Teeing Off

Presented By Mcukleshoot Casino

A CONVERSATION WITH BOB SHERWIN • CG STAFF WRITER

Kasey Keller, among America’s greatest ever soccer goalkeepers, played in England in the late 1990s and was invited to participate in a charity golf tournament at the prestigious Wentworth Club in Surrey. He had, strangely, what the British would say, the collywobbles.

Despite playing 17 years for the U.S. National Team along with stops in Germany, Spain, the English Premier League and finally the Seattle Sounders in his 23-year career, Keller was uncharacteristically uneasy. A world-class athlete used to performing in front of massive audiences, Keller sensed there were undue expectations on him.

The charmed Wentworth folks shadowing him on the first tee didn’t care that Keller had little opportunity to play during the intense soccer season. They simply anticipated him striping it down the fairway.

“You’re a professional footballer and everyone knows who you are,” says Keller. “So, there’s this expectation that you’re supposed to be a decent golfer.”

Keller, who took up golf as a teenager growing up in Lacey, Wash., needed something to steady him, perhaps retrieving a similar experience. How about that time at the FIFA World Cup, in goal for the U.S. Team, playing in front of 80,000 fans and give-or-take another 100 million watching on TV?

“Obviously, I was a lot more confident seeing a shot (on goal) than climbing up to a tee box with a bunch of people around me,” he remembers. Drawing on his soccer experience, he ‘collywobbled’ to the tee, took out his 3-metal and

Ksplit the fairway, earning polite applause from the delighted gallery. “There is no question that having to play under pressure for a living can make a difference in golf,” he adds. It hasn’t made such a difference that the 51-year-old, now a decade after retirement, is building up to PGA Champions Tour status. In fact, since Cascade Golfer Magazine took a measure of his game in a 2010 story, he said his game now “has gotten worse”. That’s because he can’t make enough time for it, as he primarily works as a media soccer analyst for ESPN. He also goes boating, fishing, trap shooting, snowboarding, hiking and even had a three-year stint as the assistant soccer coach at Newport High (supporting ex-Sounder Marcus Hahnemann). Here’s where Kasey Keller is in 2021.

“There comes a point when you have to say, I get it. I’m not that good. I have the potential to be good, but not the time. After I retired, I was doing so many things that I wasn’t allowed to do when I was playing. Now I can snowboard a bunch of times. Now I can take the motorcycle out.”

“Seventh or eighth grade (in Lacey), kind of like a golf club. We had a little instruction in a field with some Wiffle balls. Then we’d go play Scott Lake or Capital City and I started to get in it a little more. I got into college and played even more. My mom worked for an eye doctor, and he was an avid golfer, so I played with him quite a bit. What I got angry about was once I got to England and took some lessons, I was mad that it took me that long to get lessons. I should have done it years previously because the lessons corrected my mechanics. I could take time off then go back and play and not feel like a complete disaster.”

“I was never a good putter. I played with a lot of teaching pros in England, and they would always say “go see him, go play here”. And I’d go and people would ask what my handicap was. I’d tell them and they’d say “no chance”. I’d say “wait till we play a few times, and you’ll see the putts I make and the putts I miss”. I’d be a good five or six shots better just by being a good putter.”

“I have a really cool membership, what’s now called an honorary membership, at Indian Summer (Olympia). I barely play there though I know I should. I probably play The Plateau Club (Sammamish) more than anywhere else. When it isn’t busy, I go to Newcastle, Washington National. I’ll play Aldarra or Broadmoor, then Overlake quite a bit because I have friends there. They ask if I want to be sponsored (for membership) and I say I’m not playing enough. I’d just be wasting my money. I don’t have that one course that I play a lot, but I have had access to a lot of great courses. So, I kind of play the Tour of private courses.”

“I have friends who are extremely competitive, and I have to laugh a little bit because they get so worked up. Oh, the stress of a ball going through your legs with 100 million watching. That’s something to get worked up about. I get pissed at myself, don’t get me wrong, because I am competitive, and I want to play well. But I also have to keep it in perspective. Look, this isn’t my job. I haven’t been playing very much. My life isn’t going to change just because I shanked two straight balls into the trees.”

“You can get away from the game a little bit, get out of the football environment. That for me was therapeutic. In England, there’s a big overlap between football and golf. When I played for Tottenham (2001-05) we went to Wentworth a lot, but they don’t allow carts on their championship course. The caddy master was a Tottenham fan, and he didn’t want us to be tired on the weekend. So, he let us use carts. A couple of Arsenal (Tottenham’s big north-London rival) players were members there and they used to get so pissed when we’d come riding by in carts that they wanted to have.”

“I never played tournament golf, where the professional athlete has to deal with the pressure in front of a big audience. I never felt that was something I wanted to put myself through. But at the Rumble at the Ridge (before the Boeing Classic), I was playing with all the Seahawk guys and a bunch of NFL players. It was the first year after I came home from Europe before I started with the Sounders (2009). I was playing pretty well. We were at No. 14 (at Snoqualmie Ridge), which is the one over the canyon, and I stuck a three-wood on the green. Matt Hasselbeck’s brother (Tim) was playing with me, and he sunk the eagle putt. It’s always fun when people are watching and you’re able to perform.”

“When I was playing for Millwall and we were playing Chelsea for the FA Cup and it went to penalties. I made a save on the fifth shot. That was a marquee moment. We won and our fans went crazy.”

“I have no idea. I don’t play enough to have a handicap right now.”

“Because I never felt like I could consistently hit it well enough. Distance isn’t my issue. Getting on the fairway is my issue. If I can be anywhere between 250-290 yards (off the tee) with 3-wood and have a better chance of finding the ball, I’ll go that route.”