Let It Loose, Marco: It’s Never Too Late to Succeed

Have you ever heard of Marco Dawson? I’ll give you a hint. He’s an American, fifty-one years old. You don’t have a clue? I’ll give you one more hint. He plays professional golf.

Still drawing a blank? Me too, until noon last Sunday, when I watched Marco, on ESPN, sink a birdie putt on the final hole to win The Senior Open golf tournament in Great Britain. He beat the best two golfers on the Champions Tour (that’s a euphemism for professional golfers at least fifty years old). At the end Bernard Langer of Germany and Colin Montgomerie from Great Britain trailed Marco by a single stroke (Langer) or two (Montgomerie). That’s like two lions fighting with you for more than a mile, each trying to steal your dinner.

Even though Marco started playing professional golf in 1985 (eleven years before Tiger Woods) he had never won a single tournament before this year. Not one. In fact, he seldom qualified to play in the golf’s major tournaments at all. Throughout his career Marco played in a total of 413 tournaments on the PGA tour, and 161 tournaments on the web.com tour (whatever that is). Before his fifty-first birthday his record for winning was zero for 574. That’s a long dry spell. In fact, it was one extended career-long drought.

As you can imagine, in his television interview after the tournament, Marco asked the viewers to understand if he was trembling.

“I spent a long time practicing and playing over the years,” he said, “and I felt like it’s time to quit playing conservatively and scared. I felt that I played most of my career that way. I finally decided to simply let it loose, let go. . . It’s so much fun playing that way.”

That’s good advice for all of us, at any age, in any arena of life. “Let it loose, let go. . . It’s so much fun playing that way.”

You don’t need to have had prior success in life to succeed. Persistence and passion pay off. You can enjoy your first big day in the sun when you’re fifty-one years old, or at any age for that matter. You can “let it loose” and “let go,” delight in the very best day of your life, and you can do that today.

Thanks, Marco, for reminding us that it’s never too late to succeed. We can achieve anything when we persevere. And congratulations. You are my hero.

Alan