The football stars join the team competition over the event’s first two days as the unique tournament format sees each four-player team including three professional golfers and they will be the team’s one amateur. Each team’s best two scores per hole count toward the team total, so each of the four team members can contribute to the team’s chances at a share of the $500,000 prize fund. The individual competition for the pro golfers spans the three days of the event, with the three-day total scores determining the leaderboard and chance at the share of the $500,000 individual prize.
During their NFL careers, the trio of wide receivers in Tate, Royal and Butler combined to score 83 touchdowns, while on the defensive side Green grabbed 25 interceptions and returned three for touchdowns.
Speaking ahead of participating in the LET event with the world’s top women golfers, former 11-year NFL pro and Super Bowl champion Golden Tate shared: “As a competitor, I always look forward to competing. Getting a chance to compete with the best ladies in the world is extra special. Hopefully I can do my part to help our team win. Competing and having fun is what it’s all about for me.”
He shared advice for girls who hope to become professionals in golf or other sports, “Continue to play and enjoy the process. Enjoy the ups and downs because the ups and downs are what build character and that’s how you get through those low moments. Preparing you for when those lights are shining on you or when you have that opportunity. You may get one chance, you might get five chances – you just want to be prepared to maximize that opportunity.”
Tate on his preparation for golf versus football, “The prep has been done for years now for golf. The practice and repetitions – football is week to week with game plans and figuring out how to beat your opponent. The game of golf is you versus the course really.”
Speaking ahead of his first round of the Aramco Team Series – New York, six-year NFL proBrice Butler said, “Just having fun with the ladies. It’s always fun playing with ladies because as a football player, you look at other people as not as physically gifted as you because maybe they’re not as big. They’re about to be out there hitting the the ball as far as me, hitting greens in reg, hitting fairways. It’s going to be fun – I’m playing with Lexi Thompson, it’ll be great to play with a great golfer out there.”
Butler shared advice for girls who aspire to become professional athletes, “Keep grinding. There are always going to be naysayers. The confidence lies within. All you need is your confidence and your grind. It’s almost like a psychotic sense of you’re going to make it regardless of what happens. If you do that, and you work hard – obviously there’s going to be some cookies that fall the way you don’t want them to fall but you gotta pick them up and eat them.”
Butler went on to discuss preparing for a golf tournament versus an NFL game ahead of Aramco Team Series – New York, “[In a] Football game I’m very confident because I know my skills and capabilities. I was doing it for a long time. This game of golf I’ve only been playing for six years, so I’m basically a baby in the game. The mind is scrambled, this mind is real scrambled [going in].” The Ladies European Tour event features 78 golfers with several of the world’s top pros including no. 4 ranked Nelly Korda, no. 6 Brooke Henderson, no. 8 Lexi Thompson, no. 14 Jessica Korda, no. 18 Charley Hull and no. 19 Leona Maguire with a $1M prize purse.
(Text: Aramco Team Series)