Golf Gives Gareth Bale A New Sport To Try To Master
Gareth Bale putts during the first round of the Sunningdale Foursomes at Sunningdale Golf Club in ... More England.
To say Gareth Bale's tenure at Real Madrid was polarizing is an understatement.
From 2013-22, Bale dazzled on the field by scoring 106 goals across all competitions—two more than Ronaldo—and his bicycle kick against Liverpool in the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final is heralded as one of the best goals in Champions League Final history. Bale also won 15 trophies while playing in the Spanish capital—more than double Zinedine Zidane's tally of six as a Madrid player.
Despite achieving the success and accolades most players could only dream of, the Welshman still faced criticism. Some questioned why he didn't speak Spanish publicly, though Bale has since come out saying he didn't want to 'have this big fuss around me.'
Others even questioned his priorities and commitment to the club. Former Real Madrid sporting director Pedja Mijatovic claimed on the radio that despite not speaking to Bale, the impression he got was that the player's priorities were allegedly: 'Wales, golf and Madrid—in that order.'
While soccer remained his passion and priority until he retired in January 2023, Bale was introduced to another competitive outlet during his time at Tottenham Hotspur when he was about 20 years old: golf.
'You're playing football all the time, so it's nice to kind of mix it up,' Bale said recently from adidas global headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany. 'It's difficult to play other sports, so if you're playing tennis or another sport where it requires a lot of movement, it can really tire you out, but in golf you can get around it in a cart where you're getting in and out hitting golf shots and it's not massively strenuous.
'Once you start to hit a couple of cleaner shots, it kind of really sucks you in and gets you addicted.'
After starring for Southampton as a teenager, Bale signed a four-year deal with Tottenham in 2007. Playing with teammates mainly during the offseason or on the rare off day from training, golf gave Bale another competitive outlet without the physical demands—and risks—that came with professional soccer.
'Basically as soon as I started playing, that natural competitive instinct of trying to get better went in straight away,' said Bale, a five-time UEFA Champions League winner. 'And you just want to keep improving—playing better, shooting better scores, not losing so many balls. It was that natural progression.'
As his soccer career progressed, including a brief loan spell with Spurs as well as a 13 appearances with LAFC, Bale's golf obsession continued to blossom in the background as he helped his national team qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup for the first time in 64 years. (Celebrating with a Welsh flag with 'Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that order.' written on it certainly didn't win over any Madridistas.)
Bale's backyard of his Welsh estate is a golfer's paradise with replica holes of TPC Sawgrass' Island Green, Augusta National's Golden Bell and Royal Troon's Postage Stamp.
He's played in Pro-Ams and charity competitions as he continues to lower his handicap, which was at 0.1 as of February. He was quick to point out he wasn't officially scratch (0.0) yet, meaning shooting par or better on a regular basis.
Bale also continues to work with adidas as he transitions from the soccer field to the fairway. Rather than sharing feedback on optimizing soccer cleats to give him a competitive advantage as he speeds by defenders, Bale is now providing feedback on adidas golf shoes and apparel.
'I always say in football it was so important to me as I got faster and more powerful, I needed a boot that could withstand the amount of weight I was putting on it so my foot wouldn't move and I was able to react quickly,' he said. 'It's having that same kind of stability through the foot where you can go after a drive knowing where you push off the ground, your foot's not really going to slip inside the shoe and also having the traction on the bottom so you stay on the grass.
'I think it's so important to have the confidence in your footwear that you're able to not really have to think about it so you can concentrate on the more important aspects of your game which is trying to hit the ball straight.'
Recently linked to a U.S.-based private equity company eyeing a potential takeover of Plymouth Argyle, whether or not Bale gets into club ownership is still to be determined, but his pursuit of perfection on the course remains.
'I knew I wasn't going to master it quite like I did football,' Bale said. 'It was something I really enjoyed doing and, most importantly, was able to do (during my playing career).'
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