STATELINE, Nev. — Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors waves after his tee shot on the 16th hole on Day One of the 2023 American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course on July 14, 2023. | Photo by Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images
Curry leads the American Century Championship heading into Sunday, but the biggest moment of the tournament happened at the 7th hole Saturday.
Steph Curry broke the internet Saturday with his electric hole-in-one on the 7th at the American Century Championship.
Curry used a pitching wedge on the 153-yard par-3, bouncing once inches before the cup before dropping into the bottom of the hole.
“From our vantage point, the crowd around the tee box, they kind of went crazy,” Curry reminisced after his round. “And that drowned out the reaction from the green. All I saw was a bunch of hands go up. And then you just kind of black out. Celebrate. Crazy shot. Especially in a tournament like this, that atmosphere. I’m still coming down from the adrenaline rush. That was nuts.”
Curry celebrated in style, sprinting the entire length of the 7th hole while waving his arms joyfully.
His ace on Saturday is the fifth hole-in-one in American Century Championship history and the first one recorded on the par-3 7th.
“I was dead tired,” Curry said when asked about his feelings post-celebration. “We were in the middle of summer training, so I’m still getting work in getting ready for the basketball season but not to sprint like that. I had to catch my breath.”
After knocking it in at the 7th, Curry hit a lull.
He struggled through the midway point of his round and even skulled his second shot into the penalty area on the par-3 12th, leading to a double-bogey.
But he relied on his mental toughness, something he developed during his time with the Golden State Warriors.
“That’s where I can tap into basketball for sure, just the mental toughness to acknowledge you had a bad stretch, bad shot,” Curry revealed.
Curry then bounced back with a birdie at the difficult par-4 14th, a hole he has historically struggled on.
Then at the par-3 17th, famously situated on Lake Tahoe with hundreds of boats and thousands of onlookers, Curry missed a four-footer.
Yet, he feels proud of how his round turned out.
“I was extremely proud of the ability to bounce back knowing things didn’t go my way for that five-hole stretch after the hole-in-one,” Curry said. “My last hole-in-one, my first one, I tripled afterwards. Like literally the next hole. I’m getting better. Getting better.”
Indeed he is getting better. He is the 36-hole leader after all.
Do you think Curry can close the deal Sunday?
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
