JJ Redick was still trying to get into the room when Rory McIlroy’s putt on the 18th hole dropped Sunday at Augusta National. By the time Redick reached reporters in Los Angeles, McIlroy had finished with a bogey and still captured his second straight Masters Tournament, a feat that made him the fourth golfer in history to win back-to-back titles and the first since Tiger Woods in 2001-2002.
“I would have been here earlier,” Redick said, “but Rory hit it in the trees.” He said he had been watching the closing stretch and wanted to see how McIlroy handled the kind of pressure that can unravel even the best players. “How do you manage, or you failed on the tee shot?” Redick said. “It’s not where he wanted to be. And how do you manage that next shot?”
The Lakers coach has made no secret of how much golf has become part of his life and, increasingly, part of the team’s. Earlier this season, LeBron James said he picked up the game for the first time at 40 because he wanted to do something he had never done before. “I love the sport,” James said. “I appreciate the sport. I love how difficult it is. I love the challenge.” Bronny James has followed his father onto the greens, and Luke Kennard and Jake LaRavia also enjoy golfing.
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That shared interest has shown up on the road and around the team. In March, LeBron James, Bronny James, Luke Kennard, Jake LaRavia and Luka Doncic joined a coaches vs. players scramble in Orlando, a small sign of how golf has become part of the regular-season routine for several Lakers. For Redick, McIlroy’s Sunday finish carried a little extra weight because he said he was rooting for the golfer last year when McIlroy won his first Masters title.
Redick said he has thought a lot about what golf reveals under pressure. “It’s been awesome for me because I think there’s so many parallels to life and there’s so many parallels to every other sport within the game of golf and I just wanted to see how Rory sort of managed that,” he said. “I’m the biggest head case on the golf course in the world.”
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As the Lakers head toward the postseason, the team’s golf talk is no longer just idle clubhouse chatter. Even while the club weighs other needs, including backcourt help such as Nick Smith Jr. among options before the playoffs, Redick’s reaction to McIlroy’s win showed how closely the sport has become tied to the daily rhythm around the team.
