Andy Murray has claimed the first piece of silverware since swapping the tennis racquet for golf clubs.
Murray has been busy learning a new sport since retiring from tennis after he and Dan Evans were beaten in the men’s doubles at the Olympic Games on August 1. His bio on Twitter used to simply read : “I play tennis”. Now it reads: “I played tennis. I now play golf.”
The 37-year-old has transferred his competitive nature from the tennis court to the golf course and is aiming to get his handicap down to scratch within a few years. He played alongside fellow celebrities in the Pro-Am event at BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last month, where he impressed fellow Scot Bob MacIntyre, and now has a first trophy in sport.
On Tuesday, he was at Hanbury Manor Golf Club in Hertfordshire to play in the inaugural BTJA Mike Dickson Golf Day. The event, run by the British Tennis Journalists’ Association, has been started in memory of former Daily Mail journalist Mike Dickson, who sadly passed away in January aged 59.
The post by the BTJA on Twitter revealed that Murray had been crowned champion, which is no surprise given his prowess off the tee already. Murray has a handicap of seven at the moment, but is having regular lessons and MacIntyre thinks he’ll improve rapidly.
“For someone that’s not really played that much, I thought he was good,” world No.16 MacIntyre said at Wentworth last month. “I was very impressed with his game. He’ll be scratch in no time.”
For now, Murray is just enjoying a different challenge. “It’s a different sort of nerves, because you are comfortable in the sort of tennis environment. I’m not thinking I’m going to walk out on the tennis court and forget how to hit the ball,” he said at Wentworth.
“Whereas here, there’s people standing five metres away from where I’m driving, and I’m like, I’m useless at this game. You just want to try and keep the ball in play and don’t mess up too much.”
He added: “I’m obviously getting to practise a lot more than the average person. I obviously played a bit when I was younger, and if I can get the right sort of lessons and practise the right things, then yeah, I’ve got a chance of doing that.
“The lessons have made a huge difference. That’s been the most important thing for me. I used to go down to the range and hit lots of balls, and I could hit a few good ones. But if you have a fundamental flaw in your swing or what you’re doing, it doesn’t matter how many balls you hit on the range. So, getting lessons and practising those things is helping.”
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