Curry faces long odds to make cut in Hayward
At one point in Tuesday’s practice round, Stephen Curry grew weary of his tee shots drifting left of the fairway. Curry retrieved his ball from the heavy junk, nonchalantly tossed it onto the short grass and raised his arms in mock triumph.
Then, gently reminded he cannot fix errant shots this way come Thursday, Curry smiled and nodded. Oh, he knows. Curry is a very good golfer compared with most people on Earth. He’s good enough to carry a handicap index of +0.1 and finish fourth in last month’s celebrity tournament near South Lake Tahoe.
But let’s be realistic: He’s not good enough to make the cut in this week’s Web.com Tour event in Hayward. No way.
There is a wide chasm between accomplished hobby players such as Curry and tour professionals. Put it this way: The hushed debate among pros gathered at TPC Stonebrae is not whether Curry will reach
the weekend in the Ellie Mae Classic, but whether he will beat any players in the 156-man field.
Remember, these players are accustomed to thick rough, fast greens and tucked pins. Curry has played a handful of courses that host PGA Tour-sanctioned events, including Augusta National and Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C. (site of next week’s PGA Championship), but not regularly.
Curry posted a final-round 68 among the celebrities at the American Century Championship, on a 6,709-yard course at altitude. He also shot 79 in the opening round.
Stonebrae measures 7,024 yards, with trouble lurking if Curry drives the ball as wildly as he did Tuesday.
So this is a brave new world, in many ways. Curry deserves full credit for fearlessly embracing the challenge, but fans are fooling themselves if they think his basketball stardom means he will make a splash on the course this week.
Consider the view of eighttime PGA Tour winner Brandt Snedeker, who played one group behind Curry in last year’s Safeway Open pro-am in Napa and described him as a good player. Snedeker, in a brief video interview posted on pgatour.com, also predicted Curry is in for a “rude awakening,” given the difficulty of tour conditions and the depth of talent.
Stephan Jaeger, who will play alongside Curry, shot 58 in the opening round last year at Stonebrae. Jonathan Byrd has five PGA Tour victories. Jason Gore, another PGA Tour winner, once earned a spot in the final pairing of the final round of the U.S. Open.
And Curry knows nerves will bubble to the surface Thursday, when he steps to the No. 10 tee at 8:55 a.m. There will be galleries, two seriously skilled tour pros in his group — Sam Ryder is No. 2 on this year’s Web.com Tour money list, and Jaeger is No. 3 — and rampant curiosity about how he plays.
So how good a golfer, exactly, is Curry? He expects to find a more complete answer this week.
“I’m pretty good,” he said. “It’s not my main focus, for obvious reasons, and the competitive environment definitely exposes you for all you’re worth and all you’re about in the game of golf.
“When I go to Tahoe, that’s my only test of how I handle pressure. It’ll be a fun challenge (at Stonebrae), to see how I deal with my nerves. … Can you handle the pressure when every shot counts, and your playing partners aren’t giving you 2-footers?”
Curry is not the first celebrated athlete to take a crack at tournament golf, of course. Former 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice didn’t come close to making the cut in three appearances (2010-12) at Stonebrae; he broke 80 only once in five rounds there.
Rice is not alone. Athletes from other sports have made 23 starts on the Web.com Tour, according to Golf Channel’s Justin Ray. None of those athletes made the cut, and they posted a scoring average of 79.4. No, it’s not easy. Curry understands all this and approaches the tournament with a healthy attitude. He would love to make the cut but realizes it’s a long shot. Mostly, he wants to satisfy his curiosity and find out what it’s like to compete in a tour event.
Nick Rousey, a Web.com pro who played practice rounds with Curry on Monday and Tuesday, was impressed. He had been told Curry would struggle mightily, but Rousey came away praising Curry’s ball-striking.
Rousey isn’t so sure about Curry’s short game, but he said, “One guy asked me if he can break 80. I think he will. If he can make some putts, I think he’ll surprise some people.”
The call here: Curry will shoot something like 81-77. He will show flashes of the incomparable hand-eye coordination that makes him one of the world’s best, most dynamic basketball players. And he will struggle, because golf is hard.
That’s fine. He’s still Steph Curry, so this will be entertaining.