{"id":222559,"date":"2025-10-18T16:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T16:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/222559\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T16:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T16:01:08","slug":"blake-griffins-best-advice-for-newcomers-to-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/222559\/","title":{"rendered":"Blake Griffin’s best advice for newcomers to the game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six-time All-Star Blake Griffin was a double-double machine during his NBA career. It\u2019s a score he avoids now that he spends more time on the course.<\/p>\n

GOLF: As a fairly new convert to golf, what\u2019s one piece of advice that you might give other newbies trying to improve their game?<\/p>\n

Blake Griffin: Good question. Here\u2019s something I learned early in my career in basketball: It doesn\u2019t matter what you do in the first quarter; it\u2019s what you do over the course of the game. The same is true of golf. It\u2019s what you do over the course of your round. You can have a great drive and then shank the next shot. Things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem. You just got to ride the wave, and that\u2019s what I like about golf.<\/p>\n

G: Solid take. Now that you\u2019re retired from the NBA [since 2023], what\u2019s one place you\u2019d like to play and finally have the time to get there?<\/p>\n

BG: I\u2019ve played at a lot of cool places, but I\u2019ve heard Bandon Dunes<\/a> is great. I would like to go up there and check it out. <\/p>\n


\n \"J.R. <\/a><\/p>\n

NBA star, collegiate golfer J.R. Smith says this golf advice helped him the most<\/a><\/p>\n

By:<\/p>\n


\n Jessica Marksbury <\/a><\/p>\n

G: Where are you playing most of your golf now?<\/p>\n

BG: I\u2019m a member at Lakeside Golf & Country Club<\/a> in L.A. I got a good group of guys I play with regularly, but we like to get out to other spots too.<\/p>\n

G: Speaking of travel, the NBA has some long road trips. Do you ever wish you\u2019d played golf back then when you\u2019d see teammates slip out on an off day to get in a round?<\/p>\n

BG: My man, being on the road in the NBA means you got to find your own way. That\u2019s what I tried to do. <\/p>\n

G: You\u2019re famous for once jumping over a car in the slam dunk contest, which you won. What golf landmark would be cool to jump over? The Swilcan Bridge? Rae\u2019s Creek?<\/p>\n

BG: [Laughs] I don\u2019t think I could jump over anything now. That was a long time ago, man.<\/p>\n

G: Besides the 8AM Invitational<\/a>, what are some of the other celebrity tournaments that you\u2019ve had the chance to play in?<\/p>\n

BG: I played in Tahoe \u2014 the Edgewood tournament [American Century Championship]. There were like 20,000 fans a day. That first day, I was so nervous. I was like shaking over practice putts, you know. Like, even when I wasn\u2019t about to hit the ball, I was still nervous.<\/p>\n

G: In general, are there shots on course that you\u2019re more nervous about?<\/p>\n

BG: Like, anything. I don\u2019t even want to say it. Once I say it, it\u2019s going to be out there. Okay, any shot between 65 to 85 yards. Don\u2019t know why.<\/p>\n

G: Golfers have been known to enjoy putting a few dollars on their matches. Keeps things interesting. How big a wager makes you nervous?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six-time All-Star Blake Griffin was a double-double machine during his NBA career. It\u2019s a score he avoids now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-222559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}