Somewhat similar story for me, Flyguy46. I never stopped playing casually, but I took 14 years off from playing in tournaments until 2020. My kid has joined me and his skill rapidly intensified over the summer after just turning 12. He beats me about once a week if we play 4 or 5 times, and I'm not a terrible player (just old with no distance from the tee). He has a 934-rated round under his belt in a sanctioned juniors tourney, and on the last night of league here in town he beat EVERYBODY from the short tees at Robert Morris Park, over 30 grown men! He started the year about 750 rated.
I resurrected my game too, but not nearly as much improvement as his. My rating is pretty much back to where it was 20 years ago, but my game is diametrically opposite. I had a brute-force big forehand in my youth with not much else. Now I might barely scrape 300' on my very best drive but I'm almost always in fairways and almost always up and down from 200' on in and can putt my brains out. I got my forehand back after not throwing it at all in over a decade. Took me two years to resurrect it properly without pain. It's 100 feet shorter than it was in 1999, and I was throwing speed 6 and 7 stuff to get that distance back then. Now I throw it differently, finishing with my wrist up like I'm Spiderman, with zero pain. It's accurate and MAYBE 250', but it's a weapon I use all the time.
MA-40+ is SO much fun. It's both competitive and chill. I love it, favorite division I've ever played in by far (which includes Am-2 and Am-1 from the old days).
Fistbumps in the direction of Colorado from Kalamazoo, sir, and welcome back!
