The chasm between scratch-handicap amateurs and competing professionals is massive. A scratch player can go out and do some impressive things on the golf course, but when stood up next to a professional, it looks like they are playing a completely different game.
Clayton Keller knows this fact well. The NHL All Star carries a low single-digit handicap in his time away from the ice, and he plays as often as he can. But when he gets a chance to tee it up alongside the likes of pro golf’s best — specifically world No. 1 Jon Rahm — his game pales in comparison.
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“It’s unbelievable how good he hits it like every single time,” Keller said on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar. “I haven’t seen him make a bogey. I haven’t seen him miss a fairway. It’s unbelievable.”
While that statement likely is a bit of a hyperbole, the point remains — Rahm is good. But even though Keller can’t win a few bucks off his pro-golf opponent, he still learns a good bit every time he tees it up with the Spaniard.
“Sometimes before we’re playing, he’ll just be chipping around and I’ll go up next to him and he’ll teach me one of the shots around the greens,” Keller said. “I think that’s pretty cool, and something I don’t take for granted getting to learn from a guy like that.”
Check out the entire interview with Keller below.