“I played tennis. I now play golf” – With these words, Andy Murray announced that he would be switching to golf when his tennis career came to an end. A few weeks later, he was able to put his skills to the test for the first time in the Pro-Am of the BMW PGA Championship 2024 on the DP World Tour and gave a thoroughly respectable performance alongside Robert MacIntyre. Afterwards, Murray spoke about the event and his future as a golfer.
Andy Murray: “A Brilliant Experience For Me”
Q. How was that?
ANDY MURRAY: It was good. A brilliant experience for me. To be out there with one of the best in the world for me, it was brilliant.
Q. How nervous were you?
ANDY MURRAY: I was pretty nervous. I couldn’t really feel my arms and legs. I didn’t really hit any balls on the range beforehand. Yeah, I was feeling it. But it got better. It got better as the round went on.
Q. How does this compare to walking out at Wimbledon? More nervous?
ANDY MURRAY: It’s a different sort of nerves. 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. You just, you want to perform well. Whereas here, you’re sort of nervous about — there’s people standing like five metres away from where I’m driving, and I’m like, I’m useless at this game.
Yeah, you just want to try and keep the ball in play and don’t mess up too much.
Q. Quite a group, wasn’t it?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, Anton is the entertainer out there. Jimmy was really, really nice. He can hit the ball miles. And obviously playing with Bob MacIntyre, being a Scot, is really special, yeah.
Q. Does this give you the bug? Do you want more of this? Possibly, who knows, Dunhill in a couple of weeks’ time?
ANDY MURRAY: I’m happy playing in front of nobody to be honest. But yeah, look, I really enjoy like playing. I’ve obviously got a lot of free time just now, so playing a few times a week. Yeah, having lessons and just enjoying having something to focus my attention on.
Yeah, like I said, lots of free time to do it.
Q. And in terms of having free time, Anton Du Beke, one of your partners today, your mother’s been on Strictly. Could we see another Murray there in 12 months’ time?
ANDY MURRAY: That’s highly unlikely. Don’t know what my brother will be doing. But it certainly won’t be me, that’s for sure.
Q. How many hours have you put in on the range since you retired?
ANDY MURRAY: I haven’t played loads weekends but during the week, probably a few hours, 2 1/2, three hours probably.
I think my expectations currently are pretty low. I’m not expecting to play very well. But yeah, I can see how if you’re playing a lot and practising a lot and getting better and better, that changes.
But no, I haven’t been hard on myself yet.
Q. Getting down to scratch, is that a real aim? How long will it take you?
ANDY MURRAY: A couple years probably. I think so. I mean, 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 I think in a couple years.
Will you 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.
Q. Your parents have a house in Dunblane. Fancy hitting a few balls up there?
ANDY MURRAY: That’s where we used to tee off on the second tee. In the evenings, we would go out with our parents or grandparents and start on the second tee and play four or five holes in the summers after tennis training or after school, and that’s how we sort of got into school as a family thing. Got to spend time with our dad or our grandparents which was really nice.
Yeah, I want to spend more time up in Scotland now that I’ve got more free time.
Q. Do you see a membership coming your way?
ANDY MURRAY: I have a membership there. I got a membership at Dunblane. There’s obviously so many amazing courses up in Scotland. Look forward to getting to play on some of them.
Q. Your father was on the bag today. Bob won the Canadian Open with his dad on the bag. Was that a topic of conversation?
ANDY MURRAY: My dad might be getting the sack after his performance today. He spent most of his time sort of following Bob around. Like, I need my clubs; I need to putt.
But no, it was brilliant. For me, it’s special, during my tennis career, I didn’t get to spend loads of time with my dad travel and everything. So getting to do that, it was a really cool day, as well. I don’t know if he’ll want to caddie for me again but I enjoyed having him here.
Q. What was the high point, your favourite shot, and more importantly, the low point, the worst shot?
ANDY MURRAY: The low point was I had an approach shot over water about 85 yards. For me, those distances, that’s the thing I found really difficult, the sort of 50- to 80-yard shots I found hard. We were talking on the build up to it. Me and Jimmy were like, “I hate these shots,” and both of us hit it right in the middle of the water completely fat.
So for me, that was — I hit one bad — like really bad drive. For the most part it was solid. It was better than what I was expecting.
Q. A few fist-pumps out there today?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I’ve not lost that. Still enjoyed scoring and hitting good shots and stuff. I’m not bothered whether I win or lose in an event like this, but I still want to try to do as well as I can and I still enjoy competing.
Obviously it’s never going to replace what you had on the tennis court, but being out there with your friends and competing with them and against yourself and stuff is fun.
So today, yeah, you hit enough bad shots in golf, you’ve got to give yourself a pat on back when you hit the odd good one.
Q. Have you lost weight?
ANDY MURRAY: I haven’t been to the gym for five weeks. I said to my wife, I was like, Look, I’m going to make sure when I stop, I’m going to make sure I stay in good shape.
And she said, Oh, if you’re just going to go and play golf, I don’t want that. I was — No, no, I’ll get myself in the gym, make sure I stay in shape.
I went to the gym three of the first four days after I stopped, worked really hard, and then went up to Scotland for a couple of days for a holiday, and haven’t been back since. It’s been five weeks I’ve not been in the gym, longest ever for me probably. I don’t know if it’s like appetite, if I’m not eating as much, but we obviously have like loads of the sport drinks have got lot of calories in them, and I only really drink water and coffee now.
So I don’t know, I think just less calories and probably loss of muscle. I’ve lost about 11, 12 pounds. It’s a lot. I was expecting the opposite to happen. It’s about five kilos, yeah.
Andy Murray at the Pro-Am of the BMW PGA Championship 2024
A look at Andy Murray’s highlights definitely shows a good disposition – especially knowing that the former tennis star has only been training for a few weeks. Murray hit the odd good shot alongside Robert MacIntyre.
In addition to compatriot MacIntyre, Murray also met Rory McIlroy.
The Scot responded to the countless comments on X (Twitter) about improving his golf swing with a wink: “Huge thanks to all the amateur golfers on social media for their constructive criticism of my golf swing. Much appreciated.”
