It truly is a pursuit for all the ages.
From the evergreen 49-year-old Miguel Angel Jimenez to the 16-year-old Lydia Ko, with 42-year-old Thomas Bjorn getting in on the act for good measure, yesterday's global golf scene was more like an episode of the Generation Game.
In the Far East, a resurgent Jimenez extended his own record as the European Tour's oldest winner by retaining his Hong Kong Open title after a play-off with Stuart Manley and Prom Meesawat.
Meanwhile, Ko, the teenage New Zealander who had already won three main tour events as an amateur, made her mark in just her second start as a professional by winning the Swinging Skirts World Ladies' Masters in Taiwan.
Down in South Africa, Bjorn struck another blow for the old guard when he powered to a two-shot victory over Sergio Garcia and Jamie Donaldson in the Nedbank Golf Challenge with a sizzling 65. It was Jimenez who got the ball rolling on a super Sunday as he birdied the first extra hole with a superb putt from 18 feet to capture his 20th European Tour title just a few weeks before his 50th birthday.
"I love this place, I love this golf course, I love the tournament," said Jimenez, who signed for a closing 66 as he captured the event for a record fourth time on an eventful afternoon which saw Manley chip in on the last to barge his way into the three-man shoot-out.
With 13 victories since turning 40, Jimenez now has his sights set on becoming Europe's oldest Ryder Cup player next year. He reaches his half century on January 5 and would comfortably beat the record of Ted Ray - who was 50 years, two months and five days old at the inaugural contest in 1927 - if he can qualify for Gleneagles next September.
"If I play the way I am playing this week I will be in the Ryder Cup team," he insisted. "I would love to be part of the team again."
Bjorn, who beat Scotland's Craig Lee to the Omega European Masters crown in a play-off in September, also bolstered his Ryder Cup bid with a sparkling win in Sun City.
The Dane, who is tipped to become a future Ryder Cup captain, showed once again that he still has plenty to offer as a player as he packed a brace of eagles into a closing seven-under card to finish on a 20-under total.
It was Donaldson who led the way entering the final round, but Garcia came charging into contention with a streak of four birdies from the sixth.
Bjorn had stayed hot on their heels courtesy of three birdies before the turn and he upped the ante on the back nine with eagles at 10 and 14 which propelled him towards a 15th European Tour title.
"This is right up there with the best days of my career," said Bjorn who took home the biggest cheque of his career worth $1.25 million and moved to the top of the early Race to Dubai rankings.
"You never forget your first victory, and then my win against Tiger Woods in Dubai, when I went toe-to-toe with him for four days and came out top was special, but winning here in the way that I did against a field of this quality is up there."
On the women's front, Ko has not taken long to adapt to life as a professional golfer following her record-breaking escapades as an amateur and her victory yesterday will have silenced those doubters who questioned whether the schoolgirl would remain as prolific when money was on the line.
The young Kiwi produced a back-nine assault and closed with a three-under-par 69 to finish at 11-under, three shots ahead of former US Women's Open champion So Yeon Ryu and four clear of world No.1 Inbee Park.
Ko turned down close to $2m in prize money as an amateur, but the bank account is up and running now, having earned a first prize of $181,000 to add to the $20,000 she made for a top-25 finish in her first professional start last month.
Elsewhere, English 17-year-old Charley Hull, who starred for Europe in their Solheim Cup win over the US earlier this year, claimed the Ladies' European Tour's rookie of the year award after an eighth-place finish in the Omega Dubai Ladies' Masters.
Thailand's Pornanong Phatlum edged out world No.3 Stacy Lewis to the Dubai title by a shot with a 15-under tally. Scotland's Vikki Laing dropped from third to a share of fifth with a 76.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article