{"id":171235,"date":"2025-09-21T05:59:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T05:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/171235\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T05:59:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T05:59:19","slug":"my-kids-think-im-a-golfer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/171235\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My kids think I\u2019m a golfer\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Andy Murray\u2019s morning ritual is a vision of retired suburban bliss. After dropping his kids off at school, one of Britain\u2019s greatest sportsmen heads to Beaverbrook Golf Club and passes his suddenly empty days by hitting balls on the driving range. <\/p>\n

Alas, the indefatigable spirit that carried Murray to three grand-slam singles titles and through so many pain barriers is not so easily unlearned. The stories of members spotting him practising before they tee-off, only to find Murray still there when they finish their round four hours later, have become folklore at the highly exclusive club near Leatherhead, in Surrey. Since his long farewell at Wimbledon and the Olympics last year, he has gone from barely swinging a club to protect his aching body to being on the cusp of becoming a scratch golfer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy kids think I\u2019m a golfer. They say, \u2018Daddy, why do you play every day?\u2019 \u201d Murray, 38, whose handicap is now 2.4, says, laughing. \u201cI didn\u2019t really play for 12 years because I had a back operation in my mid-twenties and I was sore when I practised. Thankfully, it\u2019s been pretty good since I finished \u2014 I think tennis was the main issue \u2014 and I just really enjoy it. <\/p>\n

\"Wimbledon<\/p>\n

Murray won Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016, ending a 77-year wait for a men\u2019s singles champion<\/p>\n

KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH\/AP<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it has filled a bit of a void. It is something to practise and get better at and there are so many different parts of the game you can work on, and I don\u2019t find that boring. If I don\u2019t have any commitments, I\u2019ll arrive at 9am and stay there until I have to pick the kids back up from school. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that comes from my career as a professional athlete. I\u2019m used to spending all day at the training centre and going to the gym, doing your physio work, that\u2019s normal for me. I know I\u2019m doing more than most but I\u2019m in a position where I\u2019m able to because I don\u2019t have to work during the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

But being Murray, it is never quite that simple. The tears and self-flagellation that became such a feature of the British summer have not yet translated to the golf course, nor are there a string of broken clubs to match the misbehaving rackets that met a swift demise. But for a child from Dunblane, Scotland who \u201cnever would have thought I\u2019d play at Wimbledon\u201d, let alone end the 77-year wait for a British male singles champion, there must always be an outsized goal, a kind of Herculean task that only someone with his graft, gumption and capacity to suffer could muster.<\/p>\n

In Murray\u2019s new life, that goal is a tilt at regional qualifying for the Open Championship in 2027. Any amateur or professional in the UK with a scratch handicap can enter for a fee of \u00a3200. Around 2,000 players take part, with roughly 100 making it through to final qualifying, from which at least 16 will qualify for golf\u2019s oldest major. Murray is not under any delusions that he will make it all the way to St Andrews, but he still craves the stimulation of genuine competition. A debut at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, a DP World Tour event in which an amateur is paired with a pro, at the start of October is a trial run. Murray has also signed a sponsorship deal with club manufacturer Callaway, who are arranging for him to have lessons with renowned coaches.<\/p>\n

\"Wimbeldon<\/p>\n

Murray\u2019s wife, Kim \u2014 with whom he has four young children \u2014 regularly sat in the players\u2019 box and lived every scream<\/p>\n

DARREN FLETCHER<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of my friends who are very good golfers have done it. If I can improve enough, I think it would be a fun thing to do,\u201d he says. \u201cI played in the club championships at Beaverbrook a few months ago and I loved it. It was the most fun I\u2019d had playing golf and the more I play, the less I enjoy just playing socially. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll be capable of entering, but I want to try and play in a few more events. I\u2019ve been pretty amazed at how willing the pros are to help because spending five hours with people who are hacking it around probably isn\u2019t that enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I just wanted to play Wimbledon one more time\u2019<\/p>\n

Such was Murray\u2019s bitter refusal to give up tennis, he presumed \u2014 like so many of us \u2014 that he would struggle dearly without it. It was 2017 when he returned to Wimbledon as the defending champion for a second time and as the world No1 but realised his hip was wrecked. A year later, he left a near-empty stadium at 3am in Washington sobbing in spite of victory because he knew yet another surgery had failed.<\/p>\n

Murray never reached the fourth round of a grand-slam tournament again but he continued to rage, vividly and agonisingly, against the dying of the light, persisting through more injuries, dropping down to the unglamorous second-rung Challenger circuit, and summing up new depths of resolve for another Wimbledon epic. Murray\u2019s final farewell in SW19 last summer epitomised all that and more as he hobbled around the court alongside his brother, Jamie, in the first round of the men\u2019s doubles despite a cyst in his back and a doctor\u2019s advice to pull out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue wasn\u2019t the pain. It was that I didn\u2019t have full control of my leg because one of the nerves in my back was compressed by the cyst, but I just wanted to play at Wimbledon one more time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"Wimbledon<\/p>\n

Andy\u2019s final match on Centre Court, a doubles defeat with his brother Jamie, was followed by a lengthy farewell presentation<\/p>\n

SUNDAY TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n

The brothers sat courtside as the presentation brought down the curtain on Andy\u2019s career<\/p>\n

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND<\/p>\n

In his 2019 documentary, Resurfacing, Murray described the scars that punctuated his childhood in a voice note because he did not feel comfortable speaking about them on camera. He was nine years old when Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 schoolchildren and one teacher at Dunblane Primary School. Within the next year, his parents, Judy and William, were divorced, and then Jamie, who is a year older, moved away from home to focus on his training. \u201cMy feeling towards tennis is that it\u2019s an escape because these things are stuff that\u2019s bottled up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Murray\u2019s fear was that they would start to pour out without it. Only this week, Bjorn Borg revealed for the first time in his autobiography<\/a> that he almost died twice from drug overdoses in the years after retiring from tennis. In the months before that final Wimbledon appearance, Murray even began seeing psychologists to try to prepare himself for the unwanted transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expected to really miss it because I love tennis,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t stop because I was not enjoying it any more, I stopped because I physically couldn\u2019t do it at the level I wanted to, and 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, so yeah, 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

But what quickly becomes clear when speaking to Murray<\/a> in a rare interview is that he does not yearn to turn back the clock much at all. His trophies and accolades, which include two Olympic gold medals, a Davis Cup and 46 ATP Tour titles to go with his US Open (2012) and Wimbledon (2013, 2016) crowns, are all kept in the basement of his house. The only photographs he has from his career, in which he earned nearly \u00a350million in prize money on the court alone, have all been consigned to one room. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s actually the downstairs toilet,\u201d he says. \u201cMy kids aren\u2019t really interested or bothered about what I did for my career. Right now, I don\u2019t hit balls, I don\u2019t practise, I don\u2019t ever go on a court unless my kids or my wife want to play, so, yeah, I just don\u2019t miss it. To be honest, it\u2019s not been difficult at all. I\u2019ve really enjoyed my life away from tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nor does Murray watch it much either since the end of an unexpected six-month stint coaching Novak Djokovic<\/a> in May. The mesmerising French Open final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at Roland Garros in May? \u201cI heard it was an amazing match,\u201d he says. Their rematch at the US Open this month? \u201cI was on a plane to Ireland [to play golf]\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u2018Alcaraz is a very average golfer\u2019<\/p>\n

The only real enthusiasm he reserves for his old love is when discussing fellow golf fanatic Alcaraz, who Murray played a round with before Wimbledon. \u201cHe\u2019s a very average golfer, unfortunately for him, but his tennis reminds me of my favourite footballer growing up and I got to see live a few times, which was Ronaldinho,\u201d Murray says. <\/p>\n

\"Carlos<\/p>\n

Alcaraz played golf with fellow Spaniard Sergio Garc\u00eda in his downtime during the US Open<\/p>\n

KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH\/AP<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got all of this skill and ability, they obviously want to win, but they play with a smile on their face. If the moment comes to do something entertaining they will, and I think that\u2019s what makes them so absorbing because you never know what is going to happen next, so I particularly enjoy watching him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray puts his neat sense of closure down to the knowledge that he had rinsed every last drop from his body. \u201cI had put everything I had into it. There wasn\u2019t much left on the table,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

Djokovic, Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe were among those to come out on Centre Court for his farewell, while Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal featured in the montage that documented Murray\u2019s evolution from a surly teenager who did not always enamour himself to the British public to the beloved role model that \u2014 if only briefly \u2014 finally forged a chink of light between the \u201cBig Three\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n

Djokovic, second left, Navratilova, second right, and McEnroe, right, were among those at Murray\u2019s farewell<\/p>\n

DARREN FLETCHER<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n

Murray \u2014 with Sue Barker \u2014 was \u201cvery emotional but very happy\u201d at his Wimbledon exit<\/p>\n

GFRANCOIS NEL\/GETTY IMAGESTTY<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, when I was on court, my head was spinning. I wasn\u2019t able to concentrate much on the video, but I\u2019ve watched it back,\u201d he says. \u201cI was obviously very emotional at the time. There was a lot going on in my head, but I was also happy. I expected to feel really overwhelmed by the moment but it was just a sign that I was ready. I knew it was the end. It wasn\u2019t the way I had envisaged it, playing doubles, but when I reflect on it, playing with my brother on Centre Court at Wimbledon, it was an amazing way to finish. We\u2019d never got the chance to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

All that being said, when Murray realised he had missed a call from Djokovic while playing golf last November, he felt he couldn\u2019t reject the chance to coach his old rival. Their partnership initially got off to a promising start when Djokovic reached the Australian Open semi-finals, but the clay-court season then brought a series of shock defeats against little-known players, such as Alejandro Tabilo and Matteo Arnaldi. <\/p>\n

One video emerged of a training session in Madrid during which Djokovic cursed while Murray handed him a pair of tennis balls. \u201cF*** sport, f*** tennis, f*** everything else,\u201d the Serb said. By the time their split was confirmed, there was a sense that it arrived as more of a merciful reprieve to Murray.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the beginning I enjoyed it, but obviously the results were not what I expected, and I\u2019m sure it wasn\u2019t [for Djokovic] as well,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m still glad I did it. It was a unique opportunity, and if I hadn\u2019t, I would have regretted it. To get to spend time with one of my biggest rivals, one of the best athletes of all time, trying to help him and learn from him and understand him was fascinating. But if you want to do a good job of coaching, in my opinion, you need to spend a lot of time with the individual and that\u2019s hard when they don\u2019t live near you. <\/p>\n

\u201cA British player would be a lot less demanding time-wise because you don\u2019t have to be away from your family on off-weeks training, whereas Novak was living in Spain at the time so you\u2019re travelling then as well. To do it so soon after I finished playing was difficult. It was still a great opportunity, but it\u2019s not something I would jump into for quite a while. I don\u2019t think I have any desire to do that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Novak<\/p>\n

After a promising start, Murray\u2019s spell as the coach of Djokovic did not last long<\/p>\n

EDGAR SU\/REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u2018Things were fine with Emma after we cleared it all up\u2019<\/p>\n

Murray is also reluctant to follow another natural path into punditry. He attempted it once at Wimbledon in 2018 when he commentated on the epic quarter-final between Nadal and Juan Mart\u00edn del Potro. <\/p>\n

Despite Pat Cash once claiming he owned \u201cthe most boring monotone voice in the history of the planet\u201d, Murray\u2019s analysis received rave reviews. But, after five hours in the booth, he signed off with the words \u201cwell, that was horrific\u201d, and left it at that. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I love about other sports like football is seeing a bit more debate between the pundits. It\u2019s interesting for the viewer if you\u2019ve got Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville challenging each other\u2019s views. Everyone sort of agrees with each other on the tennis side of punditry, so it\u2019s not something I hugely want to get into right now,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

Murray did not enjoy his stint in the commentary box with Andrew Cotter, left, and Tim Henman, right<\/p>\n

STEVEN PASTON\/PA<\/p>\n

It is not hard to imagine Murray\u2019s dry, self-deprecating humour lending itself to a Roy Keane-esque role, but that would pose another dilemma. Murray was wounded by the criticism he received early on in his career and has made a conscious effort not to make similar statements about Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know when I was a young British player I found it very, very unhelpful when people that you knew or looked up to were being critical of you after losses publicly,\u201d he says. \u201cYou respect their opinions and often they might differ from what your coach is telling you. When you\u2019re 20 years old, you\u2019re still responsible for the team that you employ. <\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n

Murray was due to play in the mixed doubles with Raducanu, whose withdrawal denied him another chance to play at Wimbledon<\/p>\n

JOHN SALANGSANG\/REX\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve got an ex-British No1 or an ex-world No1 saying they don\u2019t agree with how you hit your forehand or the strategy you use in matches, it can be a bit undermining. I know pundits have to do that, but it\u2019s really not helpful for young players, in particular, who maybe are not able to block that out and trust their coaches. If any of the younger British players ever want to talk to me privately, I would always do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray has been a mentor to Draper<\/a>, 23, and the pair practised together countless times at the LTA Training Centre in Roehampton. His relationship with Raducanu, 22, is not as close, with a minor controversy erupting at Wimbledon last year after she planned to enter the mixed doubles with Murray but later pulled out due to a wrist injury. Murray\u2019s mother, Judy, appeared to express her dismay in a comment on social media but later said her post had been misinterpreted. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe exchanged multiple messages since Wimbledon and things were fine after we cleared everything up,\u201d Murray says. \u201cIt was obviously a pretty emotional time for me and everyone around me, so it was hard but, like I said, I was really happy with the way that my career finished. I got to play my last match at Wimbledon with my brother. Emma\u2019s not someone that beforehand we were communicating all the time or discussing ideas about her game and things like that, so that hasn\u2019t changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Murray is hoping to take part in regional qualifying for next year\u2019s Open Championship<\/p>\n

It is easy to envisage Murray coaching one \u2014 if not both \u2014 of them at some point over the next decade. But for the time being he seems to have settled into a state of peace that nobody who witnessed even a fraction of his torment and triumph could ever begrudge. Nor was it ever just him either. For so many years Murray\u2019s wife, Kim, sat in the players\u2019 box and lived every scream and salvo while raising their four young children, Sophia, Edie, Teddy, and Lola. Now, his focus \u2014 outside of developing calluses from a new sport \u2014 is on what he missed during his career rather than trying to cling onto it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy purpose is my family,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not desperate to go out and explore loads of things because I\u2019m content being at home. Today, I took two of my kids to golf lessons, then I\u2019m going to my son\u2019s football training this afternoon. On Saturdays, we always go out for a family dinner together. I just want to be around for all of those things that I missed when I was playing. I spent so many years away from home, travelling, putting my career first. I feel like I\u2019m making up for that a bit now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Andy Murray\u2019s morning ritual is a vision of retired suburban bliss. After dropping his kids off at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-171235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}