Former NFL great Rice is going Nationwide
Flip on the Golf Channel this week and who are you most likely to see? Phil Mickelson? Tiger Woods? Tom Watson?
None of the above. Try Jerry Rice.
The former NFL wide receiver, bound for the Hall of Fame in August, has turned his attention to golf. On Monday night, Rice and former Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor went head-to-head in the debut of “Donald J. Trump’s Fabulous World of Golf.” On Thursday, the competition turns serious as Rice plays in a Nationwide Tour event, the Fresh Express Classic at TPC Stonebrae, airing on the Golf Channel through Sunday.
Rice, the tournament host, received a sponsor’s exemption and will compete 30 miles across the bay from Candlestick Park, where he starred for three of the 49ers’ five Super Bowl championship teams.
“This is an opportunity of a lifetime,” Rice, 47, told reporters. “I have the opportunity to go out and prove to everybody I can play golf.”
It’s also a chance to show the opposite. In the match-play competition with Taylor on Trump’s reality show, Rice demonstrated some skill with his putter and short irons but lost 2-down, hitting four shots into water hazards and making no better than bogey on the last four holes.
Rice enters the Nationwide event with few illusions. The circuit is a notch down from the PGA Tour, full of up-and-comers and former tour players.
“These guys are on a totally different level here. I believe to elevate your game you gotta play with the best,” Rice said. “You know I’m a competitor. I don’t want to go out there and have those players on the Nationwide Tour think this is a publicity stunt for attention. It’s not.”
Rice’s goal this week is to make the cut. Long range, he’s thinking Champions Tour. Former 49ers quarterback John Brodie made the transition, winning one tournament on the 50-and-over circuit.
“That would be a dream come true,” Rice said. “I’m just getting my feet wet right now, just taking it one tournament at a time. Hopefully it can build into that. I really enjoy the game. I’ve never had anything challenge me as much.”
Rice has played for 20 years and almost daily since his retirement from football in 2005, whittling his handicap from 7 to scratch and shooting a low round of 68. But many a low-handicap dabbler has discovered a huge difference between amateur and professional competition.
When he received a sponsor’s exemption to the 1992 Kemper Open, former Redskins quarterback Mark Rypien shot 80-91 – 171. Other celebrity/athletes such as Dan Quinn, Brett Hull, Ivan Lendl and Al Del Greco played in Nationwide events, none making the cut.
A second-place finish, such as the one Rice pulled off when he competed in “Dancing With the Stars” in 2005, is more than he can hope for.
“I got beat by a little short guy, Drew Lachey, and that pissed me off,” Rice joked of his friend who played in Wednesday’s pro-am along with several of Rice’s former NFL teammates.
