PRO GOLF IS EVEN TOUGHER THAN IT LOOKS

Armed with a golf game better than nearly 95 percent of amateurs in Australia, former rugby league star Ben Ikin accepted the challenge of playing with the pros in a Tour event. It didn’t end well. Here’s why.

WORDS MATT CLEARY

Ben Ikin was cool. He’d had a couple flat whites, a yarn with some mates, and walked onto the driving range to knock them out pure. He rolled a few tidy putts on the practice green and strode to the tee box feeling confident and good, looking forward to a fun round of golf. And then his heart shot out of his chest. He didn’t know what was going on. He couldn’t calm down. He couldn’t stop the hammering – boom-boom-boom. He hadn’t prepared for this. He’d played 150 first-grade rugby league games, 17 Origins and two Tests for Australia, and hadn’t known nerves like it. Fronting live television was a doddle compared to this physical, emotional torrent. “As soon as I put one foot on that tee box, I shit myself,”…

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Golf Australia (Digital) - 1 Issue, June 2019

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