World Am Player Series: James Anderson

After a 10-year career in the National Football League, James Anderson still has that competitive fire. See how golf, and the Myrtle Beach World Amateur, have helped him channel that energy into a new athletic pursuit that fits perfectly with his post-NFL lifestyle.

 

 

James Anderson:
My name is James Anderson, 35 years old, and I’m in the fifth flight.

I played 10 years in the National Football League. My first seven years were in Carolina. I played for the Panthers. Then I went to the Bears, played there for a year. In 2014, I went to the Patriots. Then I went to the Titans, the Falcons, and the Cowboys all in the same year, and then I finished up my last year with the Saints.

As a ball player, you’d never want to walk away from the game. I had to find a way to still be competitive. Golf helps level me out because being a competitive football player and then playing in the National Football League for so long, you get a way to compete. You get a way to be elite. Golf gives you that ability. It’s a lot harder to get there. It’s a lot harder to get in that one percent in golf. Even the guys on tour are steady trying to get better. Every time you go play, you can learn something.

That gives you a goal to shoot for, something to go work towards, something to grind in. Give me a reason to go to the gym and work out. Give me a reason to get up at 6:00 in the morning to go hit balls, because I have a goal of trying to get better. I think that helps me transition from doing that my whole life. And coming here, you get a chance to test your skills, test your knowledge of the game, test your course management. What am I working on? Have the things I’ve been working on, are they working? Can I do them under pressure?

For me, that experience is invaluable, and I felt like coming here with this amount of golfers traveling away from home, playing on multiple courses that you haven’t seen, it’s kind of a test of everything. Then when I come home from the golf course, whether I play well or not, my daughter’s at the door looking at me. Nothing’s better than that.