Before we try to answer the question, one thing to set straight: Any cultural rivalry between golf and tennis is like Australia versus New Zealand. Their proximity amid sequestration intensifies some ill feelings—I play golf where the tennis courts sit exposed to power hooks off the first tee, which draws disdainful comments from both sides of the fence—but to the rest of the world, the two seem essentially the same. They are the country club sports, the lifetime sports, their addicts unable to quit the high of making a ball fly just as intended, over and over. Collars preferred but not required.
As for Best Overall Baller, or BOB, it’s hard not to start with Rafael Nadal. Tennis fans once panicked when a racehorse of the same name retired, but the human with the second most Grand Slam singles titles (22) is still going at 38. In a style popular among tennis pros, the lefty golfs righty, so his golf swing feels nearly as automatic as a two-handed backhand. On the links, Rafa’s not a talker, nor is he afraid of a tiny pencil. While rehabbing an injury, he won the 2024 Balearic Mid-Amateur in Mallorca, carding plus-three for 36 holes. Retired Mardy Fish, also a mirror-method player, is likely the better golfer. He has won five “celebrity majors” with two American Century Championships and three Hilton Grand Vacations TOCs. Firmly a plus-handicap, it’s merely attaining a rank of seventh in the world that hurts his case more than the notion the BOB should be active in his primary sport.
Nine-time winner Matt Kuchar might be the best tennis player on the PGA Tour. When in contention with a late-afternoon tee time, he will play tennis “to get loose and kill time,” says Kuchar, who likes “side-on rotational sports” and equates the timing and feel of volleying to chipping. It’s not that Kuch’s deep runs with his wife and brother-in-law in national amateur championships aren’t big deals; it’s just that the answer probably isn’t a 46-year-old.
Back in 2010, Matt Kuchar competed with his wife Sybi in the USTA National Husband-Wife Mixed Clay Court Championships.
Caryn Levy
Casper Ruud, the 25-year-old Norwegian tennis star who reached No. 2 in 2022, cards rounds at or near par. He can be seen schlepping his golf-travel case with his luggage and tennis bags in airports. He loves Indian Wells the first week of March in Palm Springs, Calif., but really looks forward to the U.S. Open in New York in early September. “Guys ask why I play this boring, slow thing. Golf is a game you either feel nothing for or you just love it.” Ruud says the best golfer in pro tennis is undoubtedly his doubles partner, William Blumberg, but others mention Sebastian Korda, brother to two famous golfing sisters. A slew of household names is also getting better at an infuriating pace. Two-time Wimbledon champ Carlos Alcaraz is already a single-digit handicap after taking up golf during the pandemic. Taylor Fritz, perhaps America’s best hope for a Grand Slam singles title, carries his driver 290 yards at cruising speed. “Both sports are about transferring weight, so I naturally had some power in my stroke,” Fritz says. “The constant between the two is that if I’m overthinking, the result will not be as good.”
Could a future BOB come from golf? Christo Lamprecht, 23, the former World No. 1 amateur who just turned pro, won a national junior doubles title in South Africa at age 13. At 6-foot-8, his serve and net coverage are weapons, but he says his first love was always golf, even when he was enjoying more success on the court. “The drama of teenage boys calling balls in and out wasn’t so much for me, but I do miss being so fit. Sometimes I get too steep in my golf swing, and I’ll think of the figure-eight shape of a forehand to shallow it out.”
The challenge is a proper format to determine the BOB. The golf half would be straightforward, but even a good tennis player like Lamprecht would lose to Nadal if spotted a 6-0, 6-0, 5-0 lead. How to weigh that result should Lamprecht beat Nadal, 6 and 5, in golf? Nadal versus Fish has the potential to be a closer split result, but there’s no obvious way to measure shots against sets.
Back when people hunted their own food, the important biathlete was a swift cross-country skier who could shoot a rifle. We still pay homage during the winter Olympics, but those are bygone days. The time is now to figure out the question above.
