MIND / BEST OVERALL BALLER M
case with his luggage and tennis bags in airports. He loves Indian Wells the first week of March in Palm Springs, Califor- nia, but really looks forward to the US Open in New York in early September. “Guys ask why I play this boring, slow thing. Golf is a game you either feel nothing for or you just love it.” Ruud says the best golfer in pro ten- nis is undoubtedly his doubles partner, William Blumberg, but others mention Sebastian Korda, brother to two famous golfing sisters. A slew of household names is also getting better at an in- furiating pace. Two-time Wimbledon champ Carlos Alcaraz is already a sin- gle-figure handicap after taking up golf during the pandemic. Taylor Fritz, per- haps America’s best hope for a Grand Slam singles title, carries his driver 290 yards at cruising speed. “Both sports are about transferring weight, so I natural- ly had some power in my stroke,” Fritz says. “The constant between the two is that if I’m overthinking, the result will not be as good.” Could a future BOB come from golf? Christo Lamprecht, 23, the former World No 1 amateur who just turned pro, won a national junior doubles title in South Africa at age 13. At 6-foot-8 (2.03m), his serve and net coverage are weapons, but he says his first love was always golf, even when he was enjoying more suc- cess on the court. “The drama of teen- age boys calling balls in and out wasn’t so much for me, but I do miss being so fit. Sometimes I get too steep in my golf swing, and I’ll think of the figure-eight shape of a forehand to shallow it out.” The challenge is a proper format to determine the BOB. The golf half would be straightforward, but even a good tennis player like Lamprecht would lose to Nadal if spotted a 6-0, 6-0, 5-0 lead. How to weigh that result should Lamprecht beat Nadal, 6 and 5, in golf? Nadal versus Fish has the potential to be a closer split result, but there’s no obvious way to measure shots against sets. Back when people hunted their own food, the important biathlete was a swift cross-country skier who could shoot a rifle. We still pay homage during the winter Olympics, but those are bygone days. The time is now to figure out the question above.
TWO-WAY THREAT Lefty Rafael Nadal plays golf righty and could be the BOB.
Who Is the Greatest Golfer-Tennis Player? By Max Adler
B EFORE WE TRY TO ANSWER the question, one thing to set straight: Any cultural rivalry between golf and tennis is like Australia versus New Zealand. Their proximity amid sequestration intensi- fies some ill feelings – I play golf where the tennis courts sit exposed to power hooks off the first tee, which draws disdainful comments from both sides of the fence – but to the rest of the world, the two seem essentially the same. They are the country club sports, the lifetime sports, their addicts un- able to quit the high of making a ball fly just as intended, over and over. Collars preferred but not required. As for Best Overall Baller, or BOB, it’s hard not to start with Rafael Nadal. Tennis fans once panicked when a race- horse of the same name retired, but the human with the second most Grand Slam singles titles (22) is still going at 38. In a style popular among tennis pros, the lefty golfs righty, so his golf swing feels nearly as automatic as a two-hand- ed backhand. On the links, Rafa’s not a talker, nor is he afraid of a tiny pencil.
While rehabbing an injury, he won the 2024 Balearic Mid-Amateur in Mallorca, carding plus-three for 36 holes. Retired Mardy Fish, also mirror meth- od, is likely the better golfer. He has won five “celebrity majors” with two Ameri- can Century Championships and three Hilton Grand Vacations TOCs. Firmly a plus-handicap, it’s merely attaining a rank of seventh in the world that hurts his case more than the notion the BOB should be active in his primary sport. Nine-time winner Matt Kuchar might be the best tennis player on the PGA Tour. When in contention with a late afternoon tee time, he will play tennis “to get loose and kill time,” says Kuchar, who likes “side-on rotational sports” and equates the timing and feel of vol- leying to chipping. It’s not that Kuch’s deep runs with his wife and brother- in-law in national amateur champion- ships aren’t big deals; it’s just that the answer probably isn’t a 46-year-old. Casper Ruud, the 25-year-old Nor- wegian tennis star who reached No 2 in 2022, cards rounds at or near par. He can be seen schlepping his golf-travel
20 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator