What is it about golf that appeals to a bunch of pro cyclists? We hit the links with one to find out.
By his own admission, Cyrus Monk isn’t “anywhere near the best cyclist in the world”. He’s ridden at the ProTeam level, raced some of the biggest races in the world, but the majority of his career has been spent racing on the Continental circuit (most recently for Chinese team FNIX-SCOM-Hengxiang).
But among pro cyclists, Monk stands out in a rather different way. With a golf handicap of 9, the Australian is in truly rarified air when it comes to the professional peloton.
“My goal was to have a 6 watts/kg threshold, and then play off single figures,” he tells Escape. “I think at this point I’m not far off 6 W/kg – I’ll have to do a FTP test – [but] I think that would be a very rare combo worldwide. For the non-golfers out there, single figures in the golfing world is probably like 5 W/kg. But it’s just so rare for cyclists to be good on the golf course.”
We’ve met at the Yarra Bend Golf Course just east of central Melbourne, to play nine holes together and talk about the intersection between cycling and golf. The ways the sports are similar, how they’re different, what it is that draws him to both.
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In simple terms, a golfer’s handicap is a numerical measure of their playing ability, allowing players of different abilities to compete against one another. When calculating scores, each player’s handicap is deducted from the total number of shots they take. The lower the handicap, the better the player.
Teeing off
It’s clear from Monk’s first tee shot that we’re fighting in different weight classes. His swing is a thing of grace and power that cannons the ball well down the fairway. My tee shot is more garish than graceful but by some miracle, I make good contact and follow him into good position. As we walk down the fairway together, I joke that I’ve hit my best drive of the day. It’s a prediction that will prove painfully accurate.
Like many Australians who golf, Monk followed a family member into the sport. As young as three he was out the front of his grandfather’s house, whacking balls around a makeshift hole, and by his teens he was playing regularly at his local course, the Drouin Golf & Country Club, 75 minutes south-east of Melbourne. Weekly lessons laid the foundation for a solid technique and while he’s played less ever since he committed himself to cycling, he still plays whenever he can.
“There were definitely times [where] I wish I committed more to golf than cycling and kept going a bit longer,” he says as we walk. “But I’m pretty happy that I started young and [I’ve] still got a decent swing without having to work on it too much.”
Monk says he’s definitely a better cyclist than golfer, noting that golf has a way of keeping you humble.
“Whenever I start thinking I’m going OK at golf, I’ll go out and play with some old blokes locally that are still hitting it better than I am, or scoring better than I am, even if they’re not necessarily hitting it better,” he says. “Bike riding, for sure, is the only way I can make a career as a sportsperson.”
But was that always going to be true for him? Or putting it another way, what do genetics have to say about our proficiency at various sports?
| Athlete level | Threshold power (cycling) | Handicap (golf) |
|---|---|---|
| World-class elite | 6 W/kg | Scratch (0) or better |
| Serious amateur | 4-5 W/kg | Single digits (1-9) |
| Weekend warrior | 2.5-3.5 W/kg | Mid to high (15-25) |
Choosing your parents
Most people can swing a leg over a bike and go for a ride but the upper echelons of the sport are almost exclusively the domain of the genetically blessed. Don’t have genes that predispose you to a sky-high VO2max? You can forget about making it as a pro cyclist. Golf, though, might be a different story.
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