Curling and golf’s kinship on display as Rock League meets Masters

As before long as Alpine Curling bludgeon’s Hammy McMillan received his sway conference schedule, he began cross-referencing.

3:30 p.m. ET take up on Friday? Not bad. Late game on Thursday? Perfect.

Because as much as McMillan will be focused on the ice this week, he will also have half an eye on the Masters, the men’s golf major which runs Thursday through Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.

“Absolutely, 100 per cent, yes. Come Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I'll be watching as much as I can,” McMillan said.

In Scotland, where both golf and curling originated around the 16th century, the sports go hand in hand — and similarities from strategy to sportsmanship to tradition abound.

So, Olympic silver medallist Hammy McMillan, what’s your preference?

“September through April is curling, curling, curling. But as soon as the last stone is thrown, the curling shoes are kicked under the cupboard or under the bed, some place like that, and the golf clubs come straight out. And that's pretty much how I spend my summer is golf,” McMillan said.

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In fact, golf season has already begun. McMillan and fellow Bruce Mouat team members Grant Hardie and Bobby Lammie just came back from a trip that saw them play legendary Scottish courses Royal Troon, Gleneagles and the Old Course at St. Andrew’s, which is known as the home of golf.

McMillan and Hardie then brought their clubs with them to Toronto. Once Rock League ends, the two will head straight to Philadelphia for another golf trip, with four rounds already on the books.

In June, a group of 12, including members from the top two curling rinks in the country in Mouat and Ross Whyte, will descend upon Portugal for yet another golf excursion. Later in the summer, some of them will tee it up in the Scottish Open pro-am.

“It's good to go for a beer after a game of golf as it is in curling and catch up with the guys. Team Mouat and Team Whyte, we play lot of golf together in the summer so there's a lot of fun there as well and rivalry both on the golf course and in the ice rink,” Hardie said.

Back on the rink, Frontier Curling Club picked up its first win of the week, beating Maple United 2-1 with victories in mixed doubles and men’s while dropping the women’s match.

Earlier, McMillan and his Alpine team earned the first sweep of the week, beating Mouat’s Northern United 4-3 in women’s and 8-3 in men’s before winning a draw-to-the-button tiebreaker for the mixed doubles victory.

It was a scene reminiscent of virtual golf TGL’s tie-breaking chip-offs, and the two new leagues share sameness beyond that, presenting old sports in a new light.

Indeed, golf and curling are each steeped in tradition.

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It’s why the double-touch controversy at the Olympics sparked such uproar. On its face, accusing an opponent of breaking a rule and getting sworn at in response is extremely normal athlete behaviour.

But because it happened on the curling rink — where sportsmanship and etiquette rule, where you’re expected to self-police — it grew into something much bigger than a couple hockey players chirping back and forth.

“You kind of trust your opponents or playing partners or anyone you're playing against to kind of play by the rules and do things fair and I think that's very similar to golf as well, like apart from when you get to the top-top level, there's no referees involved and you referee yourself when you're playing with your friends or if you're playing a club game in curling you referee in yourself,” said Lammie, who as a two-handicap is the best golfer on the Mouat team.

“It's got a sportsmanship aspect to it, which makes it a very unique sport.”

On the field of play, the technique, strategy and pace are also similar.

Hardie compared curling specifically to putting.

“You look at the way you have to read the ice, it's similar to reading the green. It doesn't mean I'm a good putter, but it's a similar challenge to having to read that and pick your target spot. So yeah, I love the challenge of both,” Hardie said.

McMillan viewed the sports as presenting similar strategic challenges.

“You should plot your way around the golf course. You should. But for me, I'd stand on that tee, I'd take the drive and try to rip it — try being the main word. But there's times where you should probably lay up and do different things, but the guys at the top obviously plot their way around the course just like how we plot our strategy in curling,” he said.

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Canada’s Mike McEwen — who said he’s been too focused on Rock League, where he plays for Maple, to make a Masters pick — pointed to the mental side of both sports.

“The time and space to get in your own head is there in curling and golf because it’s not a reactionary sport, so that mental performance is probably the biggest comparison,” McEwen said.

Both games are also going increasingly global — something that was on full display when New Zealand’s Ryan Fox won the Canadian Open last June.

Anton Hood, the lone Kiwi curler at Rock League, said he follows compatriot golfers Fox and Lydia Ko closely.

“The camaraderie, having a beer after you play. For us, I think this week it’s probably going to be quite a big thing to socialize with the other athletes and also socialize with the fans as well. I think between golf and curling, pretty cheese and cheese I think,” said Hood, who added he planned to drop a “cheeky fiver” on a bet for Fox to win the Masters.

Anna Hasselborg and Niklas Edin said they’ll be watching to see if fellow Swede Ludvig Aberg can fulfill his massive potential at the Masters after two straight top-10 finishes.

Unsurprisingly, the Scots are all pulling for their countryman Robert MacIntyre — who happened to win the Canadian Open the year before Fox — though Whyte pulled away from the pick in fear of jinxing him, choosing Bryson DeChambeau instead.

McMillan added that his non-biased pick, after diving into the stats, is Aberg.

Not one golfer polled for their Masters pick went the Canadian route — perhaps, at least for the Scots, out of national pride.

“We've got a pretty good reputation for starting pretty cool sports,” Lammie said.

Pretty like-minded ones, too.

“I haven't actually thought about how similar they are,” McMillan said, “until we've had this conversation and I go, ‘Huh, that's probably why I enjoy both sports so much.’” 

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