Steph Curry opens play at Ellie Mae Classic with 4-over 74.
Warriors star rallies to shoot 4-over 74 after shaky start to Web.com opening round
He’s made half-court shots. He’s made shots from longer than half court. He’s made shots from the Oracle Arena tunnels. And if you’ve seen the latest commercial, he’s even made shots into the moon roof of an automobile.
But Stephen Curry’s first shot in a professional golf tournament Thursday may top them all for sheer amazement. From nearly 250 yards away, he hit a drive right into the hole.
Alas, Curry’s “ace” bounced into the drink-holder cup of a golf cart parked on the cement path to the left of the 10th fairway at TPC Stonebrae. It was incredible, so typically Steph, and here’s the best part: He somehow recovered from the embarrassment of it to save a bogey.
After early nervous wobbles — Curry said he was so locked up with jitters when they announced his name on the opening tee he could barely feel his hands — the Warriors’ MVP guard rallied to shoot a very credible 4- over par 74 over an unforgiving Web.com Tour layout in the Ellie Mae Classic.
he top 65 and ties from the 156-player field will make the final cut, and Curry was tied for 142nd and trailing a tournament leader named Thompson — no, not Klay, but Nicholas Thompson — by 11 shots. Thompson shot an opening-round 63 to pace a field in which 100 players shot even par or better. Stanford’s Cameron Wilson trails by a shot and is tied for second.
But despite being well down the leader board and very unlikely to make the cut, which should be under par, he made his own cut.
“If you told me I was going to shoot 74 going into the first round, I’d take that all day every day,” Curry said. “I’m pretty happy with it. As a competitor, you feel like can always play bet-
ter, though. So hopefully I can do that tomorrow.”
For reference, Jerry Rice shot an 83 in his first attempt at a Web.com event in 2010 at Stonebrae, and his best- ever score in three tournament tries was 76. So Curry has already bested another star athlete who’s made this attempt at a golf cross-over. He also beat one of his pro playing partners, Sam Ryder, by a stroke. Ryder is second on the Web. com Tour money list and two weeks ago won a tournament by eight strokes.
Curry also bested most of the prop bets that had him projected to do far worse. He made three birdies, nine pars, five bogeys and a lone double bogey, and despite the early nerves, his consistency showing from start to finish — 2-over par on the back nine, 2-over par on the front. Curry’s score topped nine pros.
At the outset, it didn’t seem possible. Curry’s opening drive sprayed way left, resulting in that miraculous but somewhat embarrassing golf-cart hole-in-one.
“That’s probably a first on the tour,” Curry said. “Great way to start. Not an ideal way to start, calling over a rules official after your first tee shot. But I kind of settled in after that.”
Indeed, Curry made a nice par save on his second hole after another drive way left, but shortly thereafter made consecutive bogeys and was 3- over par af- ter just five holes. The prospect of a score in the 80s still looked possible.
But as he is so accustomed to doing after a shaky start on the basketball court, he found the rhythm and turned it around. He played three fabulous shots on the par-5 15th hole and left himself roughly an 8-footer for birdie. He drilled it home like a wide- open 3-pointer, pumped his fist and then gave his caddie Jonnie West — a Stonebrae member who works in the Warriors front office and is the son of the legendary Jerry West — a mild shoulder-bump.
“As he made every progression — first par, first fairway — we kind of joked about it,” West said. “Then that first birdie was huge. It kind of got him feeling like, ‘OK, I can do this.’ “
From there, Curry pretty much sailed along. He made four straight pars after his first birdie, and following a bogey on the second hole after making the turn, he birdied the par-5 third. His lone double bogey came on the tough uphill par- 4 fifth, but he bounced right back with a snaking 25- foot birdie putt on the sixth.
At that point, he flipped the switch into full jocular Steph mode, asking West to retrieve the ball out of the cup like his Under Armour comrade Jordan Spieth.
“I have to take advantage of the opportunities because they don’t happen very often,” Curry said. “Yeah, I saw that right out of Jordan’s playbook at Royal Birkdale (British Open). Jonnie was a good sport about it, went and grabbed the ball out of the hole for me. It was a really cool way to bounce back from a double bogey.”
While occasionally a bit wild off the tee, Curry showed deft touch not only with his putter but with his wedges around the green. His pro playing partners, Ryder and Stephan Jaeger (3-under 67), were won over by his all-around skill and demeanor.
“Honestly, the most impressive part of his game was his short game,” said Jaeger, who shot a 58 at Stonebrae while winning this tournament last year. “He’s got some chips that with amateurs you don’t normally see. He had some good speed with his putts, too.”
As for the pressure aspect, Jaeger said, “He plays under pressure ( playing basketball), but it’s totally different. When it’s your sport, you kind of know how to deal with it. He was telling me was pretty nervous on that first hole, but I think he settled in pretty well. The whole group kind of got in a groove, and I think that helped him, too.”
Ryder said he took particular note of Curry’s handeye coordination on many of his shots, and was fairly overwhelmed by it.
“He impressed me, for sure,” he said. “I didn’t really know what to expect. I didn’t even watch him on the range. But just the way he hung in there. There were a couple of times the round could have gotten away. He showed a lot of grit and his short game was awesome, too.”
For Curry, the round will be permanently etched in his memory banks. He was that stoked about it.
“A guy told me on the range, ‘I remember my first tournament round, and I remember every shot I hit,’ “he said. “I think I’ll have that same kind of experience. Just remember today and what it was. Unbelievable gallery out there (numbering between 300- 400). Hopefully that continues through the week. It’s just an unbelievable opportunity to play out here with these guys.”
Not nearly as unbelievable as that first shot, though.