Here are some world-class sports stars for whom golf is only their secondary sporting interest, but who also excel at the sport. Who said life is fair?
Steph Curry
Stephen Curry made an 18-foot putt for eagle on the final hole to close out his win at the American Century Championship last year. The Golden State Warriors basketball star had made a hole-in-one earlier in this celebrity tournament.
Curry has been playing golf since he was 10 years old and has taken his handicap to +2. He takes his golf seriously, and has had much coaching, including from Butch Harmon, who says of him: “He’s an incredibly talented golfer, with tremendous, natural ability. He played in a Web.Com event and shot 74-74, which is remarkable for an athlete from another sport.”
Curry sees similarities between basketball and golf: “In both sports, when you find that flow, to be able to stay in that space for as long as you can and enjoy it, there’s no better feeling. The next shot mentality is huge in both, but basketball’s a little more reactive so you don’t have too much time to dwell on what’s going on. In golf, you have a long walk from shot to shot to deal with the thoughts going on between the ears.”
Tony Romo
Tony Romo had won the American Century Championship in 2018. That season he also competed on the PGA Tour on a sponsor’s invite in an alternate event, the Corales Puntacana Championship. He finished last with scores of 77 and 82. However the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback is an excellent golfer, whose handicap has been reported as +3.3. Tiger Woods has described Romo and John Smoltz as being the best celebrity golfers he has played with.
Babe Zaharias
The greatest all-round sporting golfer must surely be Babe Zaharias née Didrikson. In the Amateur Athletic Association Championship of 1932 she won the 80m hurdles and javelin outright and was joint winner of the high jump, thus qualifying for the Olympics in these disciplines. She also won the long jump, shot putt and baseball throw at these Championships. At the Olympics she won gold medals in the javelin and hurdles, setting world records in both, and a silver medal in the long jump. She then got into golf and won 10 women’s Majors.
John Smoltz
Former All-Star baseball pitcher John Smoltz has made several unsuccessful attempts to qualify for the PGA Senior Tour through Q School, and last year made the 2024 PGA Tour Champions Qualifying Tournament-Final Stage. He did however qualify for the US Senior Open in 2020, where he missed the cut after rounds of 85-77. He has had at least eight holes-in-one, including one on a 334-yard par 4. His handicap has been reported as being +1.5.
John Brodie
The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who was awarded the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 1970, joined the Senior PGA Tour in 1990 and the following year won the Security Pacific Senior Classic. He therefore joined a roster of winners that season which included Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Bob Charles and Lee Trevino.
Jerry Rice
Considered one of the greatest wide receivers the NFL has seen, Jerry Rice is another who tried his hand on the pro golf circuit, playing in the Stonebrae Classic on the Nationwide Tour from 2010 to 2012 on sponsor’s invites. He played regularly during his NFL career and, at it lowest, his handicap was +2. He has described his dream fourball partners as Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. However he once turned down the chance to play with Tiger Woods, when Woods was at Stanford University, Rice not feeling his own game was up to it at that stage.
Tim Henman
From a young age, Tim Henman always had his sights on a professional sports career: if not tennis, it would be golf. He started playing golf aged 5, two years after he had begun playing tennis. He is a plus handicapper and a member at Sunningdale, where his best round is 66. He has also shot 66 round the Old Course at St Andrews in the Dunhill Links Championship. He was playing with Colin Montgomerie, who shot 72.
Sir Viv Richards
The Antigua and Barbuda Golf team that won the 2022 Eastern Caribbean Golf Championships in St Lucia contained a couple of famous ex cricketers. Former West Indies captain Sir Viv Richards was selected in the Super Senior category and Eldine Baptiste competed in the Senior one. The following year in this championship, St Lucia’s Daren Sammy, another former West Indies captain, won the Open category, despite only having played golf for two years.
