Playing off seven at the moment, Murray has already said that his next competitive goal is to become a scratch golfer. While he expects the project to require a couple of years, MacIntyre scoffed at this suggestion, saying: “He’ll be at scratch in no time”. Not everyone on the social channels agreed. Within a couple of hours of finishing, Murray had sent a sardonic message on X, saying: “Huge thanks to all the amateur golfers on social media for their constructive criticism of my golf swing. Much appreciated.”
Murray also acknowledged that it would be nice to be better than Henman, who plays most days and has a handicap of plus two. “He was good for a guy that’s obviously not played that much golf,” added MacIntyre. “He did say he was practising a lot [two-and-a-half to three hours per weekday, in fact] in the build-up to this. He changed his clubs yesterday, a full set. I was very impressed with his game.”
Murray was accompanied by his father Willie, who carried his bag. He joked afterwards that: “My dad might be getting the sack after his performance today. He spent most of his time following Bob around. But no, it was brilliant. During my tennis career, I didn’t get to spend loads of time with my dad. So getting to do that, it was a really cool day, as well.”
By the last few holes, Murray had reverted to the limping gait we remember from his tennis twilight. Even so, he still nailed his final two shots into the 17th. He already looks considerably lighter than he was in his playing days, and he confirmed afterwards that he has lost 12 pounds in the seven weeks since his retirement.
“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,” Murray said. “I haven’t been back since. It’s been five weeks that I’ve not been in the gym, longest ever for me probably.
“With my weight, I don’t know if it’s appetite? If I’m not eating as much? We obviously have loads of the sport drinks [in tennis], which have got a lot of calories in them, and I only really drink water and coffee now. I was expecting the opposite to happen.
“I said to my wife, ‘Look, I’m going to make sure when I stop, I stay in good shape.’ And she said, ‘Oh, if you’re just going to go and play golf, and do what Ivan’s done [a reference to Murray’s former coach Ivan Lendl, who is twice the man he used to be], I don’t want that.’”
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