Celebrity swingers : A behind-the-scenes look at golf handicaps for the growing legion of avid shooting stars

Golf Digest, May, 2001 by Lisa Furlong

When Arnold Schwarzenegger says "I'll be back," starters at his clubs from Los Angeles to Sun Valley know he's not making idle threats.

Introduced to the game three years ago by his agent, The Terminator squeezes in a round as often as he can, generally breaking 100 with a display of short-game accuracy. (After all, this is a man who has a lot of experience focusing on targets.) On record as wishing that, like his "The 6th Day" character, he could be cloned--so one of him could play golf all the time--Schwarzenegger is not the only Hollywood star who has fallen in love with golf. He's in excellent company, as reflected by our first-ever "ranking" of golfers in the entertainment industry.

Because we included only handicaps that could be verified, our rankees are just the tip of the iceberg. A number of actors described elsewhere as golfers declined to label themselves as such for Golf Digest.

As for those who gave us numbers or those for whom we obtained information, it should be noted "verified" handicaps are not always accurate handicaps. Numbers listed with decimal points are official Handicap Indexes.

"I'd love to play some of these so-called low-handicappers for serious money," cackles one insider. "It's amazing how much gambling doesn't take place because people can't play to their numbers."

"I think all people exaggerate their handicaps, saying they're lower than they really are--until they play in a tournament," says "Vertical Limit" star Chris O'Donnell. No one questions O'Donnell's 6.6.

Though many golfers interviewed laugh about the matter, Adam Baldwin ("My Bodyguard," "The Patriot") says he left his private club "largely over handicap-management issues." Now he plays with "an eclectic group of thieves, sandbaggers and miscreants" at public courses like Brookside and Griffith Park.

Baldwin also puts his 2.5-handicap on display in competition on the mostly ex-jock circuit known as the Celebrity Players Tour. Other CPT regulars include Hollywood's reputedly best golfer, Jack Wagner ("Melrose Place," "Titans") and actor/producer Alex Hyde-White ("Pretty Woman," "The Pursuit of Happiness"), who laughingly notes, "We're among the few people out there who are still working for a living."

To be fair, questionable handicaps are not rooted in ego alone. Because actors rarely have extended periods to polish their games, "Getting in and out of the game is the most frustrating part of playing," says Craig T. Nelson ("Coach," "The District"), a proven 5.6 who says he's weighing projects for just that reason. Some big-budget, long-in-production films yield time to play on location, but many actors play primarily in pro-am scrambles and friendly matches, not counting every stroke.

When it comes to playing in public, some are more comfortable than others. "Actors who have done soaps or stage work cope with the embarrassment of bad shots the best," says Hyde-White, a veteran of "Days of Our Lives" and the stage. "They haven't become used to the luxury of working only on huge films, where they'll reshoot every scene until it's perfect."

Though actors and others in the industry play at clubs around the country, Los Angeles is the predictable epicenter of entertainment golf. And it's not just the familiar AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am fixtures who are playing the game.

You thought Tiger was the only golf role model for kids? Bryce Johnson, star of WB's' "Popular," captained his high school golf team as a 9-handicapper. "Now it's so hard to find time to play, it would be more like an 11 or 12," he says.

Despite his schedule, 15-year-old Frankie Muniz ("Malcolm in the Middle") says he has lowered his handicap to 15 from 18, playing once a month.

"I started playing at age 5, with my grandpa," he says proudly. His favorite partners? "People who think they're good but then get beat by me."

Among Hollywood's few accomplished women golfers is Catherine Zeta-Jones, who has been spotted playing at St. Andrews with the same athleticism she displayed in "The Mask of Zorro." She even sent her caddie an appreciative Christmas card.

If our listings are one indication of those who play, 5-handicap screenwriter Doug Richardson points to another clue: "Any time I see golf equipment on screen when it's not a given in the script, I immediately wonder who put it there," Richardson says. "Sometimes clubs are a matter of product placement, but often they're chosen by someone who wants to take them home."

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Who hasn't seen at least five movies starring any one of these guys? Who wouldn't want to be Clint Eastwood just for his golf properties? Sean Connery has the game to be higher on the list, were it not for working so hard. A member of great tracks around the world, Connery also has a vote in the Memorial Tournament's Captains Club, which selects the event's annual honorees.

Despite Robert Redford's claim that he'd been too busy making a movie about golf ("The Legend of Bagger Vance") to play the game, he has been spotted on the course from time to time. In deference to his self-appraisal we've estimated this one-time 6-handicapper as a 12 today.