Guess who made an appearance at the TGL arena on Matchday 3? It’s NBA star turned golfer, JR Smith, who was waving at fans as TV cameras turned to the gallery at SoFi Center. The 39-year-old former basketball star with 2 NBA championships was in the gallery to watch Atlanta GC take on New York Golf Club. Notably, JR Smith played for the New York Knicks between 2011 and 2013 and again donned the Knicks jersey in the 2014-15 season.

The former shooting guard took up golf at a later age. So much so that he quit the NBA to join North Carolina A&T State University’s college golf program. Currently, he is a senior for the Aggies. Smith is bold, and he is confident in his golfing skills. But what handicap does he play with?

Well, he was a self-admitted eight-handicapper, one of the best from the NBA to turn into golf. But per a report on USA Today, Smith has actually improved his handicap. Currently, he plays with a 6.7 handicap. While that is short of Steph Curry’s golfing skills (he is better than a scratch golfer playing with a +1.3 handicap), or even Michael Jordan’s (1.9 handicap) Smith doesn’t lag very far behind compared to others. 

For instance, Charles Barkley is a 10 handicapper, Jerry West was 7.9 per a report on Complex. Having said that handicap is always a tricky business (remember that Donald Trump – Joe Biden episode?). More than his handicap, JR Smith’s journey into golf is a curious business. 

How did JR Smith turn to golf?

JR Smith was open about his dissatisfaction about being blackballed out of the NBA. “Anybody can sit here and tell you that that’s a fact,” he told Complex in an interview at that time. Nevertheless, JR Smith moved forward and announced he would go back to college, hoping to join the golf team. The seed was sown in the mid-2000s.

“It was literally like an addiction, immediately,” said Smith, speaking about his first tryst with the game. His colleague, Rashard Lewis, invited Smith to a game. His first drive? As good as it gets? His next? Bad. The next? Again, just bad. That got him hooked on the game.

Cut to a decade and a half later, Smith is finding an alternate career in golf. He is 39 and has a basketball career left behind him. But now JR Smith dreams of golf. Smith has already played celebrity rounds with Jack Nicklaus in 2023 at the short Oasis course after the first round of the World Wide Technology Championship. Is pro golf the next frontier? Only time will tell.