Tennis legend Andy Murray has continued his class in another sport – picking up his first trophy in his new game of choice since retiring from tennis earlier this year.
The 37-year-old swapped his tennis racket for golf clubs and has made a sterling start to his life on the course, winning the BTJA Mike Dickson Golf Day.
After he and Dan Evans were beaten in the men’s doubles at the Olympic Games on August 1, his bio on Twitter was changed from “I play tennis” to “I played tennis”.
But it now also reads, “I now play golf” and after transferring his competitive nature from the tennis court to the golf course, he is aiming to get his handicap down to scratch within a few years.
The Mirror reports 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 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.
It was started in memory of former Daily Mail journalist Mike Dickson, who 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. Last month, World No 16 MacIntyre said: “For someone that’s not really played that much, I thought he was good.
“I was very impressed with his game. He’ll be scratch in no time.” For now, Murray is just enjoying a different challenge. Murray said: “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. 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. 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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