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Pro-am star Henman is not quite over the hill yet
(Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)
Having played tennis on all of the world’s greatest stages, from Flushing Meadows to Wimbledon, it could be a tough job convincing Tim Henman that he could still be excited by a sporting gallery.
Yet 12 months ago the adrenalin started to rush back for the former British Number One as he found himself playing golf on the Old Course at St Andrews on a Sunday afternoon in the final round of the Alfred Dunhill Links.
“It was my sixth time in the Dunhill,” recalled the 41-year-old. “And although I had played twice with Colin Montgomerie, and also with Nick Dougherty, last year was the first time I had made the cut in the pro-am.
“My partner was Tommy Fleetwood, who was to finish joint second just a shot behind the winner Oliver Wilson… and playing down the stretch in front of the big Sunday crowds with him in contention – it just doesn’t get better in golf than that.”
Henman was only a toddler when he first swung a plastic golf club, but it was to be many years, when he was in his mid-to-late 20s, until he acquired his first official handicap and started to play in competitions.
“We used to go on family holidays to Portugal and when I was around five, six and seven I started to hit golf balls at Val da Lobo on the Algarve. I always loved it.
“Later I would always play when I was on holiday or if I had a day or two off when I was on the tennis circuit we would try to find somewhere nearby to play. That was never difficult when I was playing in America, because there always seemed to be a good course nearby.”
However, in those days he must have been as tough an opponent when he was standing over a putt as he was when facing opponents on the other side of a tennis net.
Because when he first handed in a set of cards to obtain an official handicap, it was not as though he was trying to get the usual beginner’s 28.
“It was only about 15 years ago,” Henman says. “I was playing down at Coombe Hill in Surrey and the first handicap I was given was three.”
Now Henman is a member of Sunningdale, where he can be often seen on the fairways of The Old Course when his many post-tennis commitments allow him to take time off.
In his sporting retirement he still works regularly for his old tennis sponsors Rolex, Jaguar, HSBC and Robinson’s Barley Water, while he also serves on the Board of Wimbledon.
“I have been doing that for six years now,” he said. “And it has been fantastic to get to know the way that Wimbledon works every summer from over on the other side of the fence.
“There are so many other things apart from the tennis itself that have to be organised, and I have been learning about things like TV rights and debentures.
“Usually with all those other commitments in busy times I still try and get to play golf once or twice, but when the schedule is quiet I will play even more often.”
And the result is that Henman now can count himself among the top two per cent of golfers in the world, playing off a plus-one handicap. And he’s easily able to explain just why he has been able to take to a second sport quite so successfully.
“There is a lot of similarity between the way tennis and golf balls are hit,” he said.
“There is the basic difference that in tennis during a rally you are reacting to the way the guy you are playing hits the ball, whereas in golf you are just taking on the course.
“But actually, hitting the ball is very similar. If you are trying to hit a running forehand on the tennis course or trying to hit a golf ball with draw, the racket head and club head have to come through in the same position.
“And I say that working out how you are going to hit a serve in tennis is like hitting a drive off the tee at golf. In both cases it is setting up the next play.
“The only trouble with golf is that before every shot you get a lot of time to think how you are going to hit the ball and that doesn’t always work in your favour.”
But Henman clearly knows how to do it, for as he heads back to Scotland for his seventh Alfred Dunhill Links this week, he has some golfing form behind him.
Last month he took part in the European Challenge Tour’s Rolex Trophy pro-am in Geneva and he and his partner finished second in the gross competition.
Playing two to three times a week and off a plus-one handicap, the question had to be asked whether he would one day like to play on the European Seniors Tour.
He would not be the first top-level player to switch sports, since over the course of the past 20 years two former tennis aces –American Andy Roddick and Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov – have both attempted to earn pay cheques from professional golf, but made very little progress.
And Henman doubts whether he would be able to add golf professional to tennis professional on his sporting CV.
“This summer I was at Sunningdale and played in the British Senior Open pro-am,” he said. “And I think to be able to compete with them my golf would have to improve a lot.
“But it’s nine years before I turn 50, and that is a long way off. Who knows what might happen.”
