'I Will Not Stop Until I Get A Single-Figure Handicap' – Boxing Legend And I'm A Celebrity Star Tony Bellew On His Love For Golf

Tony Bellew has his back turned. For the moment, he’s focused solely on what’s happening outside. “What a shot that is,” he says, totally transfixed as one of his fellow club members at Southport & Ainsdale strikes an iron into the par-3 1st hole, never an easy shot, especially in front of a watching clubhouse. As you'll discover in the video and article below, this game has Bellew gripped.

In case you’re not familiar with the name, Tony ‘Bomber’ Bellew is the former British, Commonwealth, European and WBC Cruiserweight Champion Of The World. He's currently appearing in the 23rd series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here on ITV, which is filmed in the Australian rainforest.  

Before he signed up to share a Brisbane campsite with 11 other celebrities and a range of snakes, spiders and critters, he appeared in a couple of movies (Creed and Creed III), as well as television programmes including a League Of Their Own and SAS: Who Dares Wins. Boxing, punditry, acting, they’re all passions of his, but how did someone growing up in a challenging part of Liverpool become addicted to what he viewed as a “rich man’s sport”?

It certainly didn’t happen in the same way as it does for a lot of people: plastic clubs aged two; junior member at the local club aged seven, rounds with the family on summer holidays. “We certainly weren’t that [rich],” says Bellew, whose life has featured many twists and turns. 

Growing up on the tough streets of Toxteth and Wavertree, he had a choice to make: a life getting into trouble, or the straight and narrow, one that didn’t involve going to prison. It wasn’t his fists that saved him as such, but his work ethic. Talent only gets you so far. For Bellew, there is no substitute for hard work.

“I will not stop until I get a single figure handicap,” he says, with a steely determination, before recalling the first time he saw a golf club. It was many years ago when a friend pitched up at the park with what looked like a “loaf of bread on the end of a stick.” Handy that, he thought, in case someone tries to burgle my house.

Now the proud owner of a set of TaylorMade Stealth irons, and the only damage these weapons will be doing are on the scoring front around his favourite Merseyside links – that’s if he can get his swing in order. At the moment, as is evident over a few holes near his home in Southport, it lacks for nothing in terms of power – it’s the consistency that’s bothering him a bit.

The golf bug, though, has bitten Bellew. He knows what it’s like to hit one cleanly, to experience the immense sense of satisfaction of a ball flying straight and true. He likens a flushed iron to a perfect punch, “so pure you don’t feel the connection.” He’s just keen to hit a few more of them.

“Tony, just relax,” says S&A’s head professional, Jim Payne, as the Bomber walks to the first tee. It’s said in a manner that suggests Bellew’s greatest problem at this moment in time, besides having the odd technical flaw (who doesn’t?), is nerves.

It’s not unusual for beginners to suffer from the jitters, especially on the first tee, and especially in front of strangers. The cameras, too (more than one), hone in on Bellew as a small group of golfers watching on falls silent. This mountain of a man, a former boxing champion of the world, looks like he is about to face one of his toughest adversaries – but this time it's not a person but a thing...the endlessly frustrating game of golf.

At the peak of his powers, Bellew fought in front of tens of thousands of fans. He’d be surrounded by television cameras beaming his every move to millions of people around the world. Early in his career, earning enough money to put food on the table brought the pressure. When he fought Ilunga Makabu at his beloved Goodison Park on 29 May, 2016, it was something intangible.

“Fighting’s never made me nervous. I’m not one of those fighters who gets really nervous and suffers with it,” he says, in a way that sounds as though he’s ready to go in the ring with someone again, right now. “I loved it, it excited me. But coming to Goodison was a different ball game altogether – turning up here, thousands and thousands of people, the streets were full.

“I’ve been coming here since I was ten years old, every other week watching Everton Football Club. If I’d have lost here, I never would have come back ever again.” After suffering a broken nose and hitting the canvas in the first round, Bellew responded with a furious combination in the third, knocking his Congolese opponent unconscious.

“Listen, if I’d have died at that moment, I’d have died a happy man. I’d achieved everything in life I’d set out to do. The only relief I’ve felt better than that is [Everton, 1994] beating Wimbledon to stay up.”

It’s fascinating, then, to see this retired fighter – one who won 30 of his 34 professional bouts and had the weight of Merseyside on his shoulders at Goodison – locked in his own personal battle with a sport that couldn’t be more different, one that he’s yet to conquer and that, at times, makes his knees tremble to the point that he’s far more comfortable going out early in the morning to play by himself.

Bellew is totally in love with this game and, if his social media is anything to go by, has embraced the highs and lows that golf brings, often sharing videos of his frustrating practice sessions trying to perfect his swing or short game. 

“Golf is probably the biggest mental battle I’ve come across, it’s right up there with boxing,” he says, in a way that sounds like he’s already treating his new passion just as seriously as any of his previous professional fights. He is. There are no half measures with Bellew, whose success in the ring is often attributed to how he meticulously studied the way his opponents moved.

Reaching that goal of single figures is going to require practice. The nerves may bother him at times, but effort and attitude are his great assets. “Oh, he’ll get there,” says one of the members as Bellew pops his clubs back into the boot of his car. No one doubts it. Not only would giving up be a stain on his character, he’s gone and got himself all the gear.

“A good friend of mine, Leon Osman, who used to play for Everton, keen golfer, boss fella, he’s got this [electric] ‘lecky’ trolley. I asked him how much it was. Eleven hundred quid, he says. For a trolley. Are you serious? Does it play for you? I’m not having that. I went home and told my wife I’m not paying that. Just get one, she said. A mingebag (a word used in Liverpool to describe a person who is frugal) is what she called me.”

Thanks to Rachael, Bellew now has a lecky trolley. Now he’s discovered that not only does he not need to waste energy pushing his clubs around as he was with his £150 push trolley, but also this expensive piece of equipment helps prevent the red mist from descending.

“I’m fully invested now,” he says, “there’s no going back. “I’ve got the bag, I’ve got the best gear going, I’ve got the trolley. There’s a chance that if I never got that trolley I could have thrown my clubs in the lake. The trolley can’t go – that cost an absolute fortune.”

Bellew gets frustrated with his game, just like a lot of us do – but he insists he’s not an angry golfer. “I’ve never broken a club,” he says, “never thrown one” or “attacked a tree.” 

The only time he gets the rage is when golfers don’t shout ‘fore’ and he comes across divots that haven’t been replaced – something that makes him “furious.” He may be relatively new to the game but he knows this is a big no-no, and although he’ll replace them himself, pity the person who doesn’t and gets seen.

Looking back on his career, Bellew is honest enough to admit that he does have a few regrets. He’s always worn his heart on his sleeve, but sometimes his emotions have got the better of him. It’s fanciful to imagine that golf would have made him more mellow during his fighting days, but he does wish he’d discovered the sport sooner, if only to provide a release after long days of training in Sheffield.

“It would have helped,” he says. “Going to the driving range, going on a course doing something to pass the time. I would tend to go to the cinema on my own because I would be in Sheffield on my Jack. My routine was eat, train, sleep, eat, train sleep, repeat. If I’d have had golf it would have been perfect, it would have broken it up, a little walk round, just something, even if it was to go and play nine holes.”

Now that Bellew has discovered the power of golf, he’d like to see more youngsters given access to the game – kids from “tougher areas.” You can hear the frustration in his voice, maybe a touch of resentment, too, when he talks about making the game more accessible.

“Let kids know you don’t have to be rich. Most golf clubs have got a few quid saved in the bank,” he says, “invest in the youth by telling kids they can come and play for free in the holidays, just one or two days a week.

“Go to some tougher areas as well, where I’m from. I didn’t even know where a golf club was. It can be made so much more accessible. Speak to them. Go to the schools. You don’t have to be athletically gifted, you don’t have to look a certain way, or speak a certain way to play golf; it should be easy for everyone to take up.”

Bellew talks about some of his career in his wonderful book, ‘Everybody Has A Plan Until They Get Punched In The Face.’ It tells the story of an aggressive kid who, through boxing, found the best version of himself – and it’s well worth a read. It’s not purely a book about his career – more about what the sport teaches you about life. He talks about willpower, graft and resilience, all of which will surely help in the next chapter of his journey – playing golf, mastering his swing and getting to single figures. He’s up for the fight.

TONY BELLEW CLUB FITTING REPORT 

We spoke to TaylorMade fitting expert, Daniel Morris, on how he went about fitting Tony Bellew, a relative beginner golfer but one with power and potential. 

“Tony came in to see us around 2017, when he was more or less a complete beginner. He was boxing then, but he’s clearly still a big, strong guy. The good shots are good, but the bad ones, because of his speed and power, can be quite destructive – which is typical of a lot of beginners with this kind of strength. Also, because of his height and strength, he had a tendency to hit down on the ball a lot, which means sometimes he can struggle to get the ball launched in the air.

“So we started him off with a set of M2 irons. He needed that forgiving package but also something of strength to help keep the club in more of a consistent position, to get him a little bit tighter towards his target.

“He’s relentless in his drive. I think when he was training that made him better. You can have that same drive in golf and hit lots of balls, but you need to work on the right things. This is where Jim Payne comes in – so it’s been a two-pronged attack, a thorough custom fitting and lessons from a guy who’s been an elite player.

“Tony started off wanting to know what his TrackMan numbers meant – launch angle, spin rate, path. This can be a bit of an overload, especially for beginners, and so we keep things more simple.

“He text me recently – it was 9.45pm, and he was on the golf course – and he says: “Hi mate, finally realised what those sticks are for that you put on the ground!” Alignment, obviously.

“He now has his Stealth Black irons. If his handicap starts to tumble down we might look at more of a players’ style club, one of the P Series with a smaller, more classic design – but, for the moment, these suit him perfectly. He’s also benefitting from a high launch, draw bias driver, which is one that tends to help a lot of beginner golfers off the tee and to get them hitting more fairways.”

WHAT'S IN THE BAG?

TaylorMade Stealth 2 HD driver, 10.5°
TaylorMade Stealth 2 HD fairways, 16°, 19°
TaylorMade Stealth DHY utility, 21°
TaylorMade Stealth Black irons 4-PW
TaylorMade MG3 wedges, 50°, 54°, 58°
TaylorMade Spider GTX Black putter
TaylorMade TP5x ball