John Smoltz is very confident in his golf game

Baseball fans know and love John Smoltz for his time with the Atlanta Braves and calling games in our present days for FOX. As a fan of the Houston Astros, a team perennially in the postseason, Smoltz has become a tradition in my household over the last decade in that sense.

What you may or may not know about Smoltz is that he might love golf more than baseball. He has quite the stick and has played just about every course on your dream list.

Smoltz has his own golf dreams though and one of them is to someday win the American Century Championship. He has finished in the top 5 a total of three times over the last five years, including a fourth place finish in 2024, and has flirted enough with the title that it makes sense for him to someday win it.

I was able to catch up with John a couple of weeks ago and pick his brain on how much he loves this beautiful game. One of the more fun parts for me was checking his answers against a Q&A that he did with Golf Digest back in 2009 regarding what he thought to be the most challenging course, and his answers in our current moments were awesome.

Erin Hills was absolutely gorgeous last week during the U.S. Women’s Open and looked to be every bit of the challenge that Smoltz described it to be both back in 2009 and a couple of weeks ago when he and I spoke. Given his skillset on the links, if he finds it challenging then it is not for the faint of heart.

The American Century Championship will be taking place July 11th through 13th and can be seen on both NBC and Peacock. If you want to attend the event in person at Lake Tahoe then here is standard ticket information.

Wagering on Smoltz to walk away with the title may seem bold, particularly with Steph Curry now officially committed to the field, but he seems to like that level of boldness. At the end of our conversation he guaranteed that he will one day be the oldest winner in the history of the event.

Now it is just a matter of when that becomes a reality.