It’s been an amazing few weeks of golf for Scottish tennis legend Andy Murray.
The two-time Wimbledon champion has fallen in love with golf since hanging up his racquet, impressing observers with how quickly his handicap dropped from 20 to single digits in one year.
In late August, he ventured to St. Andrews and quickly made a spectacular eagle putt from Sin Valley on the par-4 18th hole.
But he wasn’t even halfway there. In mid-September, he made another eagle on the par-5 18th hole at Wentworth in the BMW PGA Championship.
Just last week, he competed in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, finishing in the top 20 in the team event with Eddie Pepperell.
After a round at Wentworth, he chatted to Golf365 about his love of golf and his ambitions to compete in the Open Regional Qualifiers.
Andy Murray on transition from tennis to golf
“I love that in golf, you have time to reflect and calm down between shots. In tennis, your heart rate gets really high, you hit a long point, a big point, and the tension builds.
“To me, the hardest part of golf is not between shots, but when you’re standing next to the ball and making sure you don’t have too many thoughts in your head and actually just letting the club move normally. That’s the hard part.”
Game plan as a golfer
“I’ve always been told to chart my own course on the course. The pros can do that and it’s great to see them do that in the pro-am.
“I think this can help amateur golfers to an extent, but the reality is we don’t always hit the ball where we want it to! I could say I wanted to hit the ball to the left side of the fairway, but it ended up 20 yards into the rough on the right side. Well, game planning doesn’t really help!”
Playing with Gareth Bale
“I’ve played with him a few times socially. He’s a member of Wentworth and we message each other in the group chat with a couple of other people. He’s been playing for a long time and I think he’s played a lot in football as well. He’s a really good golfer. I love playing with him.”
On his open regional qualifying ambitions
“I don’t have ambitions to compete in the Open itself. But I want to compete and test myself because I love it. It’s the competitor in me and I wanted to know what it would be like to compete in the regional qualifiers.
“A couple of my friends had done it and it was a goal to work towards getting better. I knew I didn’t really have any chance of qualifying for the Open. The difference between a junior golfer and a pro on tour – that’s a huge gap. That’s another thing you realize in the pro-am.
“Even though I’m playing three or four times a week, there’s still a long way to go. I won’t be competing in regional qualifiers next year, but maybe in a few years I’ll be at a level where I won’t completely embarrass myself. You never know.”
On the difference between tennis crowd and golf crowd
“Well, for one thing, when I play tennis, the crowd is not at risk! In tennis, sometimes the crowd becomes the norm and other times I use it to my advantage.
“It gives me a positive energy, an adrenaline rush. In golf I’m more aware that someone is watching, to be honest, because you might do something embarrassing. I’m more afraid of golf spectators than tennis spectators, but that’s because I might do something wrong!”
About missing tennis
“I don’t really miss it. I drove past Wimbledon a few times during the championship and thought it would be nice to keep playing, but that was it.
“It wasn’t then and it never will be again. It’s the same thing with coaching. I like some parts of it, but now I don’t want to be on the road. I just don’t want to do it.”
Hit Eagle-2 with a long putt in the Valley of Sin
“It’s crazy. I’ve never made a putt like that in my life and probably never will again. It’s about 100 feet. I saw Costantino Rocca’s famous putt from there at the 1995 Open. My putt was longer!
“When I reflect on it, my reaction was kind of awkward, I was jumping up and down. I’ve never seen anyone do that on a golf course unless they’ve won a major or something.
“I think tennis players are naturally more excited when they play, whereas golfers have to be more focused.”
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