Future NBA Hall-of-Famer Steph Curry is putting on a show at this year’s American Century Championship. The Golden State Warriors star is in the lead after the first round, and he added an incredible punctuation point on Friday with what he called, “probably the best putt I’ve ever made in my life.”
The American Century Championship is an annual event in at Edgewood Tahoe Resort that pits celebrities and star athletes against each other on the golf course, with competitors battling over 54 holes under a modified Stableford format.
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Curry has long been known as one of the most high-profile, golf-addicted star athletes (and one of the better players among them), but despite being a regular at the event, he’s never won the American Century Championship. That could change this year.
He finished Friday’s opening round with a total score of 27, helped in no small part by an impressive birdie putt he drained at the 12th hole.
After hitting the green at the par-3, Curry was faced with a lengthy and treacherous putt that ran downhill and broke from right-to-left more than 20 feet. Curry sent his ball way right up the hill, hoping it would trundle down to a makeable range. Instead, it crested the hill and took a hard right turn, beelining for the hole and dropping in the cup.
Curry, however, didn’t see it, having started his walk-off celebration long before his ball went in.
Check it out below.
After the round, Curry admitted he “didn’t expect to make [the putt on 12],” but halfway through the putt, he felt good enough about it to celebrate early.
“I started to play — tried my best to do my basketball impersonation, turn around before it went in, and it was fun,” Curry said.
He continued: “That’s probably the best putt I’ve ever made in my life. But I’ve seen — I wanted to just walk over there to make sure I knew which way the putt went because I was expecting it to go past for the comebacker. Like you said, you see it on line, and you start to feel the anticipation of it going in.
“But it was fun, the visualization and creativity out here, you never know when it’s going to work out. But that one, fortunately, did. There’s no other way I could make it unless I hit the pin square on and it went in. Beautiful.”
With two rounds to play, Curry’s nearest chaser is Joe Pavelski of the Dallas Stars, who has 23 points, four short of the lead.
As for how Curry plans on tackling the challenge of playing with the lead, he’s taking some pointers from the stars of the PGA Tour.
“I’m trying to go into all the sound bites that I hear from all the Tour pros about how they handle early success in the tournament,” Curry said Friday. “I know there’s a lot of golf left. Not getting too ahead of myself. But it is nice to be in it, be with a lead and kind of settle in tomorrow and have some fun.”
You can watch Saturday’s second round of the 2023 American Century Championship on NBC from 2:30-6 p.m. ET or stream the simulcast on Peacock.