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Trevor Immelman perfectly handles the question of whether Stephen Curry could play professional golf
Michael Reaves
This Thursday, the eighth iteration of Capital One's The Match will take place at Wynn Golf Club in Las Vegas. For just the second time, it will exclusively feature four athletes whose main sport is not golf, pitting Kansas City Chiefs teammates Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce against Golden State Warriors teammates Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
Last summer's all-quarterbacks affair proved to be a rousing success, with current New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers teaming up with Tom Brady to outlast Mahomes and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, 1 up. Trevor Immelman, who will be on the TNT broadcast team this Thursday when things get underway at 6:30 p.m., says we should expect a similarly competitive affair that will undoubtedly feature plenty of trash talk and viral moments.
This will mark Curry's second appearance in the made-for-TV event, though he has plenty of experience playing high-level competitve golf on TV before. Each time he does, the topic of "Could Curry go pro in golf?" comes up, to which Immelman, a former Masters winner, says is a silly debate. To be clear, he explained why in the least offensive and most accurate way possible.
Immelman knows the grind better than anyone, rising all the way to 12th in the Official World Golf Ranking in 2006, winning a major in 2008 and then finding himself outside the top 200 in the OWGR just two years later. As Immelman explained, thinking Curry could make a run at the PGA Tour because he's a solid recreational player would be like someone thinking they could play in the NFL because they were a backup running back in high school.
"It gets discounted way too much how unbelievably good PGA Tour golfers are," he said.
That said, Curry is still an excellent player and should provide most of the highlight-reel shots on Thursday in the two-man scramble format. We break down the event with Immelman in our full episode below. Please, have a listen and like and subscribe to The Loop wherever you get your podcasts.