CELEBRITY SWINGER: Cricketing great Greg Ritchie is formidable on the golf course

RENOWNED among avid golf enthusiasts, Greg Ritchie’s name resonates beyond his illustrious cricket career, which saw him shine in 30 Tests for Australia. 

His connection with the sport of golf, however, is equally captivating. 

A childhood ignited by hitting golf balls alongside his father cultivated a deep-rooted passion for the game. 

This ardour found its full expression as he ventured into the realm of golf commentary in the United States, enriching the airwaves of the Golf Channel with his charismatic persona, caddying for Australian Wayne Grady on the Tour Champions and living the golfing dream in Florida with his wife, eight-time LPGA winner Rachel Hetherington. 

I caught up with Ritchie to chat about his cricket and love of golf.

Can you remember who got you into golf? 

Yeah, my father. I played my first round of golf when I was 12 at Middle Ridge Golf Club in Toowoomba. Both mum and dad were members at the club and I think they won the club foursomes three years in a row. Dad was captain of the pennants side and played off three and mum off nine. When I was 12, I used to caddie for dad on Saturday afternoons and loved it. Dad has always been my best mate and I just loved being out on the golf course with him. As a kid, I loved golf more than I loved cricket.

When did cricket take over? 

I was selected in the Queensland schoolboys’ team when I was 11 and I played at that level every year from then on. At that time, Australia – with the Chappell brothers, (Dennis) Lillee, Thommo (Jeff Thomson), Rodney Marsh etc – were blitzing England. As kids, we grew up with them as our sporting heroes. Ian Chappell was my cricket hero and I just wanted to bat like him. 

After your cricket career you moved to the USA?

It was a great time living in America. We lived in a gated-community at a place called Lakeland and the club was Grasslands Golf and Country Club, which is a beautiful golf course that they would regularly use for US Open qualifiers and mini tour events. I was playing off a one and two handicap in Florida. Some people would say ‘gee that is pretty good’, but as my wife Rachel used to say, ‘you should be playing off that, you play five days a week’.

You must have met and played golf with some pretty good golfers while in Florida?

I caddied for Wayne Grady on the Seniors Tour for quite a while and that was incredible getting to see guys like Tom Watson and Tom Lehman up close. I played with a bunch of the PGA Tour players and the fellas from the commentary team (Jerry Fultz) were good fun to golf with. I got to get to know quite a lot of the ladies on the LPGA tour like Suzann Pettersen (Norway) and obviously Rachel and Karrie Webb are good friends and watching those ladies at their peak was awesome. Karrie is a great lady. I will never forget Wayne Grady inviting me to a clinic with the great Lee Trevino. What a character and what a talent. 

What are some of the great courses you have played?

There are too many to list. We used to play all over England when we were there for five months with the cricket. We played courses like Wentworth, The Belfry, Royal Lytham, Hoylake, Birkdale – you name it, we played it. I loved golfing with Jeff Thomson and Wayne Phillips in those days.  I played a lot with Greg Chappell and Allan Border too. I’m proud to say I beat Greg Chappell in the Royal Queensland club championships semi-final and went on to win their B grade championship. In the States I remember an amazing day at The Bear club with Ian Baker-Finch, Wayne Grady, myself and Rachel but probably the best course in my opinion was Shadow Creek in Vegas. And then there is TPC Sawgrass. I loved playing there. 

What about the similarity with cricket and golf, mentally? 

A lot of the mental stuff Greg Chappell taught me in cricket I still use to this day on the golf course. That feeling of being in neutral (mentally), not leaking oil/energy, and only really needing to ‘change gears’ and get the concentration peaking for those vital moments. When you score 100 runs you might only really need to be fully focused for a few seconds during each delivery, which equates to concentrating for maybe three minutes of the four hours it takes to score those 100 runs. Golf can be very much like that. 

What about the English cricketers?

I have played a lot of golf with Ian Botham and he has never beaten me and it pisses him off. Beefy is a great bloke. 

Have you ever had a hole-in-one? 

I have had four. 

Do you have one memorable golf shot that remains in your memory?

I hit one of the best shots of my life last week … in a senior pennant match for Sanctuary Cove. I’m 3-up through 10 and then we are all square on 15. Standing on the 16th tee I’m thinking all these swing thoughts and things and I block the tits out of it and I still had 208 yards and my opposition had a wedge in. I had to keep the shot low, like no higher than six feet off the ground, to get it to the green and I just saw the shot with driver off the deck. My caddie looked at me like I was crazy. He said ‘let’s make four the hard way’. I hit this low fade and it ran up to the second tier on the green to about two feet. My caddie said, ‘that is your career best shot right there, but I have no idea what you were thinking.’ I said, ‘I do, I was thinking about absolutely f…ing nothing.’ Laughs. 

You and Rachel’s daughter Annie has the golf bug.Could she be as good as her mum? 

Annie (12) loves her golf. She is out there every day. Our house is full of putting matts, chipping nets, golf clubs everywhere. She has the bug and plays pretty much every day after school. It was a pretty emotional thing for Rachel recently as we took Annie to get a lesson from Rachel’s former coach, Ian Triggs, at Brookwater. 

Can you tell us a bit about your work with Teed Up Golf Tours? 

They are a brilliant experience. I have done the Masters now 13 times and we have it all set up for a fantastic week with Teed Up Golf Tours. They really know how to run a golf tour. We play Pinehurst, including Pinehurst No.2 where the great Payne Stewart won his US Open in 1999. We stay in the little town of Aiken, eat great food and have a ball. But I tell you the thing that gets me every year is the first timers that walk through the gates of Augusta National and their physical reaction is palpable. Some grown men actually shed a tear. We do the British Open too and depending on which course is hosting we get to play a bunch of great links courses in the UK. The best yet, for me, was Shane Lowry winning at Royal Portrush in (Northern) Ireland. We were there and it was incredible. Aside from Queensland winning the State of Origin at Suncorp Stadium, that British Open in Ireland was the most special sporting occasion I have ever witnessed. The roar from the Irish crowd when he hit that final shot into the 18th green from the fairway with about an eight-iron. The crowd was silent as the ball went through the air and then when it hit the green there was a bit of a roar, but then Lowry gave his caddie the biggest bear hug after the shot and the crowd just erupted … the roar was deafening.