Andy Murray has revealed that his children think of him more as a golfer than a tennis player, given the amount of time he spends on the driving range. The two-time Wimbledon champion decided to quit tennis last year, with the Olympics marking his final tournament. Since hanging up his racket, Murray has used his extra free time to develop his passion for golf.
The man from Dunblane has a stated aim of becoming a scratch golfer and has been putting in the hours to achieve that goal. He spends plenty of time at the driving range between dropping his children off at school and picking them up in the afternoon. It has reached the point where they view him as a golfer, rather than a tennis legend with three Grand Slam titles to his name.
Speaking to The Times, Murray said: “My kids think I’m a golfer. They say: ‘Daddy, why do you play every day?’. I didn’t really play for 12 years because I had a back operation in my mid-twenties and I was sore when I practised.
“Thankfully, it’s been pretty good since I finished. I think tennis was the main issue and I just really enjoy it. I guess it has filled a bit of a void.”
Murray has been left surprised by how much he is enjoying retired life, with the Scot not missing tennis at all. His trophies, photographs and memorabilia from his glittering career have been consigned the basement of his house.
“That’s actually the downstairs toilet,” he said. “My kids aren’t really interested or bothered about what I did for my career. Right now, I don’t hit balls, I don’t practice.
“I don’t ever go on a court unless my kids or my wife want to play, so, yeah, I just don’t miss it. To be honest, it’s not been difficult at all. I’ve really enjoyed my life away from tennis.”
Murray thought it would be harder to give up the sport he loves, even seeing a psychologist to help him cope with the transition which turned out to be easier than he anticipated.
“I expected to really miss it because I love tennis,” he explained. “I didn’t stop because I was not enjoying it any more, I stopped because I physically couldn’t do it at the level I wanted to.
“There are lots of stories of athletes who finish their career and within a year or 18 months they have spent all of their money or they are struggling with their mental health.
“That was a concern, to be honest. I spent time in the build-up [to retirement] talking to psychologists about how I was going to go about doing that.”
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