Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Brian Lara, Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting among celebrity line-up at New Zealand golf

Richards, Botham, Lara, Warne & Ponting among celebrity line-up at New Zealand golf

The number of cricketers taking to golf is very high. Many modern international cricketers do not just play golf as a past time but are very serious players.

Lining up in the 2015 BMW New Zealand Open Championship, which got under way in Queenstown on Thursday, are some iconic names from the world of cricket like Ian Botham, Ricky Ponting, Viv Richards, Brian Lara, Shane Warne and Graeme Swann to name just a few. Viv Richards is teaming up Ryan Fox,  Ian Botham with Scott Strange, Ricky Ponting with Daniel Popovic, Brian Lara with Michael Long, Graeme Swann with Peter Lonard and Mark Richardson with Kristopher Mueck.

Ponting, a  scratch golfer, has his father Graeme to caddie. “”It might be his job to keep me cool under the pressure and if I hit a bad shot, maybe I’ll just give the club to him as quick as I can so he puts it back in the bag and it doesn’t end up disappearing into the lake or anything, or into the bush,” he said.

“A lot of these cricketers tend to have inflated handicaps. You know, you’re talking about world class athletes that have great hand-eye co-ordination,”  Ponting was quoted as saying in stuff.co.nz