Q&A: Theismann wanted to play Champions Tour

text size

Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Gary Koch, Joe Theismann and Nick Price at the 2008 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am.

Editor's note: Former Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann is one of the amateurs playing in the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am this week. He took time out from his preparation to chat with PGATOUR.COM contributor Rick Odioso.

PGATOUR.COM: Did you grow up a golfer?

RELATED

Leaderboard: Pro Am
Gill interview

THEISMANN: No, I caddied maybe five or six times but there wasn't really a golf course near where I grew up in New Jersey. I didn't follow the game. I never understood it. I started playing a little as a (football) player, maybe a 14, 15 handicap.

Around age 40, I started to commit myself to understanding the game of golf. What I love about it, Tom Weiskopf put it so well, is that in the game of golf you seek perfection, but you just can't ever achieve it. It is a borrowed game.

I really started to fall in love with the game, and now I am beyond passionate about it. This year I'll play 125 rounds or so, most of that between February and the start of football season. I'll practice two or three times a week. Just about every day, I'll put a club in my hand. Everything I do is pointed towards two tournaments, this one here in Tampa and the one in Lake Tahoe.

PGATOUR.COM: Is there a relationship between playing quarterback and playing golf?

THEISMANN: I try and take a little of what I did as a quarterback and put it into the game of golf. The move to the ball is pretty similar -- you want to fire your hips, you want to get your shoulders and belly button pointed at the target, you want to be balanced, you want to release -- so there is a similarity there. For me, the transition was how can I take what I did in football and suit what I'm able to do with my body.

I must say, though, that because of the staples and pins and fractures in my body, I'm not going to turn like Aaron Baddeley. If I tried it, I'd get stuck, and you're going to have to pour bronze over me.

PGATOUR.COM: What is the scouting report on Joe Theismann, the golfer?

THEISMANN: I am playing the best golf of my life at age 60. I'm a 2 handicap. I can drive the golf ball; I feel very comfortable off the tee. I hit a baby cut most of the time. Very rarely do I hit a draw and I can hit it about 275 with the new club I have. I won't be the biggest hitter, but I don't want to be. I'm learning to hit the ball more with tempo and pace.

From 100 to 115 yards with a wedge in my hand, I also feel comfortable. With the longer irons, the longer clubs, I tend to come out of the shot more. I need to stay down more in the shot.

Putting ... I can't count how many putters I've gone through, maybe 100 in the last four years. I've settled on a Scotty Cameron model I like. I've got the grip built up the way I want it. This one has a chance to stay around awhile.

PGATOUR.COM: Do you play better with a gallery?

THEISMANN: I think I do. For some reason, some of my best shots have come in tournaments. As a football player, I remember being worried sick in games against teams that didn't have very good records, but I felt comfortable in the Super Bowl.

PGATOUR.COM: What's your best moment in golf?

THEISMANN: My most enjoyable moments have been playing with my sons, Joey and Patrick. Patrick and I went to southwest Ireland to play Ballybunion, Tralee, Waterville, Old Head, some others and that was great. We spent eight days together and played seven different courses.

We've created a trophy, the Theismann trophy -- rhymes with Heisman -- that is competed for between myself and my sons. It has resided at all three homes, but I'm proud to say that right now it sits at dad's house.

PGATOUR.COM: What are four courses you would want to play?

THEISMANN: I'd go back to Old Head in a heartbeat, it's absolutely the most majestic course I've seen in my life.Pebble Beach, it's like Yankee Stadium or Boston Garden, it's classic. Who wouldn't want to play it over and over? I like the Olympic Club in San Francisco, that's a great test of golf.

Of course, the one I would like to play is Augusta.

PGATOUR.COM: You haven't played Augusta?

THEISMANN: I will be available if the phone rings.

PGATOUR.COM: Have you ever thought about playing on the Champions Tour?

THEISMANN: I wanted to take a shot when I turned 50. I was putting in five, six hours a day. But I got thinking about things from a family standpoint. With my broadcasting, it didn't make sense.

Another reason was I respect these guys out here so much. I spent my life playing professional football, and they've spent their lives as professional golfers. It's a big difference. A lot of people have tried to make that switch. It's not easy. John Brodie did it in the beginning when the game wasn't what it is.

A lot of guys have tried. I'll tell you one guy who might. Sterling Sharpe can hit it as far as anyone. He just needs to learn to put four rounds together.

PGATOUR.COM: How much of an event like this is competing to win and how much is having a good time?

THEISMANN: I always have a good time. I want to entertain the fans and the sponsors; I converse with the fans. But I still want to compete. Coming out of a sport where the Washington Redskins competed against the Giants and Cowboys, now what I compete against is par. If you can understand that and enjoy the people you play with and not worry about what they are doing (you'll be OK). I'm aware of certain aspects of the competition, don't get me wrong, but I just use par as a barometer.

You know Vinny Testaverde and I were playing the other day and it is all about the ability to still compete. We don't have a Champions Tour, a senior division, in football, if we did it would be one game next to a hospital. For athletes like us, you compete, you compete, you compete -- and then it stops. It's cold turkey. And none of us handle it well. We all are still looking for that ability to compete against something, to work on something, to have a chance to be better at something. I don't ever want to stop.

When we go out and play in tournaments I want to beat every one of them, the older athletes and the younger ones. I want to be the guy that beats Jerry Rice, I want to beat Tim Brown, I want to be the low athlete, the low celebrity. That's what I want to be.