Tiger Woods knew he was staring at a prodigious talent when he met Australia’s world No.1 tennis sensation Ash Barty.
It was at the official launch of the 2019 Presidents Cup in Melbourne. The sun was out and Australia’s new golden girl of tennis had been invited to take aim at a floating green perched on the Yarra River as part of a celebrity shootout to kick off the week’s festivities when Woods was asked what he thought of the sweet-swinging French Open champion, who looked a natural with wedge in hand.
“She’s got a great swing, are you kidding me?” said the 15-time Major winner.
Barty’s ability to flush a golf ball was hardly surprising to those in the know. This was, after all, the same girl from Ipswich in Queensland who was born into a family full of golf tragics, and who would go on to turn professional in both tennis and cricket with effortless transition. Hitting a floating green from 60 metres away? Pfft… piece of cake!
While the coronavirus pandemic may have ended Barty’s dreams of defending the French Open title she famously claimed in 2019, it only enhanced her drive to compete. The unfortunate victims of this winning mentality? The poor folk competing in Brookwater Golf & Country Club’s annual championships. Barty spent her extended “off season” bashing golf balls with golf-pro partner Garry Kissick, and was rewarded for her efforts by slicing her handicap from 10 to 4, and winning the women’s club championship at the Greg Norman/Bob Harrison-designed course 40 minutes from Brisbane’s CBD. It was yet more silverware for this multi-talented athlete, who remains as humble as the day she was born.
We caught up with Australia’s most popular sports star to get the inside scoop on what it was like to steal the show from Tiger, and whether she will ever attempt to add “golf professional” to her glittering résumé. ⇒⇒⇒
This pandemic has provided somewhat of a nice forced change for me, I suppose. To be home with my family and friends has been great. It’s also given me an opportunity to play a bit more golf than what I’m used to, which has obviously been really good. I’ve loved getting the opportunity to get out on course more and work on my other passion outside tennis.
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Where did golf start for me? My dad (Robert) was a very good golfer. He represented Australia as an amateur and was taking steps to go to college and go through that pathway to become a tour pro, but it didn’t work out for him in the end. He decided to stay home and ended up giving the game away. For more than 20 years he didn’t pick up a club and I always used to muck around in the backyard with whatever old clubs I could find. Then, when I stopped playing tennis there for a while, it was an opportunity to play a little bit more golf and Dad and I started playing together a bit. I think I was hooked from that moment on.
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Golf has always been a sport that’s come quite naturally to me. I mean, even my mum was a very, very good golfer herself and her whole family loves to play. I guess if there was one sport that’s truly in the Barty genes, it’s probably golf, more so than tennis.
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Dad used to play state cricket as well. Eventually when he decided to take golf a little bit more seriously, he had to choose. He gave up cricket because the swings in each sport didn’t talk to each other. For me, it’s not dissimilar in tennis. When I’m playing a lot of tennis, let’s just say my golf swing becomes a little messy. Yeah, there’s a few things that don’t talk to each other, but it was nice to actually play two or three times a week for a period of months when I wasn’t playing a lot of tennis, so the golf swing was a lot more calculated and correct than it is when I’m hitting tennis balls. I’m sure once tennis fires back up again my golf game will suffer the consequences.
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Brookwater is an incredible course to be a member of. I think they’ve done incredibly well to maintain its high standard given the pandemic. It’s a course that’s very challenging. I think the first time I played it I lost a few balls thinking they’re on the fairway when, in reality, they probably missed the fairway by no more than a metre! But it was a lot of fun and it’s a course that’s obviously close to home for me and in a great community. I live only a few kilometres away. It’s a short drive down, which is nice when you’ve got the early morning tee-time – it allows me to take a little bit of extra sleep and straight onto the first tee we go. I love the people there and I think it’s a brilliant course for me to be able to call home.
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Brookwater is also the place I found love. My partner, Garry, was the trainee pro there for a bit. The plan was for him to defer a year and actually come and do a bit of travel with me, but that was all put on hold in 2020. Garry has worked at Brookwater for a number of years, including as a greenkeeper. Having grown up very close to there like I did, it’s a nice place for us to be able to play together occasionally.
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Living with a golfer is actually OK. I mean, we both leave our work away from home. I’m a golf fanatic, I’m a fan. I love to watch it. I love to enjoy it and so does Garry. So I think regardless of whether he’s had a good day or a bad day on the course, coming home and watching a little bit or chatting about it, it’s pretty relaxed. Neither of us stress too much about what happens on the golf course. It’s pretty good. It’s nice to be able to share something in common as well. When I met Garry, he wasn’t overly familiar with tennis, which to me was a breath of fresh air. And I absolutely loved that right from the start. So that was nice to be able to talk something other than tennis with someone you’re very close to.
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Is Garry a better tennis player than I am a golfer? Well, he’s got a bit of the same problem as me in that he’s a former cricketer as well. The first time I took him on the tennis court and I hit a serve to him, he just got on the back foot and cut it through cover point and I thought, That’s the wrong sport. Yeah, instincts kicked in, but he never really took to tennis. That’s not his thing, which is brilliant. I can do that, and then put it to bed.
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Winning the Brookwater club champs was quite the experience. We had a pretty full field for the women. We were still splitting the two divisions, but it was four or five people in each field. So it was quite small, but it was the first time I’d ever played competitive golf. As competitive as club champs get, it was something very new to me. I’ll tell you what, I’ve never played that level of golf before. My heart was racing so much. For me, golf is a hobby, it doesn’t mean a hell of a lot, but still the competitor in me wanted to do well and kind of not knowing what to expect was a really strange feeling, but something I really enjoyed.
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My win made a lot of noise in the media but it was a bit blown out. I was like, Come on guys. I’ve played a bit of golf. Just chill out a little bit. But no, it was all in good fun. And I think it was nice to be able to relax and do something that I find as a hobby, which is brilliant.
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Meeting Tiger Woods was awesome. It really was probably one of my favourite days from a sporting sense. I think just the calibre of professionals that I was around, as a fan, was incredible. And just to see them swinging a golf club from only two or three metres away, was really cool. I’d never been more nervous for a 60-metre water carry in my life. And I just completely overthought it in my head, but it was all in good fun. And it was a brilliant week for all those involved.
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What can you say about Tiger that week? It was remarkable just to see how he handles such a massive occasion, particularly when he was the one with all the weight on his shoulders as playing captain. It was pretty cool to watch, I must say. Watching how the world’s best golfers switch from that competitiveness of an individual sport and then come together as a team, was really remarkable. I think I took a lot away from that week.
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There are definite similarities between pro tennis and golf. I think as tennis players, you have to be selfish at times, which I think is not dissimilar to golf. But then there are times in Fed Cups and team events like the Olympics where you have to come together as a team. And that’s the time that I enjoy the most – being able to enjoy it with other people and try to bring out the best in them. I think that’s what a lot of those guys love so much about the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. When they get to come together with the best in the world and test themselves with the best of the world, it’s something they’ll treasure forever.
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My bucket-list experience in golf would have to be Augusta National. I think for many people that’s on top of their bucket list, isn’t it? We had plans to go last year, which was, at that time of year, it would have been really special, but things happen for a reason. Hopefully it means that we get another opportunity down the track.
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I’m a competitive person by nature, but for me, golf is something that I find very relaxing, and no matter how good or bad I play, it’s an afternoon or a morning where I can get out and just enjoy myself. It’s a little bit the opposite pace to tennis. In golf you have a lot of time to think and to walk and to enjoy, where tennis is quite quick in a sense of decision-making.
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I was asked recently would I be more nervous serving for a Grand Slam or putting for a Major? Definitely a Grand Slam. I think, for me, golf is something that it’s a hobby. It’s really relaxed whereas tennis is my sport, it’s my passion, it’s my love, it’s my career. Golf for me is very much: rock up to the course and grab a coffee and then go to the first tee. It’s all fun and games and it’s all pretty chilled.
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It’s funny listening to other golfers suggest I could turn pro at golf if I committed to it. It was always something I joked about with my uncle when I used to muck around and play with him. He always said that he’d be my caddie on the LPGA Tour, but no, I think for me, two sports is enough. Tennis is obviously the focus and cricket was a bit of fun, but golf for me is a hobby. I love it.
