NBC
Future NBA Hall-of-Famer Steph Curry performs at this year’s American League of the Century. The Golden State Warriors star in the lead after the first round, and he added a great punctuation point Friday with what he called, “Probably the best pitch I’ve ever made.”
The American Century Championship is an annual event at the Edgewood Tahoe resort where celebrities and star athletes square off against each other on the golf course, with competitors battling over 54 holes in a modified Stableford format.
Curry has long been known as one of the superstars of golf-addicted athletes (and one of the best among them), but despite being a regular at the event, he has never won the American Championship of the Century. That could change this year.
He finished Friday’s opening round with an overall score of 27, helped in large part by an incredible putt that he parried on the 12th hole.
After hitting the green at par 3, Curry faced a long, treacherous birdie putt that sloped downward and broke right to left by more than 20 feet. Curry sent his ball straight up the hill, hoping it would roll into range that could be made. Instead, it went up the hill and took a hard right turn, edging towards the hole and landing in the cup.
However, Curry didn’t see it, having started his celebration long before entering the ball.
Check it out below.
After the tour, Carey admitted that he “didn’t expect to do that [the putt on 12]But halfway through, he felt good enough to celebrate early.
“I started playing—I did my best to do my basketball impersonation, turn around before you got in, and it was fun,” Curry said.
He continued, “It’s probably the best pitch I’ve ever made. But I saw — I just wanted to walk in there to make sure I knew which way the putt went because I was expecting the returning player to pass. Like I said, you see it online, and you start to feel the anticipation of it coming in.” .
“But it was fun, the visualization and the creativity here, you never know when it’s going to work. But this one, luckily, did it. There’s no other way I could make it happen unless I hit the pin square and it came in. Lovely.”
With two rounds to play, the closest Curry chaser is Joe Pavelski of the Dallas Stars, who has 23 points, four points off the lead.
As for how Curry plans to meet the challenge of playing the lead, he takes a few pointers from the stars of the PGA Tour.
“I try to delve into all the sound bites I hear from all the Tour pros about how they deal with early success in the Championship,” Carey said Friday. “I know there’s a lot of golf courses left. I’m not getting too ahead of myself. But it’s good to be in it, be with a lead and kind of settle for tomorrow and have some fun.”
You can watch Saturday’s Round Two of the 2023 American Century Championship on NBC from 2:30 to 6 p.m. ET or simulcast on Peacock.