Champ never lost his grip

WHEN Muhammad Ali was training for his encounter with Ken Norton in 1973 he would run daily around a golf course in California. After one such run, he was asked by the pro if he would like to try his hand at golf. ‘How ya hold this thing?’ asked a curious Ali, when the pro handed him a club. ‘What do I do now?’ As Golf Digest amusingly put it: ‘For someone who could float like a butterfly and sting life a bee, he stood like a sprawled giraffe and swung like a spinning top.’ ‘Hit the ball, champ,’ Ali’s assistant trainer Drew Brown urged. By now, almost inevitably, a crowd had gathered and, as ever when there was an audience, the great man delivered. His eight iron flew approximately 140 yards, straight and true. ‘How about that Angie?’ Ali (below) said to his trainer, Angelo Dundee. ‘Didn’t know I was a champion golfer, did you?’ On seeing the crowd, Ali then raised his arms into the air. ‘Muhammad Ali is the world’s greatest golfer!’ he told them. ‘Nobody can beat Muhammad Ali! Not Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer! Nobody!’ Then he had a quiet word with Dundee. ‘Hey Angie, let’s quit boxing and start playing golf,’ he said. ‘We’ll get rich — and besides, that ball can’t hit back.’