”What could possibly go wrong?” Ash Barty makes competitive return

The retired tennis champion is teaming up with mate Anthony Quayle in a pro-am now being compared to golf’s most famous celebrity events.

Tennis great Ash Barty is taking a relaxed mindset into her headline pro-am pairing with good friend and DP World Tour player Anthony Quayle at the NZ Open, as the pro-am element of the $A1.69 million tournament at Millbrook Resort continues to draw comparisons with famous events like Pebble Beach and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews. This year’s field also features 11-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater, alongside familiar sporting names including former Australian Test captain Ricky Ponting, his long-time New Zealand rival Stephen Fleming, and former All Blacks stars Jeff Wilson and Israel Dagg.

Since stepping away from tennis to focus on her young family, the former world No.1 hasn’t had much time to spend on golf, one of her other sporting passions. Still, the Wimbledon, French Open and Australian Open champion is excited to tee it up with Quayle this week, playing off a handicap of four.

“This is a beautiful place to visit, a beautiful place to play golf, so it’ll be nice to dust the cobwebs off the clubs,” the 29-year-old told AAP. “I’ve played two rounds of golf in two years so the form is pretty scarce. “The good thing is I’m fresh and there are no demons so what could possibly go wrong?”

Barty contacted Quayle a couple of months ago about joining forces, and he was quick to say yes. “It’s kind of all worked out really well,” he said. “For such an incredible athlete, each time I’ve asked her how her lead-in to this event has been she’s like ‘Oh, it’s just terrible, the game’s terrible, I just haven’t played enough’.”

Quayle isn’t convinced her lack of practice will show. He’s already seen enough to suspect Barty may be downplaying her form. “And then I was watching her hit a few putts with a custom Wimbledon Odyssey putter. “She holed about eight in a row and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. You could be a bit of an over-achiever here’.”