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Retired athletes flock to the links Emmitt Smith, others enjoy benefits of celebrity status
There are a lot of good gigs in golf. The most obvious one might seem to be that of touring pro, but there's constant pressure and more failure than most people can handle. Being a leader of luxury golf excursions isn't bad, but it doesn't take long before even gourmet food starts tasting like vinyl and every five-star hotel makes you long for your own bed. Golf writing is wonderful, except for one thing: You've got to write. Now, after many years of comparing my lot with others who take their sustenance from the game, I've decided there is no better deal than being an active or retired professional athlete on the celebrity golf circuit. It's no accident that sports figures as diverse as Yogi Berra and Jim Brown love to play in several of these events a year. As a group, famous jocks may have plenty of money, time and interests, but during their playing careers and after, more and more of them are irresistibly drawn to the golf course. And, for a number of reasons, the deal they get in celebrity golf is particularly appealing. Here are just a few: I observed all this firsthand a few weeks ago at the 12th annual Bryant Gumbel /Walt Disney World Celebrity Golf Tournament in Orlando, Fla. Gumbel works very hard to pull in dozens of Hall of Famers from all over the sports world, and the event has raised more than $8 million for the United Negro College Fund. This year's 80 scholarship recipients all attended the gala dinner, where they were encouraged to converse and ask advice of the sports icons of their choice. Seeing people like Oscar Robertson, John Havlicek, Gale Sayers, Carlton Fisk and Paul Warfield inspiring young people with thoughtful answers was good for the soul. Personally, I was lucky enough to be seated at the same table as Bill Russell, whose dignity, intelligence and humor is even more impressive in person. On the golf course, the jocks were clearly in their element. People who have been winners at sports all their lives know that the No. 1 rule is to not beat yourself. I noticed that while not all of them are good golfers, none who I saw played dumb golf. There were a lot of funny swings, but there were more straight, playable shots. Former NFL quarterback Earl Morrall was in the group in front of ours, and while his unorthodox slash was ugly, the results weren't. It reminded me that while he had never been a stylish QB with the Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins, few were better at finding a way to get the job done. The celebrity in my group was Emmitt Smith. The Dallas Cowboys star knew I was a sportswriter, but once he was satisfied I wasn't going to ask him about Troy Aikman's concussions or Michael Irvin's night moves, he settled into the person I gather is his natural self -- reserved and friendly, tranquil and well-grounded. Although he doesn't play a lot of rounds, Smith has an avid interest in the game. In the last three years, he has spent a lot of time working with Hank Haney, the architect of Mark O'Meara's swing, at the Haney Golf Ranch outside Dallas. Throughout the round, Smith dedicated himself to learning the feel of the flatter backswing plane Haney is teaching him. Even though the new move wasn't comfortable and produced some pushes to the right, Smith stayed with it rather than revert to his more upright plane. "I'm an improver," explained the NFL's all-time leader in rushing touchdowns. "It's what I've done best in my football career, and it's what I do best in golf." When I called Haney about Smith, he said, "Big-name athletes sometimes have a problem sticking with stuff when they are playing bad, but Emmitt really respects the learning process. When he first came to see me, he called me 'Mr. Haney.'" Smith definitely has skills. He's really long -- he drove a 305-yard par-4 -- but that's more a product of a good fundamentals and explosive rotational speed than his massive thighs and shoulders. In fact, the upper-body development he needs for football probably hinders him in golf. He knows that when he retires, he'll get sleeker and even longer. Smith plays smart. Because his length becomes a liability if he gets even slightly wild, he's a conservative course manager who hits a lot of irons off the tee and plays to the fat part of greens. His strongest suit is the short game. Smith has excellent touch and a very sound putting stroke. Although he made some good runs at longer putts, I was most impressed by how solid he was over short putts and how cleanly they went in. Smith was listed as a 13 handicap, partly because he doesn't play many 18-hole rounds, except in celebrity events, and partly because he needs a little padding to bet on reasonably even terms with all the bandits among the pro-jock golfers. Perhaps because they make or made their livings in arenas where taking as much as the officiating allows is normal, I saw a lot of what I thought were inflated handicaps among the celebrities at the Gumbel event. When Smith gets a chance to practice and play more golf, he'll be a legitimate middle- to low-single-digit player within two years. It was interesting to watch a future Hall of Fame athlete approach a new sport. These guys not only have the tools to get good, they know how to get good. I'm sure that makes golf -- which so many active and retired pro athletes already believe is the greatest game they've ever played -- all the more seductive. Sports Illustrated senior writer Jaime Diaz is a regular contributor to the magazine's Golf Plus edition. Click here to send him a question or comment.
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