SUGAR RAY LEONARD - THE BIG HITTER
BY IAN FAULCONBRIDGE

It’s been decades since he stalked the ring as one of boxing’s ‘Fabulous Four,’ but Sugar Ray Leonard is still up for taking a few swings – albeit of a different kind.

At first, it may seem like an incongruous pairing, but dig a little deeper, and it becomes abundantly clear that there are many similarities between the worlds of boxing and golf. Yes, the sweaty, raucous arena of the ring is a far cry from the luscious expanses of manmade and natural obstacles that course regulars encounter, but the striking comparisons are there, and they go way beyond the fact both sports require something of an inherent propensity for hitting things quite hard!

It’s a theory former champion boxer and long-time golf aficionado Sugar Ray Leonard can certainly get behind.

“Think about it,” he begins, pensively. “There’s a finesse to both sports, isn’t there? There’s a code of conduct—a mentality that puts you above and beyond your direct opponent. They’re both psychological games; you have to push yourself. I mean, Tiger Woods won the US Open with a broken leg and busted knee. You don’t get many more examples of the fight like that, even in boxing!

“And for me, there is always so much focus and concentration in both sports,” continues the 61-year-old. “It’s as much a mental battle with yourself as it is anything your opponent does. How many times has a boxer lost himself a fight by getting his game plan wrong? And how many times has a golfer choked on the 18th? It’s all a battle with yourself, and it can be a difficult one to win, at times.”

Like many sporting greats who, along the way, have swapped their preferred profession for time spent on the green, the name Tiger Woods bears a special significance. For Leonard, whose record of title wins across five weight divisions made him the best of a generation, the respect he feels for a fellow champion like Woods is no different.

“For a long time, you couldn’t see Tiger going in and coming second in anything, you know?” he says. “Every time he went out on the course, you felt he was going to win. And that inspires people. That makes them believe they could get to the point of being that invincible as well. I know after so many of his title wins I found myself down the golf club the next day trying to copy what I’d seen, be that little changes to his swing or a small correction in his stance. And you know, it often wouldn’t work, but sometimes it would!”

These days, Leonard is playing around the 14.5 mark: “I don’t get time to play every day,” he admits. “I used to, but now it’s pretty sporadic. But that’s good enough for me—to do it at that frequency keeps me interested but not hooked,” he laughs.

This love affair with golf began back in 1987 after Ray had overcome long-time rival ‘Marvellous’ Marvin Hagler by a split-decision verdict at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, a fight that saw the Wilmington-born orthodox overcome odds of 4/1 on his way to taking the WBC World Middleweight Title, as well as netting himself a cool $11 million payday in the process. In the aftermath of what was dubbed both the fight and the upset of the year, Leonard admits he was looking for something to keep him busy, but there was a slight stumbling block when he was first presented with the opportunity.

“I was like, ‘brothers don’t play golf!’ (Laughs) “I grew up in the hood, and you don’t play golf when you grow up where I did with not much money! But I loved it. I was drained mentally, but it was great; I still remember how excited I got about hitting a triple bogey. It’s a good job I didn’t discover golf when I was fighting, otherwise, I would have been doing that instead of fighting Duran, Hearns, and Benitez.”

Even if Leonard wasn’t quite hitting the heights in terms of his current handicap yet, at least the most-talked about boxer in the world looked the part.

“That first time I went out, and I bought all the gear,” he smiles. “I got a load of shirts, a top of the range bag, even an ascot! I thought I looked cool out there, but I didn’t get the game at all. I was walking around looking like a model in a golf shop and hitting 120! Good job that was long before cell phone cameras were a thing – even if I still wish I had a picture of that first time somewhere.”
 
Now Leonard can look back on an amateur golfing career in which he has shared the green with a host of famous faces—from PGA Tour regular Adam Scott to Samuel L. Jackson, Johnny Mathis, and even then-President Bill Clinton. But in spite of this slew of high-profile match-ups, Leonard admits he’s “always learning.”

“I’m trying still to be a real student and drink it all in, but the thing I have the biggest issue with is getting caught up with all the different factors involved,” he admits. “I’ve got to spend most of the day just swinging a club, getting that motion and muscle memory in place. It’s either that or I read too many magazines, or I order this stuff off the internet that says they can lower my score with some tip or trick!

“When I was boxing, my best quality was how I used my head – but with golf, all my problems are in my head! I’m always thinking that if I do this, or do that, change my swing a bit, or move my posture a little bit, it’s going to make all the difference. And sometimes I’ll be on the course, and there’ll be water in front of me, and I’ll just start thinking again and again that my shot’s going in the water. And of course, that’s what happens!”

But as with any champion, there’s no disputing that what Leonard really chases is that intangible quality that separates the average competitor from someone who has achieved massive successes in professional sport.

“When you’re a boxer, and you land a punch that knocks someone out, you get this little shiver up your arm—this tingle that tells you that you’ve hit the perfect spot,” he agrees. “It’s the same when you hit it right in golf; it almost feels effortless, when every little movement comes together in that one moment. And you just watch the ball fly!”

Many seek out the relative solace of the links, but it’s fair to say Sugar Ray Leonard knows more than most about the calming nature of the golf course. Throughout his career, the International Boxing Hall of Fame incumbent battled addictions with cocaine and alcohol and was even subjected to sexual abuse as a young boxer.

Having to go toe-to-toe with these struggles, along with some of the most impressive figures ever to grace the canvas during the post-Muhammed Ali era, the thought of Sugar Ray Leonard being afraid of anything these days appears a misnomer.

“Playing golf makes me face down my fears,” he reveals. “I boxed Marvin Hagler and Robert Duran—do you think I was scared of them? No way! But a downhill three-footer? That’s different—that scares me!

“The truth is I wish I’d found this sport years and years ago. When I was younger, I could have gone one of two ways, and it was focussing my mind and dedicating myself to boxing that saved me. I feel the same way about golf. It’s not just a pastime, even if I do love to go to Hawaii and just kick back and play with friends.

“But it’s more than that, golfing makes me measured. Off the course, my mind races, and a lot of my problems came from that restlessness. But on the green, my mind is calm and ordered, just like it was when I was in the ring!”