Sports fans know John Smoltz all too well from his Hall of Fame baseball career spanning 21 years from 1988 to 2009. Twenty of these 21 years were spent with the Atlanta Braves, where he’d win the World Series in 1995, take home the Cy Young in 1996, and make eight All-Star teams, proving to br one of the best right-handed pitchers of his era.
Once Smoltz hung up his cleats in 2009, he quickly latched on as a color analyst, first locally covering the Atlanta Braves before being picked up by MLB Network, TBS, and Fox Sports.
In addition to his work as a broadcaster, Smoltz has also long been an avid golfer, even befriending Tiger Woods, surely receiving a few pointers over the years as they hit the green together. Woods went so far as to call Smoltz one of the best non-pro golfers he’s ever played with.
Smoltz has competed in several golf events over the years, including the U.S. Senior Open in 2018. But now, the 55-year-old Warren, Michigan native has his sights set on the PGA Tour.
According to TMZ Sports, Smoltz will soon be ramping up his efforts to compete professionally as a golfer, but first he needs surgery to repair a hip that’s been bothering him.
“I’ve got a new hip, I’ve got one more hip to do, and then after that, I want to see what my competitive juices take me to.”
John Smoltz on his golf aspirations
Smoltz went on to remind us just how competitive he is, saying, “As long as they’re going to keep score, and they’re going to have a scoreboard, I want to be on the leaderboard.”
He’s already on plenty of career leaderboards in baseball. Perhaps Smoltz can someday add his name to a few golf leaderboards as well. But first things first, hip surgery for the former Braves legend.
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