Steph Curry Takes A Dive Into Golf’s Deep Water

Perhaps we can all agree that Steph Curry is one helluva fine basketball player.

Perhaps we can also agree that he’s a really good amateur golfer.  He has a 1.2 index and finished fourth in the American Century Classic a few weeks ago in Lake Tahoe.

That course does not play long or tough, it’s set up for scoring.

King of that realm is former major league pitcher Mark Mulder.  He shot 72-69-69 and racked up 73 points in their Modified Stableford Scoring System used in that event.

Derek Lowe, another former MLB pitcher, finished tied for second with former tennis star Mardy Fish.  Both ended up with 62 points.

Then came Curry.  Steph got off to a pretty sorry start with 79 the first day, 73 on day two but came home with a 68 on Sunday,  including an eagle at the 18th, a par five that’s really a par four in disguise.

Curry finished with 60 points — a decent showing for the Prince Of Points.

Now Curry is about to take a plunge into the deep end of the golf pool.

He’s been given a sponsor’s invite to this week’s stop on the Web.com Tour.  It’s called the Ellie Mae Classic and no, it’s not named after Donna Douglas, who played Ellie May on the popular series The Beverly Hillbillies.  Ellie Mae is a large software company in California that processes a lot of mortgage applications for banks, credit unions and other lenders.

They’re playing at the TPC Stonebrae in Hayward and Curry is the biggest name in the field, for sure.

There’s really no pushback from the Web.com guys.  Most of them are fairly young, a lot of them are basketball fans.

“It will be good for our tour,” said Sam Ryder, who also pointed out Steph will bring more people which is a great thing.  If there’s one thing Web.com events are typically in need of it is more spectators.

“It’s exciting to have a guy like him in the field,” said Talor Gooch.

Casey Wittenberg got right to the point:  “Hopefully he putts as well as he shoots threes.”

For the record, every Web.com player in the field this week when asked said they’d love to play with Curry.

There was one PGA Tour player who weighed in, a well-known one.  Brandt Snedeker has been sidelined by an injury and will miss this week’s WGC-Bridgestone.  So it’s easy to get hold of Brandt.  He offered this:

“I think he’s in for a rude awakening.”

Thanks Brandt.  You’re probably right.  These guys on the Web.com go low.  There have been some ridiculously low winning scores and often you better shoot a few under just to make the 36-hole cut.  No opening with 79-73 like Curry did in Tahoe.

He better bring his A Plus, Plus, Plus game to the TPC Stonebrae.

“I’m going to try to keep it in the fairway and play well,” said Curry. “I had a lot of emotions about it (the invite).  Looking forward to hopefully not embarrassing myself.

Some of the bookmakers are already all over  this venture by Curry into the professional  golf arena.

Offshore betting outlet Bookmaker.eu compiled a number of props on Curry.

Here’s a sampling of what they came up with:

Will Curry make the cut? Yes +900 (bet $100 to win $900), No -2500 (bet $2500 to win $100).

Highest score in any round: Over/under 79.5 (par 70).

Lowest score in any round: Over/under 76.5.

Highest score on any single hole: Over/under 7.

Lowest score on any single hole: Over/under 3.

Total number of birdies: Over/under 2.5.

Total number of bogeys or worse: Over/under 8.5.

Notice how they really don’t expect him to make the cut.  You have to bet $2,500 to win $100.

Better take a pass on that one.