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WELLINGTON - Frank Nobilo knows time is running out as he strives to energise a career that came close to stalling.
Nobilo turns 40 in May, a high-water mark as the tide of his career begins to ebb.
Conventional wisdom argues that a golfer's most productive years are from the ages of 30 to 40.
During that time Nobilo rose to a career-high world ranking of 21 before 18 months of physical and mental torment reduced the proud New Zealander to a desperate dogfight to protect his exempt status on the United States PGA Tour in 1999.
He failed, he no longer features among even the leading 200 players in the world, and now finds himself with the humbling experience of seeking sponsors' invitations to appear on the PGA Tour this year, where he has played fulltime since 1997 after establishing himself in Europe.
If not in the autumn of his career, Nobilo acknowledges he has reached an intersection of some significance.
He considers he still has some seriously good golf to play and is buoyed after a six-week break with his family in Florida.
Six months ago, Nobilo had almost reached breaking point. He was worn out, physically and mentally, from a series of injuries after being diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis in his shoulder and wrists in 1997.
He has now weaned himself off the cocktail of drugs used to ease the pain, lost close to 5kg in weight, and is practically champing at the bit to play in his opening event of the year, the Bob Hope Classic in Palm Springs next week.
He sounds a changed man, his morale boosted by a strong finish to 1999. He was seventh in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Taiwan before finishing with the second-best individual score, behind world No 1 Tiger Woods at the World Cup of Golf in Malaysia.
That was his best score since winning the 1997 Hong Kong Open.
Nobilo seriously doubts that the milestone of his 40th birthday signals the end of his best golf.
"One thing I haven't achieved is win a major. I've won in Europe, Australasia, Europe, America - everywhere I've played on a regular basis - and in 1996 I had top-10 finishes in all four majors, with a best placing of fourth in the Masters."
He enjoyed the environment and wanted to play in it again.
"You have to keep going. Look at someone like Steve Jones. He had a motorcycle accident and was out of the game for a couple of years and won a major [US Open in 1996].
"You can come back. If you deal with adversity, well, maybe it can make you stronger for that type of event.
"If at the end of my career I haven't done it, that's fine. I can live with the fact I tried."
Nobilo said it was unfortunate some of his good years were taken away by injury.
"From 30 to 40 you mature a lot as far as the game is concerned. You realise there are some things you can't do. That's why normally as a competitor you compete quite well between those years."
It has been said that motivation started to wane more than anything. The best days were over for anyone who lacked the motivation to play or practise.
Nobilo has a theory that the common perception about golfers and the 40-year barrier don't strictly apply to New Zealanders.
"I recall speaking to [former international cricketer] Martin Crowe 10 years ago about it. He was saying you have to remember where you come from.
"New Zealanders are traditionally, especially in a game like golf, what you can call late bloomers. It is just the way we are brought up with the game. We don't have a college system like they have in America, or a lot of amateur tournaments like they have in Australia where they have an abundance of great courses."
Many of our better players developed in their late 20s and early 30s.
Nobilo feels invigorated now that he has locked his medicine cabinet and turned to aerobic exercises to regain some fitness.
"Arthritis attacks the joints - ankles, shoulders, wrists, elbows - and I've been using exercises simply to strengthen those areas.
"The drugs - some were like a "mild form of chemotherapy" - completely flattened my immune system. I'm off that stuff now, that was where the problems were coming from.
"The three drugs together, while they suppress a lot of symptoms, are notorious for weakening ligaments and tendons. That's why I kept pulling muscles."
Nobilo has made subtle technical changes to undo the bad habits he picked up while ill.
"I had started to compensate an awful lot for the injuries. It's now a reversal process."
The last six months of 1999 were all about weeding out some problems that had developed in the previous two years.
"I got the club into some bad positions. Now that I feel better my grip has returned to pretty much what it used to be and I can now hit the ball more how I like to.
"I've already started to swing well in practice. It feels more effortless and the power has started to return." - NZPA
Golf: Life can begin at 40 for Frank
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