Pro athletes taking up golf in their downtime is so common these days that it borders on cliche. LeBron James is our most recent example, toting a cigar between his teeth and a wipey lash between his hands just last week. It’s a fantastic thing our sport has — this recreational accessibility.
But how many of these athletes are doing the golf for a specific reason. Steph Curry comes to mind. His coach admitted in the spring that Curry plays better on the court when he’s playing more frequently from the fairways. But golf is rarely as instrumental for athletes as it is deconstructive. There’s The Season, and then there’s The Golf Season.
Just don’t tell that to Carlos Alcaraz.
The best tennis player on the planet, and the leading star of the next generation of racquet ballers, talks about golf as if he needs it. And he’s been talking about it the last two weeks as much as ever before — all while cruising to the semifinals at Wimbledon.
Alcaraz has been devoting most of his off-days from tennis to its country club cousin, teeing it up almost every other day. He played with fellow tennis great Andy Murray in the week before Wimbledon kicked off, which feels a bit like Scottie Scheffler playing tennis against Jim Furyk before the Masters. (Scheffler’s pickleball game is mighty good, we should add.) Murray beat him soundly — likening it to “6-2, 6-2” in tennis terms — but Alcaraz got him back in a 9-hole match a few days later. Game 3 of this series went Murray’s way, but every additional tennis win brings more chances for payback, and a much loftier crowd.
He’s the fourth-best tennis player in the world, and he can beat you at golf
It seemed these rest-day matches reached a fever pitch when Alcaraz was asked about the results in a post-win interview, but the storyline increased by a magnitude of immense fame Tuesday when Alcaraz went out of his way to request a prospective match with Tom Holland.
The Spiderman actor was on hand for the tennis — sitting in the Royal Box, as world-famous actors do — and introduced himself to Alcaraz pre-match, only to have the tennis star immediately begin asking to set up a tee time. It was as if he knew his tennis would afford him some extra time in the London area. Sure enough, after his quarterfinal win — which suddenly guaranteed him two off days — Alcaraz made his golf goals even more public.
“For sure I’m going to play some golf, just to switch up my mind a little bit,” Alcaraz said. “It’s the thing that I’m doing that’s working, so I have to keep doing it. I will try to go play some golf.”
In a press conference later on, he added, “I would love to play against [Holland] in the golf course. For me it would be such an honor. I will try to set it up in these two days that I will have much time to do it. So let’s see if he will be available, and we’ll tee it up.”
If that match doesn’t come through, he can always find a worthy partner in his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, who has plenty of game, and even caddied for Sergio Garcia in a DP World Tour event a decade ago.
When Alcaraz laughs about golf and lobs his cheery smile at thousands of tennis fans at Centre Court, it might sound like just another frivolous hobby, but he’s been preaching about the positive effects of golf on his psyche for more than a year now. It was during last spring’s Indian Wells event that he had a bit of an awakening to how he needed to focus on having fun away from the court to get himself into a different, competitive fun feeling on the court.
“With my entourage, doing what I love and what calms me down outside the court,” Alcaraz said in March 2024. “In Indian Wells, I was able to do it, golf is something that calms me down and in Indian Wells, I played almost every day (laughs), it helped me a lot. Feeling alive again on the field helps me a lot.”
While his tennis has an unmistakable sense of flair and energy, Alcaraz’ golf swing is technically sound, compact and strong. His swing has improved immensely in the last year, which is hard to ignore given he is often caught rehearsing it behind the scenes at the All England Lawn Club, even in the moments right before a match.
