In early July, the NBA’s all-time 3-point leader made an appearance at a celebrity golf tournament in Tahoe, where he hit a shot from the fairway, 97 yards from the pin. It was another viral clip of a Curry golf shot during the NBA offseason.
Curry actually posted his worst finish in years at the event, finishing 16th out of 87 players. He had been in the top 11 each of the last five years.
And his interest in golf goes beyond celebrity events and pro-ams.
He has twice competed on the Korn Ferry Tour, a developmental tour roughly comparable to the NBA’s G-League. Curry posted a par 74 his first year and opened the event the following year with a round of 71 before carding an 86 in the second round.
Despite missing the cut in both events, the basketball star he earned respect of many professional golfers.
But let’s go a step further. How would Curry’s game stand up to the rigors of the pros? SFGATE asked several golf experts for their opinion.
Samuel Puryear, head coach of the men’s and women’s teams at Howard University, thinks the hero of the court could pull it off.
“I think he would probably have a chance to make a cut at some point,” Puryear said of putting Curry on a pro tour. “He generates a very, very good amount of clubhead speed through the impact zone and, especially on his approach shots, he puts a lot of spin on the ball.” (To be fair to Puryear’s optimism, Curry helped create the Howard golf program and is financing it until 2026).
Pleasant Hill-based PGA trainer Craig White agreed, but cautiously.
“I definitely think he has the potential to make the cut,” White said. “However, I think he would need a lot more reps and would definitely need to fix his 100-yard game and inside a little bit more… Where you see your PGA Tour pro players shine and score a little bit lower is the short game area.”
The short game appeared often.
“The most important thing from an amateur golfer to a pro is how many short shots he has,” said Andrew Larkin, a former pro now head coach at Santa Clara University. He also noted that versatility is a necessary component of making the leap to the pros. “As the conditions and demands of the course get more difficult, you have to be much more refined in your skill set. And I think that’s probably where the next gap would be. You can do all the basic things on the easy day with easy pins and easy and regular conditions. When all of a sudden things are really tight or it’s really windy or he needs to have great spin control, all sorts of next-level stuff, I think that’s where the gap between him and the pros would probably separate.”
It’s clear to Larkin that the Warriors star is no match for the real world of professional golf.
“It’s almost the equivalent of the best kid in your rec league trying to say he can get through the G-League,” Larkin said. “But [Steph] It’s so far from how good those guys are, although, you know, he’s shown some flashes of some pretty good golf.”
Walter Chun, Cal’s head coach, made a similar comparison.
“It’s like asking if Collin Morikawa made it to the NBA, how many rebounds, how many points would he get,” Chun said. (Morikawa, a two-time Grand Slam winner, played for Chun at Cal.) Chun joked that Curry’s performance might depend on where he competed. “Oh, are we talking about Tour PGA or Tour LIV?”
While Larkin and Chun provided realistic assessments of Curry, both praised his game.
“He’s got a great swing and he’s obviously working hard to refine his mechanics,” Larkin said. “He’s essentially become a beginner golfer, and you don’t get there without being pretty technically proficient.”
“He has a strong mental game and that’s what you need to be a good professional golfer,” Chun said of Curry. “You have to be very strong between the ears. And that’s hard to coach, but given Steph’s success on the court, he’s got that ‘it’ factor between his ears that could see him do really well.”
Although he does indeed possess laser focus, Curry himself has pointed out that the mental game required of professional golfers is astounding, even compared to his own.
“I know they play a lot of events and sometimes they just don’t have it, but they can recalibrate like that and turn a bad hole into a springboard for an amazing comeback or a big round,” Curry said. he said on the Drop Zone podcast in 2019. “I didn’t have that talent. I had to be all dialed in or I was completely out. Just that level of consistency is something that amazes me.”
Outside of the mental game, other coaches have taken note of the natural physical talents Curry has also amassed through basketball, noting how well they translate to golf.
“He has that natural ability that some just can’t train,” White said. “He has things in his swing that, from a timing and rhythm and timing standpoint, are really hard to train, if you can train at all. Some people spend their whole lives not being able to get that kind of rhythm.”
In addition to his participation in the Howard Golf program, Curry announced the launch of the Underrated Tour, a free tour for aspiring college golfers.
“What Steph is doing is creating a world of opportunity for a lot of young people,” Puryear said. “He is giving an opening to a door that has almost never really been opened. And now you have a lot of youngsters who have the opportunity to go out there and compete at the highest level.”
Curry may not have what it takes to be a professional golfer. But it’s easy to imagine his generosity launching the career of someone who does.