your body. Watson, for instance, doesn't work out all that much but he always makes sure to stretch vigorously before a round.

"If I have a choice between hitting a bucket of balls and stretching," he said, "I'll stretch."

Added Torres, "When you're younger, you feel invincible. Your feel like you can do anything. It doesn't matter, you'll be able to bounce back or work through it. When you get a little bit older, you have to listen to your body, give yourself more rest. You have to realize that you don't have to be practicing as much as the other players. Just do what's best for you and your body."

Just last weekend, 50-year-old Mark Martin won his fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup race of the year, more than any other driver.

"That adrenaline is something, there's nothing like it," Martin said. "When I'm pumped up driving fast race cars, I certainly don't feel 50."

There's no age limit in racing. Also Sunday, 81-year-old Hershel McGriff became the oldest driver to take part in a national NASCAR series race by qualifying for an event in Portland, Ore.

"I haven't had anyone tell me that I'm crazy," he cracked.

Maybe the Royal & Ancient, should reconsider its entry requirements, which allow past champions to play only until they're 60. That rule seems a little out of place, now doesn't it, especially on the links courses used for the Open, which tend to favor experience over being able to hit the ball a mile.

"When all is said and done," said Watson, his eyes tearing up and unlikely to dry anytime soon, "one of the things I hope will come out of my life is that my peers will say, 'You know, that Watson, he was a hell of a golfer.'"

Still is.

Age, after all, is just a number.