Tag: Gareth Bale

Watch: A dog snatched a live golf ball off the green from this sports star at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship

When Bale pitched from a bank, one of the dogs got loose and quickly took chase.

The DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship plays up the fact that dogs are welcome on the property. During the week, the golf courses get visits from a variety of everyone’s four-legged friends. All dogs must remain on a leash but they can tag along any day of the week.

Some of the big names in the field this week included Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tyrrell Hatton and Billy Horschel.

But in the amateur portion of the event, there are few names bigger for English fans than Gareth Bale, a Welsh soccer star who has long had a passion for golf.

Dunhill Links: Leaderboard

When Bale pitched from a bank, slowly rolling the ball to about 10 feet, one of the dogs got loose and quickly took chase, eventually grabbing the ball in his mouth.

Bale and his partner Daniel Brown are currently on the edge of the top 10 in the team portion of the event, and Bale was able to put place the ball back at the spot on which it stopped.

Photos: Tom Holland, Gareth Bale among star-studded pro-am at the 2024 BMW PGA Championship

Check out the best photos from the pro-am here.

The 2024 BMW PGA Championship — one of the biggest events on the DP World Tour schedule — gets underway Thursday at the Wentworth Club in Surrey, England. On Wednesday, however, celebrities like Tom Holland and Gareth Bale participated in the event’s star-studded pro-am.

While players like Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott, Billy Horschel, Shane Lowry, Matt Fitzpatrick and Robert MacIntyre were preparing for the tournament, they were joined by Holland, Bale, Andy Murray and loads of other stars for a fun day around Wentworth.

Check out nearly two dozen of the best photos from the BMW PGA Championship pro-am below. Plus, you can find the event’s first-round tee times here.

Best photos from 2024 BMW PGA Championship pro-am

Photos: 2023 Ryder Cup All-Star Match featuring Novak Djokovic, Gareth Bale and more celebrities

Check out some of the best photos from the matches here.

The 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome gets underway Friday morning with four foursomes matches, the first going off at 1:35 a.m. ET — good luck to everyone setting that alarm.

On Wednesday, however, it was time for the celebrities to battle it out.

Colin Montgomerie and Corey Pavin are the two captains, and including them, there are six players on each team. On Team Montgomerie are Gareth Bale (football —or soccer to the Americans  — legend), Garrett Hilbert (Dude Perfect member), Leonardo Fioravanti (Italian surfer), Novak Djokovic (tennis legend) and Kipp Popert.

Team Pavin consists of Andriy Shevchenko (former football professional), Kathryn Newton (American actress, best known for her role as Cassie Lang in Marvel’s Antman series), Victor Cruz (American football legend), Carlos Sainz (F1 driver) and Tomasso Perrino.

Check out some of the best photos from the 2023 Ryder Cup All-Star Match below.

Bale to Messi on playing in MLS: Relax dude, nobody cares if you lose

The former LAFC star has spoken about a “chilled” environment in MLS

Gareth Bale has advised Lionel Messi to not get too down if he drops a few games in MLS because in his eyes, there really are no consequences for losing in the league anyway.

Messi’s hugely anticipated move to Inter Miami is set to be sealed in the coming days, with the former Barcelona star following in the footsteps of ex-Real Madrid star Bale.

After spending only a half season in MLS with LAFC, Bale retired this winter following the World Cup. Bale did not see the field much in MLS as he struggled with injuries, but came through with a dramatic 128th-minute header to tie MLS Cup in a game LAFC would eventually win on penalties.

In an interview with BT Sport, Bale compared the life-or-death nature of every game at Real Madrid with what he described as the “chilled” vibe in MLS.

“It is a lot more chilled,” he said. “If you lose at [Real] Madrid, it is like the world has ended. You are crucified. You feel down. You go home and you’re not happy.

“They accept losing a bit more. There is no consequence. You can’t get relegated over there. When you lose a game you go on to the next one. They accept losing a lot better over there. They know how to lose but they celebrate every win like you have won the championship. He will definitely enjoy it.”

Longtime MLS defender A.J. DeLaGarza took umbrage with Bale’s remarks, noting that comparing Real Madrid to LAFC is not exactly apples to apples.

Bale has a point though, too: MLS teams don’t have the consequence of relegation, and 62 percent of the league’s teams will make the playoffs this season. But he is also a rich and famous global superstar who won MLS Cup and the Supporters’ Shield in his eight-month stay in the league. Perhaps Bale is not exactly the authority on what the consequence of failure in MLS really could be.

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McElhenney and Reynolds beg Bale to un-retire and join Wrexham

Could Bale be heading from the golf course to League Two?

After seeing Wrexham promoted to League Two for next season, co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are now hoping to sweet talk none other than Gareth Bale into coming out of retirement to join the Welsh club.

Reynolds and McElhenney definitely have the right idea for a meeting venue, aiming to persuade Bale during a round of golf.

Bale retired after the 2022 World Cup but at age 33, he’s shown that he still has plenty to give when healthy.

That was displayed perhaps most dramatically when Bale scored an equalizer in the dying seconds of last year’s MLS Cup, helping LAFC to a championship in the final club game of his career.

Though Bale seems to be enjoying a retirement that has seen him golf more than ever, Wrexham‘s celebrity owners are hoping that a little bit of cajoling on the golf course, combined with Bale’s Welsh heritage, could get him to change his mind.

For his part, Bale seems open to the idea of a round of golf, if not necessarily the comeback part just yet.

If the chance to play for a TV-star club in his home country isn’t enticing enough, Reynolds offered to sweeten the deal on Twitter, saying he “will shave a professional-grade golf course into Rob’s back if you’ll give Wrexham a season.”

Now that’s pretty enticing.

Wrexham have had some success in this department in the recent past, as former England goalkeeper Ben Foster came out of retirement late in the season and ended up making a vital penalty save for the club on its way to promotion.

Wrexham clinched promotion from the National League last weekend with a 3-1 win over Boreham Wood.

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Matt Fitzpatrick shares a doozy of a story about getting punked by soccer star Gareth Bale

“He’s a pretty impressive individual, to be fair. He’s achieved a lot in his game.”

Retired soccer star Gareth Bale is making the rounds on the celebrity golf circuit of late.

A week ago, the former Tottenham and Real Madrid star played with 2021 U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm in the pro-am at the Farmers Insurance Open. This week, he’s competing in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am alongside partner Joseph Bramlett. But on Wednesday, Bale, a Wales native, played a nine-hole practice round with England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, the reigning U.S. Open champion.

Bale, who has a handicap of two and a replica of Augusta’s 12th hole in his backyard, has impressed the last two U.S. Open champs.

“I told Gareth, you can’t be so good at professional football and golf at the same time, it just doesn’t seem fair!” Rahm said.

Fitzpatrick, who is a longtime Sheffield United fan, said they traded questions on their various sports.

“We had a really enjoyable front nine and there’s not many better places to do it than around here,” Fitzpatrick said.

He also shared a stellar story about a running joke between the two athletes. Fitzpatrick noted that Stellar Group, the company founded and run by Bale’s agent Jonathan Barnett, was attempting to sign Fitzpatrick’s brother, Alex, a Walker Cupper and college star at Wake Forest University who turned pro last summer.

“I ended up having a conversation with him and his manager and he jokingly said to me, ‘If you sign for my management company I’ll not score three goals against your team,’” Fitzpatrick recalled. “Obviously I didn’t sign. I’m happy with where I’m at. He decided to score three goals against my team. Just by pure, obviously, pure chance. And I just remember being, watching the game and he scored all three and I was laughing. Obviously disappointed as well.”

If that wasn’t bad enough, Bale made sure Fitzpatrick knew that he hadn’t forgotten his promise to score a hat trick.

“I got sent a picture. Normally, in football, after the game is done, if a player scores a hat trick, all the players in the team sign the ball. And I just got this picture of a signed ball from him,” Fitzpatrick said. “He’s a pretty impressive individual, to be fair. He’s achieved a lot in his game.”

For more Gareth Bale news, check out our friends at Pro Soccer Wire.

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‘He is a very, very good player’: Jon Rahm raves about Gareth Bale’s golf game after star-studded 2023 Farmers Insurance Open pro-am

“He got two strokes, which I think it’s already wrong. He should be giving strokes back to the rest of the amateurs.”

Jon Rahm doesn’t get star struck very often.

And why should he? The Spaniard is the star in most rooms now. After all, at 28 years old, Rahm already has a major championship and nine wins on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.

Ahead of this week’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego – where he won his first Tour event in 2017 and first major at the 2021 U.S. Open – Rahm was part of a star-studded pro-am group that included ESPN’s Michael Collins, golf content creator Tisha Alyn and a soccer player who caused Rahm quite a bit of stress for upwards of the last decade.

MORE: Gareth Bale finds way around golf ban at World Cup in Qatar

“He’s the reason why Real Madrid beat my team pretty much for 10 years, one of the reasons,” said Rahm of Gareth Bale, who recently retired from club and international soccer after a world-class career that saw him dominate for the Spanish titans Real Madrid, as well as England’s Tottenham Hotspur and the Wales National Team. “I told Gareth, you can’t be so good at professional (soccer) and golf at the same time, it just doesn’t seem fair. Can’t be dedicated to one thing and have this much talent for golf, it’s not fair in the slightest.”

“He didn’t ask for anything, nor should he be asking, he’s already good enough,” Rahm raved. “He got two strokes, which I think it’s already wrong. He should be giving strokes back to the rest of the amateurs because he is a very, very good player.”

PHOTO: Gareth Bale’s backyard replica of TPC Sawgrass’ 17th hole

High praise from a man who is looking to win his third straight PGA Tour start and enters this week’s event on a streak of four wins in his last six worldwide starts. Now No. 3 in the world, Rahm hasn’t finished worse than T-8 in his last seven starts and has a knack for high finishes at Torrey Pines. Since his win in 2017, Rahm has finished T-29, T-5, 2, T-7 and T-3 at the course on the California coast.

“We had a great time, we had a great nine holes,” Rahm continued. “I wish every time I play a pro-am I had a group that entertaining because that nine holes went by very quickly and laughed a lot.”

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Kellyn Acosta’s foul on Gareth Bale saved the USMNT’s bacon

The LAFC on LAFC crime may have just kept the USMNT in the World Cup

The U.S. men’s national team came away disappointed with a draw against Wales in their World Cup opener. If it wasn’t for an all-timer of a tactical foul from Kellyn Acosta, they may have come away devastated.

Acosta’s moment came in the ninth and final minute of stoppage time, with the game tied 1-1. USMNT goalkeeper Matt Turner came way off his line to head away a long ball over the top.

It looked like a heads-up clearance by Turner, until it landed right at the foot of the exact player the U.S. didn’t want it to find: Gareth Bale. Five yards into the USMNT half and with Turner miles off his line, Bale was set for a dramatic empty-netter to complete his brace and win the game for Wales.

Seriously, look where Turner is here.

But that’s when Acosta did the only thing he could at that moment: the LAFC midfielder manhandled his club teammate and sent him tumbling to the ground.

Acosta earned the greatest yellow card of his career, and the match ended 1-1.

“It’s a great foul,” U.S. defender Walker Zimmerman told reporters after the game. “It’s professional. It’s important to prevent moments of transition like that so I have no problem with that.”

Amazingly, Acosta kind of called his shot before the game. When asked about Bale, the U.S. midfielder said: “He’s a guy that we definitely have to have eyes on, a guy that we literally [have to] start kicking him around the field and make him feel us and limit his time and space.”

When Bale needed to be kicked, Acosta was there to deliver. The USMNT may just survive the group stage because of it.

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Ahead of USMNT showdown, Gareth Bale and his Wales teammates find way around team’s golf ban at 2022 World Cup in Qatar

Bale is a global ambassador for the R&A and an avid golfer when he’s not on the pitch.

Gareth Bale is a world-class soccer player who has previously won three La Liga titles and five UEFA Champions League titles with Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid. Now playing in the United States, he recently helped Los Angeles FC win the 2022 MLS Cup.

The 33-year-old from Cardiff, Wales, is also an avid golfer when he’s not on the pitch – just not at this year’s World Cup in Qatar. A key member of the Wales squad that begins the group stage of play on Monday against the United States, Bale and his teammates were told they were not allowed to play golf during the international event, with manager Rob Page wanting the team to be focused on the task at hand.

“Yeah. There’s no golf. We’re out there to do a job,” said Page. “In the past, I may get Gareth, Kieffer Moore or Aaron Ramsey come up to me and say, ‘What’s the plan for tomorrow afternoon? Are there meetings?’ I’d say, ‘No, there’s no meetings, so if you want nine holes then go and play’. But that is when you have a week building up to a double-header. Out there, we won’t have enough time. Every four days there is a game. It’s relentless.”

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That doesn’t mean Bale’s golf swing is getting stale in the gulf. A golf simulator has reportedly been installed at the team’s luxury hotel.

“We’ve just been in the swimming pool, playing table tennis, pool and golf,” said Bale’s teammate Mark Harris. “Team spirit is great anyway but games like that help you. Gareth’s very good at the golf. I think most of us have had a swing and we had a go after training as we had some spare time.”

Bale is also a global ambassador for the R&A.

U.S. vs. Wales tees off … kicks off … at 2 p.m. ET on Monday.

Click for a full primer on the World Cup, courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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Gareth Bale has Wales dreaming big ahead of World Cup opener vs. USMNT

Led by its superstar, Wales is feeling loose and ready ahead of its first World Cup in 64 years

AL-RAYYAN, Qatar – He’s a teenage phenom turned worldwide superstar who’s won five UEFA Champions League titles, about a dozen other team honors and myriad individual awards. Already long since an icon in his homeland, he was one of the highest-paid players in the world for much of his time at Real Madrid. And earlier this year he moved to sunny Southern California just in time to become an MLS Cup-winning hero for LAFC in Hollywood fashion.Yet you could almost feel sorry for Gareth Bale on Sunday as he recounted the angst he and the rest of his nation felt as their Welsh national team missed out on the sport’s biggest party over and over again for his entire lifetime – and three decades before that as well.“I think France ‘98 was probably my first memory,” the winger told reporters one day before Wales’ Group B clash with the U.S. men’s national team, their first World Cup match since 1958. “I just remember having this pencil case with the logo on it and everything.“Watching World Cups, it was always a little bit disappointing because Wales wasn’t there,” he continued. “As a kid not having your country in a World Cup, it does take that little bit of specialness away from it. So for Wales to have their country in the World Cup now will be an incredible thing for not just the youngsters, but for the whole nation.”Bale’s dazzling skill has been the crown jewel for his talented generation of Welsh players. And after hauling their nation – which largely favored rugby over soccer until they hit the scene – out of the footballing doldrums with a run to the Euro 2016 semifinals in their first major tournament appearance in over half a century, Qatar ‘22 represents a chance to seal their legacy.He makes clear that he is indeed thinking about the long term, too.“Everybody’s dreamt of it for such a long time. We’ve had so many close calls,” said Bale of his national team, which for so long labored in the shadow of neighboring England, who they’ll meet in their third group-stage match later this month. “For us to be the team that was to get over the line was incredible for us. But most importantly, the best thing was to do it for our country, to grow football in our country, to inspire another generation, to get more kids playing football. Because by doing that, we’re hopefully going to have a stronger national team in the future.”

(Photo by Huw Fairclough/Getty Images)

Welsh manager Rob Page cast his team as the underdogs in Monday’s matchup, perhaps understandably for a nation of just over 3 million people with a fiercely proud identity which they see reflected in their national team.“You look at England and USA and naturally people will be talking about them as the top two, ourselves and Iran then,” said Page. “But we know on our day – we’ve proven in the Nations League against Belgium, against a very good Dutch team, we can more than compete as well. So look, we’re new to the tournament and there might be a few surprises along the way.“So there’s no pressure on us. We’re going to enjoy it, but we’re going to compete. And I said to the group, I’ve said before the press: We’re not here to make the numbers up. We’re here because we’ve earned the right to be here. We’re a good team. And we want to show the world how good we are.”A litany of soft-tissue injuries wrecked the latter stages of Bale’s time at Real Madrid, and rendered him a luxury supersub for LAFC. He’s often patched himself up to play the hero for Wales over the years, though, and sounded confident of doing so again here.“I’m right where I want to be,” said Bale. “I’m here, night before the first game and ready to go. Yeah, we’ve all been training hard the last week, adapting to the heat, the time zones and we have no excuses now. We put all the hard work in and game-time tomorrow, that’s where we hopefully can step back and deliver what needs to be delivered.”

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