Andy Murray shines at PGA championship Pro-Am with Robert MacIntyre

Andy Murray was the star guest at the BMW PGA Championship Pro-Am, teaming up with Robert MacIntyre. The former world No.1 has embraced his recent retirement, turning to golf as a new hobby, as indicated in his bio on X: “I played tennis. I now play golf.”

The three-time Grand Slam champion received tips from Scottish professional golfer Bob McIntyre, who competes on the European and PGA Tours. “When I’m taking the club up, I feel like I’m getting to the top too fast,” Murray remarked, asking for advice from his partner.

This was Murray’s first golfing event, and he admitted it wasn’t easy to perform in front of a crowd at the Wentworth Pro-Am: “I was pretty nervous,” he said. “I couldn’t really feel my arms and legs.”

When asked whether playing golf in front of spectators or competing in the US Open final was more nerve-wracking, the Scot replied: “It’s a different sort of nervous. I’m not worried about walking onto a tennis court and forgetting how to hit the ball. But here, you’re nervous because there are people standing five metres away from where I’m driving, and I’m like, I’m useless at this game.”

“I still enjoy competing,” Murray said when asked about his enthusiasm for golf. “Obviously it’s never going to replace what I had on the tennis court, but this is fun. You hit enough bad shots in golf, so you’ve got to pat yourself on the back when you hit the occasional good one.”

Murray currently plays seven holes and has already set his next competitive goal of becoming a scratch golfer: “He’ll be at scratch in no time,” said MacIntyre. “He mentioned he’s been practising a lot for this. He changed his clubs yesterday, a full set. I was very impressed with his game.”

The two-time Wimbledon champion was joined by his father Willie, who was seen carrying his bag. “My dad might be getting the sack after today’s performance. He spent most of the time following Bob around. But no, it was brilliant. During my tennis career, I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with my dad. So doing this, it was a really cool day as well.”

“I went to the gym three of the first four days after I retired, worked really hard, and then went up to Scotland for a couple of days on holiday,” Murray shared. “I haven’t been back since. It’s been five weeks, probably the longest I’ve not been in the gym.”

“As for my weight, I’m not sure if it’s my appetite? Maybe I’m not eating as much? We used to have loads of sports drinks [in tennis], which have lots of calories, and now I only really drink water and coffee. I was expecting the opposite to happen.”

“I told my wife, ‘I’m going to make sure I stay in shape after retiring.’ And she replied, ‘Oh, if you’re just going to play golf and do what Ivan’s done [Lendl, Murray’s former coach], I don’t want that.’”

Other famous participants included footballer Gareth Bale and golfers Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, and Nicolai Højgaard.