Scott Draper wins a golf event!

[GS]

I know I know, most of you hate golf, but you gotta admit it's a tough sport to play, er, well. Draper coached Hewitt during this year's Australian Open after Hewitt's coach quit on short notice. Afterwards, Draper decided to continue his pro golf career, then recently won the New South Wales PGA championship by one stroke---he shot a 65 on the final round.
(Draper won the mixed doubs at the 2005 Aussie Open and was a former Davis Cup player for Australia.)
You don't see Lendl, Sampras or Connors winning any golf tournaments, and they usually play a fair number of pro-ams.

[shavenstringer]

Originally Posted by GS

I know I know, most of you hate golf, but you gotta admit it's a tough sport to play, er, well. Draper coached Hewitt during this year's Australian Open after Hewitt's coach quit on short notice. Afterwards, Draper decided to continue his pro golf career, then recently won the New South Wales PGA championship by one stroke---he shot a 65 on the final round.
(Draper won the mixed doubs at the 2005 Aussie Open and was a former Davis Cup player for Australia.)
You don't see Lendl, Sampras or Connors winning any golf tournaments, and they usually play a fair number of pro-ams.

Congrats to Scott, but in all fairness he is a "professional golfer". Lendl, Sampras and Conners are amateurs and have never trained or claimed to be pro golfers. In these pro-am event they are the amateurs not the pros.

[Jonny S&V]

Lendl is going for the over-45s once he is eligible (I think thats the seniors, right?) so you could safely say that he is an aspiring senior pro .

[patrick922]

that is pretty cool that he was a tennis professional and now he is a professional golfer.

[GS]

Naw, here in the States, you have to be 50 to join the tour.
He just might make the cut---to play professional golf is his passion now, and most of his daughters are in golf school in Florida---that's why he moved down there.

[!Tym]

Lendl desperately wanted to become a pro golfer from what I remember after he retired, he really tried hard, but just was never/could never get good enough. So definitely Scott Draper's level of play in golf is pretty astounding. It's always a rarity to find a person talented enough to play at pro level in two separate sports--quite an astonishing accomplishment really. Draper was actually a very talented tennis player too, and was thought of by many in Australia as their next big star growing up, much more so than someone like Rafter ever was. But alas in the end, he was raised in the Aussie tradition that says serve and volley, all-court play is the only way to play. Problem for him became, I suppose, that he just didn't grow...enough. He was like 5'9-10" or so, and like Todd Woodbridge who was also thought to be the next great Aussie growing up, both guys simply played too classical a game for their height. You just can't make it all the way to the top in pro tennis at that height playing that way. It's a testament to their natural ability that they got as far as they did. Draper was quite injury prone and the death of his wife really set him back, but there was a period where he was really establishing himself as a solid middle of the run guy who could give anyone in the world a run on his best day. All his strokes were very smooth and natural, and his transitions from every part of the court to another, equally smooth and natural. He was also a great sportsman, one of the most liked guys on tour, and just came out to play every day and you knew he wasn't going to tank on you, and every fan knew that he was going to give you all he had that day, he wasn't going to slap you in the face and insult you like say, oh...RIOS.

Hard to say, but had he been brought up on clay or in America, and not steered to be a net rusher in the great Aussie tradition, I think he would have definitely been a top twenty player, and quite possibly top ten or even more at some point. He just didn't have a pro appropriate frame to play that way at the pro level, but I think it was clear in watching him that he really did have talent...just the wrong game, and short limbs for it. Had his size been taken into consideration, I think he would have been much better off with at least a semi-western grip, baseline only game.

Rafter on the other hand, you could tell was definitely not as naturally talented as Draper, none of his strokes looked particularly smooth, everything looked muscled, grunted at, labored, like someone who had to really work hard at every shot he had, yet on the other hand, he was a primo jock athlete, but more importantly unlike Draper, he had the primo jock BUILD. In other words, he was tall enough to play that way. Both gave it their all and were great guys, but other than that I'm not really sure what Rafter did better than Draper that couldn't/wouldn't be attributed to him basically just being taller than him. Oh well, I guess that's just the way pro sports are. Too bad tennis doesn't have pound for pound, size-class distinctions, like combat sports as there are a lot of top class junior talents that never make it at the pro level due to no other reason other than not being tall enough.

[grizzly4life]

that is incredibly impressive... i remember a company had a $1 million bonus (years ago) if you could win both tennis and golf U.S. open (not sure about same year).... only name ever mentioned was frank connor (conner??) as being good at both.

with all due respect, ivan lendl is nowhere near good enough to make the senior's tour.... how does he do in the celebrity tournaments? seems like rick rhoden and dan quinn, for starters, are much better than him. i think rhoden has had some starts and decent results on senior PGA (not sure though).

but draper's feat is pretty amazing.

[jmsx521]

Don't know much about golf's divisions... but who is better at golf, Draper or Lendl? Who is the best current or former pro tennis player, at golf?

Draper had some awesome shot-making from the baseline.

[Joeyg]

Ellsworth Vines was a fine tennis player and pro golfer.

[Bjorn99]

i loved Drapers game.

[jackcrawford]

Despite massive investment of time and effort, and much bragging prior to their attempts, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley are both duffers. Lendl is a scratch golfer, Draper now a victorious pro, and as mentioned before Vines became a PGA pro after taking up the game in his 20's.
Rick Rhoden nearly qualified for the senior's tour and Ralph Terry, the Yankee righthander from the '60's did play some senior tour events. Something to think about when dismissing the athletic ability of tennis players and baseball pitchers as compared to NBA players.

[tennus]

Originally Posted by GS

I know I know, most of you hate golf, but you gotta admit it's a tough sport to play, er, well. Draper coached Hewitt during this year's Australian Open after Hewitt's coach quit on short notice. Afterwards, Draper decided to continue his pro golf career, then recently won the New South Wales PGA championship by one stroke---he shot a 65 on the final round.
(Draper won the mixed doubs at the 2005 Aussie Open and was a former Davis Cup player for Australia.)
You don't see Lendl, Sampras or Connors winning any golf tournaments, and they usually play a fair number of pro-ams.

True but you also shouldn't use Draper's name in the same breath when talking about tennis.
Sure he was a talented player but not in the above mentioned league !

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by tennus

True but you also shouldn't use Draper's name in the same breath when talking about tennis.
Sure he was a talented player but not in the above mentioned league !

On the contrary, while we can talk about Draper in the same breath as Connors, Lendl and Sampras when the topic is tennis (like them, he won Queens), we can't talk about them in the same breath as Draper when it comes to golf. They might have been better tennis players than him but he was able to compete at their level. When it comes to golf, those guys are decidely little league in comparison to Draper.


Tym,
No-one steers a player towards being a net rusher - it's something you do by inclination. Turned into a clay-courter he wouldn't have made the top 100. Draper maximised his talent and that was top 50 only. No-one here in Australia ever thought he'd do better than Pat Rafter because he just didn't have the guns. He was a brilliant shot-maker but not a heavy enough hitter in any department (if he'd had Rafter's serve, things would have been very different).

[tennus]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

On the contrary, while we can talk about Draper in the same breath as Connors, Lendl and Sampras when the topic is tennis (like them, he won Queens), we can't talk about them in the same breath as Draper when it comes to golf. They might have been better tennis players than him but he was able to compete at their level. When it comes to golf, those guys are decidely little league in comparison to Draper.

Well, I really don't think you can compare Draper's tennis achievements with Connors, Lendl or Sampras ! That's like comparing a Volkswagon with Porches. Scott Draper, Scott Draper hmmm.................now when was he No 1 and how many grand slams singles titles did he win ??????? Why none. Oh, by the way mixed doubles doesn't really count as Martina won one of those aged 47. So what we're left with is a good all rounder in Draper. That I won't dispute.

[GS]

Hell, I only posted this news about Draper because he was a former tennis pro who just won a golf tourney. I didn't try to compare him to Lendl, Connors or Sampras.....

[Nick Irons]

Golf is not a sport.

[AndrewD]

Originally Posted by tennus

Well, I really don't think you can compare Draper's tennis achievements with Connors, Lendl or Sampras !

Of course you can compare Draper's tennis achievements to Connors, Lendl and Sampras - as you keep proving (saying he isn't as good means you have compared him to them) . That he didn't achieve as much as them is irrelevant. The fact remains that he was good enough to get to the pro tour as a tennis player. When it comes to golf, none of those guys were capable of merely qualifying to play on the tour, let alone winning an event. So, while we can compare Draper's pro tennis achievements to theirs - even if he comes up a long way short- we can't realistically compare their pro golf achievements to his as they never managed to compete at the same level (Lendl missed the cut each time, I believe).

You can, if you like, compare Draper to Ellsworth Vines who did win a pro golf tournament, had a number of good finishes and was (I think) a semi-finalist at the 1951 PGA Championship. Draper isn't at that level yet but he at least has the opportunity.

Yes, you can compare a VW and a Porsche but you can't use them as an analogy for people.

[BeckerFan]

Originally Posted by Nick Irons

Golf is not a sport.

Golf is very much a sport. Personally, I find it more challenging than tennis.

It is certainly more difficult to win a pro tournament in golf than in tennis.

[BeckerFan]

Originally Posted by AndrewD

You can, if you like, compare Draper to Ellsworth Vines who did win a pro golf tournament, had a number of good finishes and was (I think) a semi-finalist at the 1951 PGA Championship. Draper isn't at that level yet but he at least has the opportunity.

But then again Draper came nowhere near Vines's level in tennis.

As a golfer, Vines also finished twice in the top 10 money rankings.