By now, fans are well versed in the golf skills of Warriors guard Stephen Curry. But there's another Bay Area athlete with pretty good game.
San Jose Sharks captain Joe Pavelski is no doubt getting ready for the upcoming hockey season, but in the days leading up to training camp, he is getting in some time on the links.
The two-time Olympian and two-time NHL all-star calls himself "good" at golf, but when asked about how he compares to his Sharks comrades, he had a different slant.
"Compared to my teammates, I’m great," he said. "Closer on the greater side. We have some bad golfers on the team, we really do.”"
Pavelski said his lowest handicap has been "right around a plus-2, and it’s currently "right around scratch." He recalled picking up a golf club for the first time when he was 9 years old, and he started taking the sport seriously a few years later.
"That was actually probably one of the best moves I made," he said. "I really enjoyed playing baseball, and then in eighth grade, you know, I kind of picked golf as the other sport. Played hockey and golf in high school."
To this day, just like his friend Curry uses golf as an athletic outlet from the basketball court, so too does Pavelski from the rink.
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The driving range and practice area used by San Jose State’s golf programs are now just across the street from the Sharks practice facility, so Pavelski likes to spend a lot of his free time there.
"It was pretty cool, kind of seeing it being built," he said. "They couldn’t build it fast enough, obviously. Definitely, when it’s so close and accessible, you know, you get a few extra reps in for sure."
Those extra reps payed off at July’s American Century Championship at Lake Tahoe, where Pavelski finished third.
"You know, it was right there for me this year, for sure," he said of the celebrity tournament. ""I think if we keep getting the invite, it’s one I’d like to win sometime, for sure."
