I’m 100 per cent sure I couldn’t make it as a professional golfer – Gareth Bale

By Phil Blanche, PA

Gareth Bale admitted he was “100 per cent sure” that he could not become a professional golfer.

The former Real Madrid and Wales star is well known for his love of golf and has cut his handicap from “three or four” to just 0.1 since retiring from football in January 2023.

That has led to suggestions that Bale – who has played on the PGA Tour at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am where footage of him making a brilliant chip from a cart path went viral – could try and make it as a professional golfer, despite having turned 36 earlier this month.

“I’m fully, 100 per cent sure, I can not make it professionally,” Bale told BBC Wales ahead of this week’s AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl.

“When you are in golf and you see professional golfers play, compared to even your best stuff, it is nowhere near.

“When I’ve played with those players and watched them, you really appreciate how good they actually are.

“Never mind just playing with your friends, they are doing it under the most severe pressure, in tournament conditions, in hard weather.

“So there won’t be any professional (golf) for me.

“But I love the game. I love watching it, I love growing it.”