Andy Murray has been warned that playing the Celebrity Pro-Am at the BMW PGA will be “intimidating” when he returns to the sporting stage on Wednesday.
The former world No.1 who retired from tennis at the Olympics, has now set his sights on becoming a scratch golfer.
And the Scot, 37, will show his progress when he swaps the Centre Court at Wimbledon for the West Course at Wentworth alongside Ryder Cup player Bob MacIntyre. Also in his star-studded group are England’s record Test wicket-taker Jimmy Anderson and Anton Du Beke – the former Strictly Come Dancing partner of his mum Judy.
A crowd of 20,000 is expected for the Celebrity Pro-Am on Wednesday – and the all pre-tournament talk is about the three-time Grand Slam champion
Novak Djokovic conquered pre-tee nerves to par the first hole and win his match playing in the pro-am before the Ryder Cup in Rome last September.
And BMW PGA defending champion Ryan Fox said: “I wouldn’t mind seeing Andy Murray. I saw a post on social media that he’s keen to get down to scratch. See how much work he’s got to do. Most of the cricketers are generally pretty good.
“It’s always interesting for them tomorrow. It’s an intimidating setting. There’s a lot of people out there and it’s always kind of funny to see some of those shots off the first tee. There’s generally, if you’re on the putting green, you hear a lot of shouts of “Fore” off that. So kind of expecting to see a little bit of that tomorrow as well which is good fun.”
Justin Rose, who is playing in the group behind his fellow Olympic and US Open champion, added: “Andy is obviously a curious one, and he really seems to have taken to it. He’s obviously put a couple bits on social media about his goals and becoming a scratch golfer and the like, and the swing he put up looked pretty good. I think he’s on a good path.
But we all know, we struggle; the range and the golf course, two totally different things. I might even be worth me getting to the tee on time. I’m normally always scrambling and I’m always late, but maybe I’ll even get there ten minutes early tomorrow just to see him hit one.”
Asked what Murray should expect, world No.36 Rose said: “Autographs! It’s a busy day. I think the celebs obviously create more attention tomorrow than the pros do, so the day is very much about them. Hopefully it’s a scenario where you can enjoy it. You do want to play well enough where you don’t feel like you’re kind of hitting into the crowd and endangering people. You want to be able to feel like you can play free and enjoy the day and keep it inside the ropes.
“But I think there’s no expectation really on these guys that come out, guys and girls that come out and play. Everyone knows how hard the game is. If you’re lighthearted with any bad shot, I think the crowd just laugh with you and it’s all forgotten pretty quickly. I think just come out and enjoy it for what it is, and it’s a bit of chaos out there, and just have a bit of fun with it.
Rory McIlroy will play with Gareth Bale and Stuart Broad while Tommy Fleetwood partners Tom Holland and the Hollywood star’s two brothers Harry and Sam. Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald will play with England captain Ben Stokes.
And Kiwi Fox, the son of All Black great Grant, recalled his favourite pro-am memory playing with a cricketing legend in 2021.
“My partner for Dunhill Links for a lot of years was Shane Warne,” said Fox. “The last time I played with him was 2021. He turns up, I was coming 60th or something so we were kind of last off 10 on Sunday and Warne turns up and you could see, his eyes are glazed over. I see a photo of them playing cricket in the Old Course hotel with a whiskey bottle and tennis ball at 3.30am.
“Warne is bowling to Michael Vaughan, Kevin Pieterson is wicket keeping. Darren Gough is at cover. It’s a cool photo. But you know at that point, he’s having fun and he’s probably not going to be any good when he plays.
And he turns up and he drives the 10th green, first shot of the day, two putts for birdie and makes eagle. Pars 11 with a shot. Pars 12 with a shot. He stuffs up 13. And then he birdies 14 with a shot.
So we’re like 6-under after four, and I think I had six birdies for the day. Warne probably had five by himself plus a bunch of net birdies off 10. He beat all the pros in the group unofficially. He shot 70 and we all shot 1-under I think.
“Every time I made a stuff-up, he made a birdie and we shot 56 as a team and lost a count bet based on the pro score. But that was a really cool experience out on the golf course with him.
It’s a shame he’s not here anymore. He was such a great man. He loved golf and he was a really good friend. That’s probably my last memory of playing with him, and we had a whole lot of fun. And he crashed. He completely crashed. He got off the ninth green and basically fell asleep in the van on the way back to the clubhouse.
