Oh boy, who let me back in the kitchen? Because I’m cooking once again (yes, mom, I know you shouldn’t start a sentence with “because” but you’re not my editor so boom, get roasted).
On June 29th, there was a golf match between NFL superstars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs versus NBA superstars Steph Curry and Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors.
The outing, simply called “The Match”, was be a 12-hole event at Wynn Las Vegas and it will be the eighth iteration of this type of golf match pitting celebrity athletes against one another on a golf course.
Big names are not uncommon for this game. Previous installments have included: Pat Mahomes and Steph Curry, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady, Charles Barkley and more.
But what’s exciting about this one is that it was the NFL versus the NBA. Two sports duking it out in what some may consider an unusual but exciting arena. And each sport has sent some intriguing challengers to fight on their behalf.
It almost feels like celebrity boxing but for athletes in the off-season. And that’s why I find the idea so interesting.
But before I go on my tirade about what I think competitions like this offer for the future of sports, let’s take a look at each athlete participating and try to breakdown their golf games in the most uneducated and least golf-savvy lens possible.
It’s shocking to me that I’m writing two golf-themed articles in back-to-back weeks.
Now, I could give you my view on what makes a golfer good or bad. But that would be really, really bad content. So, instead, I’ll be using these five qualities listed by Shane Ryan at golf.com as to what every “tour pro” has.
Those five are: natural talent or just one’s innate ability to play the game, inflated confidence or a heightened sense of self-belief, intense competitive drive, selfishness (more for the pro scene), and obsession.
Not so surprisingly, you’ll find these qualities in many of the best athletes regardless of what sport they play. However, for golf, in a sport that is so reliant on the individual, these types of characteristics can be vital to one’s success and/or failure.
This might be a wee bit extreme because at the end of the day, this is just a fun off-season activity for all four of these athletes. However, I’d be shocked if they were coming in with the mindset of “nah, I don’t care what happens.” Even if they’re not going 100%, I’m assuming that, to a certain extent, they’d want to win.
With these attributes in mind, let’s now dive into our athletes who are playing in The Match. For starters, let’s break down team NFL. To kick things off, we have Pat Mahomes.
This is not new territory for Pat (can I call him that or is that unprofessional?). Last year, he and fellow MVP candidate Josh Allen took on legends of the game Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady. Sadly, Pat and Josh took the L. But do not let that fool you: Pat has game.
According to Dylan Dethier of golf.com, Mahomes has been playing golf since he was a young lad as he would play with his father, a former MLB pitcher, during the off-season. While baseball and football (especially the latter) became more of his focus, Pat never completely forgot how to play golf.
Dethier says that Mahomes claims to have a personal best of 76 on an 18-hole course. 76 divided by 18 equals. . . let me pull out my calculator. . . 4.2 which essentially means that on his personal best, he was finding the hole on an average of just over four shots per hole.
What is the average par for a typical 18-hole golf course? Between 69-73 according to golfcircuit.com, not too terribly shy of Pat Mahomes’ 76.
Granted, that’s operating under what Mahomes declares as his best round. His average is most likely higher. But even then, let’s say his average is 84, he’s still hitting just about 10-15 over the average par-per-18 holes.
Bascially, Mahomes on average is probably going to finish with an average of a bogey every other hole. Not bad, especially for a guy who isn’t a professional golfer.
However, The Match isn’t a standard 18-hole golf outing with scoring done in the traditional sense. Instead, it’s 12 holes, each team winning a hole based on their performances at each one, until the winning team is decided.
In baseball and football, we’ve seen Pat display those traits of pro tour golfers we were mentioning earlier: talent, drive, competitiveness, and obsession. But I’m very interested to see how these translate in his second outing at The Match.
So, for Pat to really shine, he will have to not only shake off last year’s result, but also find himself in that peak 76 shot form. He has the potential to make some magical plays on Thursday, and given how relaxed but confident he seems, I believe he is truly going to give the Splash Brothers some mighty competition.
Shifting gears, let’s now take a look at his teammate and Super Bowl-winning colleague Travis Kelce. Unlike Mahomes, this is the generational tight end’s first appearance at The Match.
He does have some golf experience though, finishing in 64th (Mahomes finished in 51st there) at the American Century Championship last year with a handicap of 11. Farouk Yusuf of Sportskeeda says that Kelce has been seen on golf courses throughout the NFL off-season working on his game.
Travis Kelce is a big dude. At 6’5, 250 pounds, the tight end brings a combination of dazzling skill and raw athleticism to his play on the gridiron. And not surprisingly, we’ve seen that he is talented, competitive, has drive, and so on.
And while he doesn’t seem to have quite the golfing talent as his Kansas City colleague, it seems like he’s really trying to improve himself with Yusuf even saying that in 2021, Kelce admitted to looking up to Tiger Woods as a golfing role model.
For Kelce to shine, I think he needs to avoid putting pressure on himself. He isn’t going to have the golfing resume of both his friend and foes, but he has been working. If he can just go out there and be solid, get into a groove, he might be able to do some damage out there.
As a team, here’s how I see the Mahomes-Kelce duo playing. Kelce’s objective is to go out there and focus on solid, general progression forward. Yes, he may not be the best out there, but if he can be consistent and hold his own, that takes a lot of pressure off Mahomes to produce desperate plays.
For Mahomes, I think he will probably be more adventurous on the golf course taking riskier shots in an effort to make some exciting plays. He will probably hit some truly special shots out there, and that will really amp up the pressure for Steph and Klay.
Heading across the court, let’s now start talking about team NBA or the Splash Bros. For this section, we will go in reverse and start out with someone who hasn’t played in The Match before and then end with the person making a return visit.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at Klay Thompson.
3-point sniper, defensive maestro, what else can I say about Klay Thompson that many haven’t said already? The man is an NBA legend who will most certainly end up in basketball’s hall of fame when all is said and done.
However, at golf, he is. . . not quite as dominant. Don’t get me wrong, Klay Thompson would wipe the floor with me if we went to play 18 holes together. I quite frankly suck at golf. So, no disrespect.
However, his track record in golf is not quite as illustrious as his peer. Far from, actually.
According to Siddhant Gupta of Sportskeeda, Klay Thompson is well aware of his golf shortcomings. But to put them into a little more context, Thompson allegedly has a handicap of 15 which, according to Gupta, indicates he is “below average” at golf.
Remember: Kelce’s handicap was 11. Thompson’s is four above that which would indicate that on average, Kelce is a better golfer than Thompson.
However, like Kelce, Thompson has been taking time to try to improve his game. And hopefully that improvement will shine through when matchday rolls around.
I personally like hearing that these athletes are taking time in their off-seasons to prepare for this. It shows me that these players truly do have competitive drives, and that’s why I don’t think that either team will be looking to lose. I think both teams really want to win this, even if it’s not the end of the world for either of them.
So, for Klay to shine, I don’t think it’s a matter of going out there and trying to be the best. Like Kelce, I think the objective for Klay is to show off that off-season work and just go out there and prove that you can hold your own. Be consistent and just focus on the fundamentals you have developed.
And for the second of the Splash Bros, we have the baby-faced assassin himself (one of my favorite sports nicknames of all time) Steph Curry.
The greatest shooter of all time, MVP, and one of the most influential players in basketball history, Steph is just awesome.
And don’t get it twisted, he’s not just awesome on the basketball court.
Curry has participated in The Match before. And while he wasn’t able to get a W out of it, don’t let that fool you: he has some serious golfing talent.
You know how we were talking about Klay’s handicap of 15 and how that indicates that he’s not a great golfer? Well, Curry’s is a +1. According to Gupta, that means he’s better than par for the most part and, “is even eligible to play in a US Open qualifier.”
Yeah, Curry has some serious skills.
In an article from SFGATE, Zach Zafran (double z, what a cool name) talked to various golf experts to analyze how good Curry truly is last year. Some believed that he had a chance at a professional golf career. And while other experts weren’t so sure, all of those who were asked about Curry’s golf game all had praise for the NBA legend saying that he was truly a good golf player.
And to demonstrate that Curry isn’t just looking at golf as a fun way to kill some time, Josh Sens of golf.com notes that Curry has gone on to try to grow the game of golf for others.
In a 2022 article, Sens discusses how Steph Curry has established the Curry Cup in his passion project called the Underrated Golf Tour. The tour is designed to give people access to golf that they might not have normally had a chance of.
Basically, not only is Curry really good at golf, he’s also really passionate about it. He spends a great deal of time away from the court to focus on the course. Not just for him, but also for a future generation of golfers he wants to bring to the forefront.
So, for Curry to shine, just let chef Curry cook. Like seriously, just watch him play and marvel at his ability. He’s going to deliver some special moments at The Match and he’s definitely going to keep him and Klay in the mix at any point in the competition regardless of the score.
Now let’s look at the team dynamic for team NBA aka Splash Bros. Ironically, it’s a hyper-inflated version of Mahomes’ and Kelce’s dynamic.
For Klay, he will just need to focus on the fundamentals and not dig himself into too many major holes. Just play cool, calm, collected, and make solid, consistent efforts. While he may not be a huge difference maker, he can definitely help Steph out if he just avoids any major errors.
For Steph, just let it rip, man. We all know what you’re capable of. Nuff said.
Alright, it’s time for my prediction that you didn’t ask for. And after considerable consideration, I am considering picking. . .
Team Splash Bros in a close one.
The way I see it, both Kelce and Klay are not great golfers and will probably both be just looking to be solid. So, I see it coming down to a battle of who’s the better of the two “elite” talents between Mahomes and Curry.
And based on my analysis, it’s Curry no debate. While Mahomes is not a golfer to disregard, Curry has more golfing talent. Simple as that.
It’s not a matter of who has the lowest floor to make up for. I think we will all be somewhat pleasantly surprised with Kelce and Klay. For me, though, it comes down to who has the higher ceiling for success, and Curry elevates that for team Splash Bros.
To be honest, I don’t know anything about golf. So, you’re probably best not to use my prediction as truth. I’m not an oracle looking into a crystal-clear golf ball.
But wow, was this fun. And that’s why I love concepts like this: bringing athletes out of there comfort zones into different sports to see how they’ll do.
Professional athletes are professional athletes for a reason. They are super athletic and have innate sporting ability.
However, it’s fun to test those limits. And I want to see more of it in the future.
Yeah, sure, I’ll take more golf matches if that’s the case. Give me Messi and Ronaldo on a golf course so we can finally solve this GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) debate once and for all.
However, I want us to keep pushing the limit as to what’s possible.
For example, I want to see the best pitchers in the MLB play ping pong or MLS teams send their best hacky sack players to a hacky sack world cup.
Give me Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan in a celebrity shuffle board match up or Rafeal Nadal doing double-dutch. We already have celebrity boxing, but do more of it (safely, of course).
Basically, my point is that things like The Match give us fun and exciting avenues to shake up sports and put on these mini-spectacles of “oh, that’s neat!”
Could you imagine at the next NFL Pro Bowl mini games event having the NFC and AFC send out their best athletes to play non-tackle Kabaddi? Make it happen, Rodger.
Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Thought Bubble. Thought Bubble is a weekly reoccurring sports column that is designed to humorously discuss sporting ideas that, while perhaps ridiculous, are intriguing, nonetheless.
