I'm 100 per cent sure I couldn't make it as a professional golfer
That has led to suggestions that Bale – who has played on the PGA Tour at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am where footage of him making a brilliant chip from a cart path went viral – could try and make it as a professional golfer, despite having turned 36 earlier this month.
'I'm fully, 100 per cent sure, I can not make it professionally,' Bale told BBC Wales ahead of this week's AIG Women's Open at Royal Porthcawl.
'When you are in golf and you see professional golfers play, compared to even your best stuff, it is nowhere near.
'When I've played with those players and watched them, you really appreciate how good they actually are.
Multi-sport athlete ⚽️
The cart path is no problem @GarethBale11. pic.twitter.com/7EOuM3IE4M
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 2, 2023
'Never mind just playing with your friends, they are doing it under the most severe pressure, in tournament conditions, in hard weather.
'So there won't be any professional (golf) for me.
'But I love the game. I love watching it, I love growing it.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
12 minutes ago
- BBC News
Cardiff 'in much better place' to compete in Europe
Iain Darbyshire believes Cardiff City Women are in a far better place at present to challenge in Europe as they prepare for their Champions League qualifying Bluebirds, the Adran Premier title holders, go to reigning League of Ireland Women's Premier Division champions Athlone Town in the semi-finals of the first qualifying round on Wednesday night (19:30 BST).It will be Cardiff's third successive season of competing in the Champions League qualifying phase, although they are yet to win in having dominated the domestic game of late, head coach Darbyshire feels the club are now better equipped to challenge further afield."We have been successful but we hadn't been in the Champions League prior to the last couple of years, I think it was 10 years before that," he said."The women's game changes incredibly quickly. The first couple of years in the Champions League were a real steep learning curve for us, and we feel that, right now, we're in a much better place. "The group have been together for well over a year now and we feel we can have a positive week when we're away in Ireland." In 2023, the Bluebirds were beaten by Lithuanian side FC Gintra and Irish club time out, they lost to Dutch powerhouses FC Twente and North Macedonian outfit they go into their latest European campaign having won the Adran Premier for a third consecutive year in addition to winning the Bute Energy Welsh Cup four seasons in a says success in Europe is key to ensuring Cardiff build on their progress on Welsh soil."It's about maintaining our standards and building year on year and not just resting on the fact that we've been so successful," he added."We want to keep being successful and set ourselves even bigger targets for the future."I think we need to win a game in the Champions League. It is the next step for us - we're not going there to just make up the numbers."We need to do this as a group and overcome the hurdles that we've had over previous years."Domestically, we're aiming to win everything - that's the standards we've set ourselves. We feel that we can do it - we've got a good squad." Since joining from Barry Town United in the summer of 2022, defender Megan Bowen has been a pivotal figure in the Bluebirds' 19-year-old is confident Cardiff can take the next step by emerging victorious on the continent."We like breaking down the barriers. We went unbeaten, we won the treble and hopefully the next step is to win games in the Champions League. That's our aspirations as a squad," she said."I believe the growth and development in this squad is hopefully going to make it possible this year."The winner of Cardiff's contest with last year's FAI Women's Cup runners-up Athlone will face newly-crowned Croatian champions ZNK Agram in the final on Saturday, 2 victor of that fixture in Ireland will progress to the second qualifying round - with Icelandic side Breidablik lying in wait in the Twente and Serbian side ZFK Crvena Zvezda are the potential opponents for the final and third-place play-off.
BBC News
42 minutes ago
- BBC News
Wales hammer Czech Republic 5-1 in Poland
Wales cruised to a 5-1 win over Czech Republic at the EuroHockey Championship II in Gniezno, game had been postponed from Monday due to heavy rain, but having also won their opener against Switzerland on Sunday, Wales now top Pool B before their group-stage finale against Lithuania on Peers' reverse stick effort put Wales ahead with her third goal in seven appearances before Great Britain squad member Millie Holme added the Daniels was next on the scoresheet before captain Beth Bingham's penalty stroke and Betsan Thomas scored the meet Lithuania later on Tuesday.
Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Golf star dubbed ‘female Tiger Woods' admits she doesn't do ‘rubbish' training
One AIG Women's Open contender was just nine when she was compared to Tiger Woods, but she has always remained her own person, and she has the results to prove it English golf sensation Charley Hull was just nine years old when she first grabbed the spotlight and was hailed as the next Tiger Woods. The prodigy made waves by clinching the 2005 Ladies Golf Union Championship before even hitting double digits. Today, the 29-year-old is still on the lookout for her maiden major victory. Known for her unconventional habit of lighting up cigarettes on the course, Hull could snap up that elusive title at the upcoming AIG Women's Open at Royal Porthcawl this weekend. Granted special permission to smoke during last year's Solheim Cup, Hull has been a force to reckon with since her pre-teen days of beating adult competition. Yet even as a youngster, she had the maturity to shrug off comparisons with a legend like Woods. "I want to be my own person really," a nine-year-old Hull said after her landmark victory 20 years ago. "Everyone is saying you're the new Tiger Woods and I think yeah, well, whatever. I want to be myself." True to her word, Hull has carved out her own identity, not just due to smoking on the course but also in her approach to practice. With top-six finishes in all five women's majors under her belt, Hull is certainly doing things her way. The Kettering-born star, who wed MMA fighter Ozzie Smith in 2019 before divorcing two years later, has confessed she's not a fan of training specifically for her sport and favours her own fitness regimes. She also takes part in Hyrox competitions and was gutted when illness hampered her training at the Evian Championship earlier this year. "I've not been [to the] gym in two weeks and I'm not going to go to the gym for another two weeks," she said upon making a comeback at the Scottish Open last week. "I need my immune system to catch up. It drives me bonkers not being able to go to the gym." To Hull, staying active is integral to her lifestyle rather than just her golfing pursuits. And the two-time LPGA Tour winner has dismissed golf-specific workouts as "a load of rubbish," admitting she finds it hard to engage with them. In an interview with BBC Sport, she said: "I don't train for golf, I train to keep my body and mind fit. I've no interest in doing it for golf. I just do it for myself, as a hobby, trying to beat my own fitness goals. "It's all this boring movement stuff I've been doing since I was 14. It's just not for me." Regarding her notorious smoking habit, Hull recently owned up to puffing on up to 40 cigarettes a day until not long ago. She has said smoking helps her unwind on the course, although she had to abstain during the 2024 Paris Olympics due to a ban. Since then, she seems to have quit after placing a £10,000 bet with mate Ryan Evans that she could abstain for two months. Hull, who caught the public's eye by sitting on a tee box at the Women's US Open, doesn't seem to have touched a cigarette since. "I think it's the easiest thing I've ever done in my life," she said at the Black Desert Championship in May. "Yeah, it's pretty, pretty, pretty easy. I'm a strong-minded person. Usually when I put my head and my mind to something I can do it."
