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As soon as Alpine Curling Club’s Hammy McMillan received his schedule for Rock League, he immediately started coordinating it with the Masters golf tournament, which runs Thursday through Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.
“Absolutely, 100 per cent, yes. Come Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I’ll be watching as much as I can,” said McMillan.
In Scotland, where both golf and curling date back to the 16th century, the two sports are closely linked — sharing similarities in strategy, sportsmanship, and tradition.
When asked about his preference, Olympic silver medallist McMillan said, “September through April is curling, curling, curling. But as soon as the last stone is thrown, the curling shoes are kicked under the cupboard or under the bed, some place like that, and the golf clubs come straight out. And that’s pretty much how I spend my summer — playing golf.”
The golf season is already underway. McMillan, along with Bruce Mouat teammates Grant Hardie and Bobby Lammie, recently returned from playing some of Scotland’s most famous courses, including Royal Troon, Gleneagles, and the Old Course at St. Andrews, known as the home of golf.
McMillan and Hardie then brought their clubs to Toronto. After Rock League concludes, they will head to Philadelphia for another golf trip with four rounds already planned.
In June, a group of 12 curlers from top rinks like Mouat and Ross Whyte will travel to Portugal for more golf. Later in the summer, some will participate in the Scottish Open pro-am.
“It’s good to go for a beer after a game of golf as it is in curling and catch up with the guys,” Hardie said. “Team Mouat and Team Whyte play a lot of golf together in the summer, so there’s a lot of fun and rivalry both on the golf course and on the ice.”
Back on the ice, Frontier Curling Club earned its first win of the week by beating Maple United 2-1, taking mixed doubles and men’s matches while dropping the women’s.
Earlier, McMillan and his Alpine team marked the first sweep of the week by besting Mouat’s Northern United 4-3 in women’s, 8-3 in men’s, and winning a draw-to-the-button tiebreaker in mixed doubles.
The tiebreak saw similarities to virtual golf TGL’s tie-breaking chip-offs, and the two new leagues share more than just that — both present traditional sports in a fresh, modern light.
Golf and curling are steeped in tradition, which is why the double-touch controversy at the Olympics caused such a stir. While calling out a foul and then receiving a sharp response might be normal in other sports, curling’s strong emphasis on sportsmanship and self-policing made the incident stand out.
“You kind of trust your opponents or playing partners or anyone you’re playing against to kind of play by the rules and do things fair,” said Lammie, a two-handicap golfer and the best on the Mouat team. “That’s very similar to golf as well. Apart from at the top level, there are no referees involved, and you referee yourself when playing with friends or in a club game. It’s got a sportsmanship aspect that makes it very unique.”
On the playing field, the technique, strategy, and pace in curling mirror golf’s demands. Hardie compared curling to putting, saying, “You look at the way you have to read the ice; it’s similar to reading the green. It doesn’t mean I’m a good putter, but it’s a similar challenge to reading that and picking your target spot. So yeah, I love the challenge of both.”
McMillan added that both sports require thoughtful strategy. “You should plot your way around the golf course. You should. But for me, I’d stand on that tee, I’d take the drive and try to rip it—try being the main word. But there are times where you should lay up and do different things. The guys at the top obviously plot their way around the course just like how we plot our strategy in curling.”
Canada’s Mike McEwen, who is focused on Rock League and hasn’t made a Masters pick, highlighted the mental aspect that both sports share.
“The time and space to get in your own head is there in curling and golf because they’re not reactionary sports. So that mental performance is probably the biggest comparison,” McEwen said.
Both games are becoming more global. New Zealand’s Ryan Fox winning the Canadian Open last June exemplified this trend. Anton Hood, the sole New Zealand curler in Rock League, follows his fellow Kiwis Fox and Lydia Ko closely.
“The camaraderie, having a beer after you play. For us, I think this week it’s probably going to be quite a big thing to socialize with the other athletes and with the fans as well. Between golf and curling, pretty much cheese and cheese,” Hood said, adding he planned to place a “cheeky fiver” bet on Fox to win the Masters.
Swedish curlers Anna Hasselborg and Niklas Edin said they will be watching fellow Swede Ludvig Aberg, who has two straight top-10 finishes, to see if he can realize his huge potential at the Masters.
The Scots are rooting for their compatriot Robert MacIntyre, who won the Canadian Open before Fox. However, Ross Whyte didn’t want to jinx MacIntyre and instead picked Bryson DeChambeau.
McMillan, after analyzing the stats, named Aberg as his unbiased pick.
Not one golfer polled chose a Canadian player—perhaps the Scots held off out of national pride.
“We’ve got a pretty good reputation for starting pretty cool sports,” Lammie said.
And they share a similar mindset. “I hadn’t actually thought about how similar they are,” McMillan said, “until we had this conversation and I went, ‘Huh, that’s probably why I enjoy both sports so much.’”