Rory McIlroy might be shocked by Gareth Bale's golf handicap

Rory McIlroy's BMW PGA Championship pro-am playing partner Gareth Bale has been putting in some serious work on the golf course after he retired from professional football. 

The Welsh speedster's love of golf is well documented, but it appears that since he no longer has to play 90 minutes every weekend, he's focused his time and energy on getting his handicap down, and he's done a pretty good job.

• Which celebs are playing in the pro-am?

Teeing it up with McIlroy in the BMW PGA Championship pro-am, Bale will have only a marginal advantage over the four-time major champion now that he's playing off an incredibly low handicap of 0.5.

As well as McIlroy, the Tottenham and Real Madrid legend will be playing with fellow former professional football Jermaine Jenas and Irish business tycoon JP McManus.

Their group will start on the first tee at 8am BST on 13 September, with the afternoon wave of groups starting at 1.30pm.  

A host of celebrities will be participating in the pro-am, including Chelsea legend John Terry, former England cricket captain Sir Andrew Strauss, Harry Potter star Tom Felton, and Spiderman himself, Tom Holland.

While Bale's handicap is low, one former sportsman will be entering the day with an even lower one. 

Former professional footballer Jimmy Bullard will be playing off scratch on Wednesday, and he'll be hoping to show off more of the silky swing that he had on display in the video below.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Jimmy Bullard™ (@1jimmybullard)

The pro-am kicks off the DP World Tour's flagship event of the year, and all 12 European Ryder Cup team members will be playing. 

Looking to build a bit of team chemistry ahead of the Ryder Cup, the DP World Tour has put all of them together for the first two days of the main tournament. 

Could these groups be an early indication of some of the pairings we may see in Rome?

Groups for BMW PGA Championship:

• McIlroy - Aberg - Hovland
• Rahm - Hojgaard - Hatton
• Rose - Fitzpatrick - MacIntyre
• Fleetwood - Lowry - Straka

Take a look below at some of the amateurs teeing it up in the BMW PGA Championship pro-am and their handicaps:

• Gareth Bale 0.5
• Tom Holland 6
• Brian McFadden 14.1
• Stuart Broad 6.9
• Jermaine Jenas 3
• Mia Baker 18
• Sir Andrew Strauss 1.8
• Tom Felton 14
• John Terry 7.5
• Jimmy Anderson 2.6
• JP McManus 18
• Kevin Pietersen 2.2

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