Smoltz embraces whole new ball game

On the pitcher’s mound, John Smoltz never shied away from pressure.

This week, the man considered by some to be the most clutch post-season pitcher in baseball history finds himself dealing with an entirely new sort of stress.

The Hall of Famer qualified for a spot in the U.S. Senior Open, which starts Thursday in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Instead of delivering the nasty stuff, he’ll be trying to avoid it on a Broadmoor East Course that ate up the seniors 10 years ago for this tournament — won by Eduardo Romero, whose 6 under was one of only three scores in the red for the week.

“I love pressure,” Smoltz said in an interview earlier this month, shortly after he won a three-man playoff to qualify.

“But I don’t think people understand this is a different kind of pressure. This has more to do with the difference between what I’m accustomed to doing on a daily basis of average golf versus what this tournament is, which is ‘One bad swing, and see ya.’ ”

The 51-year-old grew up in Michigan and, brought up in a world of indoor sports, said he saw very little value in golf.

“I didn’t appreciate the history involved,” he said. “I didn’t find it to be as athletic a sport as the others.”

Only out of sheer boredom while playing Class A ball in Florida did Smoltz wander out to the golf course where, like all the other sports he played, he taught himself.

He got good and, as his baseball career progressed, he found himself playing on off days with his Atlanta Braves teammates. The man who has played in five World Series, pitched in 41 post-season games, posted 213 overall wins as a starter and recorded 154 saves as a reliever understands that dominance on the diamond does not mean he’ll have the stuff to seriously contend with Bernhard Langer, Vijay Singh and Colin Montgomerie.

Then again, Smoltz wouldn’t be Smoltz if he didn’t set the bar high. “People who know me say, ‘You’re going there to win it,’” he said.

“Well, c’mon. Within reality, I want to compete and see how well I can do. If I make the cut, that would be unreal. But I expect to.

“I don’t expect to go there and shoot 85-86. That would be a hollow experience if I can’t go there and figure out how to play the golf course.”