‘You Can Never Perfect It’

Minnesota Twins great Joe Mauer was a king on the diamond, but he’s well aware he has a long way to go on the golf course.

The Hall of Fame baseball catcher and 2009 AL MVP will be participating in the American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe in July, the largest celebrity golf tournament out there.

Mauer’s best finish – there are 90-plus participants in the field – was a top 20 finish last year. The 42-year-old is well-known for being arguably the best hitting catcher of all time, but admits his golf game has a long way to go to catch up to his hitting prowess at the plate.

“It’s a hard game,” says Mauer in a one-on-one interview when asked if it’s as much a mental as a physical game. “You can never perfect it, but you always strive for that perfection. There’s a lot of failure in golf and as is the case for baseball, that could be said for any sport at the level that a lot of these athletes that are playing in the tournament are coming from.”

The former Twins catcher says the mental challenge of playing baseball prepares you well for golf due to the high rate of failure as a batter at the plate.

“Baseball especially, you fail seven times out of 10 as a hitter, and you’re considered a really good hitter,” Mauer says. “You can’t do that any other sport, or at least that I know of, but I think it transitions well because of that. Obviously, you got to be mentally tough and mentally strong to keep working and to keep the processes, to hopefully get better results. Sometimes I tell people, maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment, liking both little sports so much because there’s so much failure in it.”

Mauer, who will be playing for the sixth time in the event, says everyone out there has a “competitive” side, which makes sense considering the talent pool. The tournament literally features the biggest stars across every sport, including the likes of Steph Curry, Tony Romo, Davante Adams, Josh Allen, Matthew Tkachuk and John Smoltz.

In other words, most of the sports stars playing in this tournament were or are the best players in their respective sports.

Mauer is no different considering he’s one of just two catchers in this millennium to win an MVP and is a three-time AL batting champion.

“Everyone that is a player in the tournament has a competitive side,” says Mauer. “A competitive interest in wanting to do well. I’m like a 4 handicap and I like to get out there and try to try to show out well. But it’s a lot of fun for me. It’s a good atmosphere, kind of gets those competitive juices going, kind of like back in my playing days. Always a treat to get out there and compete.”

The Minnesota native admits that he’s not the best golfer out there on the golf course. In fact, he’s not even the best baseball golfer out there, that would spot probably belongs to Mark Mulder and/or Smoltz. Mulder won the event three straight times from 2015 until 2017 while Smoltz has finished second in the event.

Mauer calls Smoltz a contender year in and year out and mentions Mardy Fish as a tough competitor. Fish, the former tennis phenom, has won the event twice. He explains why baseball players transition well to the golf course.

“Last year I played around with Mardy Fish,” says Mauer. “Obviously, he’s had some success there with winning it a couple times. Usually the best baseball players that are golfers are pitchers, because they have a little bit more time on their hands than everyday guys.

“But it’s a lot of fun,” Mauer continues to say. “Everybody kind of gets out there and whenever you’re playing baseball, football, basketball, whatever, I think everybody’s got those competitive juices. It’s just another avenue to satisfy that. I played with Smoltz, I played with Fish. I think those two are definitely a contender year in and year out.”

The former AL MVP mentions the camaraderie as a big selling point for playing in the tournament. He’s aiming to improve upon his top 20 finish this year as he looks to slow better his golf game.

The first round of the three-day tournament will be on July 11 with a purse of $750,000 and a first-place prize of $150,000.

“I think every year it’s been a little bit better for me,” says Mauer. “I’ve done a little bit better. I would like to kind of build off of that. It’s just a fun atmosphere, a great time. Obviously, the tournament brings a lot of lot of interest to that area and raises a lot of money for that area, which I think is a great thing.

“But it’s also going back and seeing the people, the competitors, the volunteers, which I think really make make the tournament and make it such a great experience,” Mauer continues to say. I’m really looking forward to getting back and seeing some old faces and maybe meet some new ones as well.”