Forgive us, golf insiders, for sharing this little secret with the rest of the world: Tiger Woods likes red shirts. He sports a brand new one, Nike swooshes swooshing, on the final day of every tournament, partly for good luck, but mostly because his opponents tend to bleed a lot. Red also looks pretty snappy underneath a green jacket, no matter how many times (four and counting) Woods wears that combination.

So you can't help but respect Rocco Mediate, Tiger's latest victim. Staring at a one-round, all-or-nothing duel for the U.S. Open title, the middle-aged underdog arrived at the course wearing . . . a red golf shirt. Yes, he looked a bit like Danny DeVito in Twins, a shorter, flabbier version of the greatest player on the planet. But the psych-out almost worked. For 18 historic holes, age matched beauty shot for shot, and when the twosome teed off on the sudden-death 19th, everyone with a receding hairline or a mid-life crisis was rooting for the other guy in red.

In the end, though, older and wiser could not quite overcome younger and ridiculously talented. Mediate hooked his final drive into a sand trap, Woods, 32, tapped in for par, and hackers everywhere lamented what might have been: a 45-year-old U.S. Open champion, the oldest ever.

Not surprisingly, Rocco's narrow defeat was widely eulogized as a brave last stand, a farewell tour of sorts. In the era of Big Bertha technology and 600-yard par fives — a time when Tiger has single-handedly transformed your grandfather's game into, well, your grandson's game — it was easy to get lost in that storyline: Rocco, the last great hope of an entire age bracket. One final chance to prove that the geezers still got some game.

Thank you, folks, but the geezers don't need your pity. If Mediate's magical weekend revealed anything, it's that the grey-haired golfers, not the young guns, are the real demographic to be reckoned with. In fact, today's dominant players are actually much older than their top-ranked counterparts of decades past — and the elite club is only getting older. Consider this surprising stat: in 1980, the average age of the top 10 money winners was exactly 30; today, it's almost 36, with two players — Vijay Singh (45) and Kenny Perry (47) — still swinging strong at Rocco's age and beyond. "Five or six years ago, every columnist was writing about the twentysomethings, all these young guys who were going to turn the golf world upside down," says author and broadcaster John Gordon, an expert on all things golf. "Instead, the exact opposite has happened."

Sure, the twentysomethings have had their moments. Take Trevor Immelman, the 28-year-old South African who wore the green jacket home from this year's Masters. But his victory was a blip, not a trend. Over the past 20 years, the average age of the world's top 10 players (which is different than top 10 money winners) has also increased — from 30.7 in 1988 to 31.4 in 1998, to 35.7 as of this afternoon. The U.S. Open has followed a similar trend. The average age of the past 10 winners is 32. In the 1970s, when legends like Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino were hoisting the silver trophy, the average was 29.

Granted, an average is just that: an average. No number is going to stop a 21-year-old phenom if he's smacking the sweet spot, nor will it keep a 49-year-old veteran from posting the lowest score of his life. But if you're the wagering type, put your money on the vet. He's on a roll. In the long history of the PGA Tour, for example, only six men in their 50s have won a tournament. Two of those victories, by Fred Funk and Craig Stadler, have occurred in the past four years. "To me, it makes total sense," says Sean Foley, one of Canada's top golf instructors. "Forty-eight is the new 30."

Just ask Tommy Armour III. After a late surge, the 48-year-old finished one shot off the lead at the latest PGA event, the Travelers Championship in Connecticut. It was his fourth top-10 finish this season, one more than his grand total over the previous three years. "It has dawned on me that, wow, there are a lot of very mature players winning these days," says 50-year-old Richard Zokol, one of Canada's most recognized golfers. "It's great, but it's really not that surprising."

If 48 truly is the new 30, engineers deserve most of the credit. Fat, forgiving drivers and softer, longer balls have helped many a Tommy Armour stay competitive in a sport that requires much more raw distance than it once did. Countless golf courses, even the grand Augusta National, have been lengthened to compensate for high-tech advancements. But there is some irony in all those renovations: now that science allows everyone — young and old — to whack a ball miles down the fairway, the game still boils down to what you do with that ball once it's in the fairway. "The kids don't realize that how you play 80 yards from the green is the only thing that really matters," says Foley, whose client list includes 44-year-old star Stephen Ames. "You can always learn to hit a driver, but you can't always learn to chip and putt."