Wally Szczerbiak grew up in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., right across the street from Huntington Country Club but never played the course as a kid. Now he’s making up for lost time.
Szczerbiak jokes that he didn’t want his employers to know how much golf he plays, but the former NBA All-Star and New York Knicks commentator on MSG Network says it’s five to six times a week on the “PLT,” or what he calls the “Professional Leisure Tour.”
“That’s what I’m on all summer,” says Szczerbiak, who doubles as a CBS Sports studio commentator for NCAA basketball and March Madness.
But he’s a golfer for all seasons, including the winter, which reflects how hooked on the game he is. Szczerbiak doesn’t want to disclose too many details in order to keep a good thing going (or implicate anyone), but he doesn’t mind bundling up and wearing a skullcap for a regular wolf game on certain Long Island courses once a chill is in the air and most clubs have pulled their flags.
But as a kid, baseball, basketball, and soccer were Szczerbiak’s go-to games. He was born in Madrid, Spain, during his father’s 10-year run playing professional basketball as a member of Real Madrid. Szczerbiak lived overseas until he was 5, when his family settled in Cold Spring Harbor, a hamlet on the North Shore of Long Island, not far from where his mother’s side of the family called home. His father continued to play basketball in summer leagues, and Szczerbiak would go to games and practice his dribbling and shooting.
“I idolized my dad and tried to emulate him as a basketball player,” he says.
Golf wasn’t really in the picture yet. He remembers his grandfather taking him to a driving range in Douglaston, N.Y., off State Route 25A as a kid, but it wasn’t until high school that he played his first round at Dix Hills Park Golf Course, a nine-hole course that rolls through the park in Dix Hills, N.Y., with a buddy. And, oh, did he have an auspicious start, sticking a 5-iron on the par-3 first hole to 5 feet and making birdie. “So I was hooked,” he says.
Yet Huntington Country Club, which was so close to his home, remained out of reach.
“We never could afford to join that club as a family,” he says, “so I never really got into the game at an early age.”
Szczerbiak tabbed himself as a late bloomer in hoops too, which may explain why St. John’s University never made the local product a competitive scholarship offer. Szczerbiak kept playing baseball, pitching and playing shortstop for a state championship-winning team, but his coach allowed him to leave practice early to attend AAU basketball games because he knew that’s where Szczerbiak’s heart belonged. While St. John’s had a hometown hero in Felipe Lopez, Szczerbiak wound up heading to Miami University in Ohio, where a cousin attended. When he stepped on campus, Szczerbiak was smitten.
“It’s one of the most spectacular campuses, still to this day, that I’ve ever been on,” he says.
During his senior season, he was named Mid-American Conference Player of the Year and led the Redhawks to the Sweet 16 in the 1999 NCAA tournament. Szczerbiak was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the sixth overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft. Throughout his 10-year NBA career, he also played for the Boston Celtics, Seattle Supersonics, and Cleveland Cavaliers. While with Minnesota, he was named to the 2002 Western Conference All-Star team, and he played on teams that twice reached the conference finals.
Szczerbiak’s golf habit gained steam in college thanks to a good friend who had played high school golf and sparked his interest. During his NBA career, Szczerbiak would bring his clubs on the road and play with teammates. In Boston, he would tee it up with general manager Danny Ainge, coach Doc Rivers, and teammate Ray Allen. Szczerbiak would return to Cold Spring Harbor every summer to be near his family and golf his ball. He first joined Pine Hollow Club in East Norwich, then Huntington Country Club, which he calls “my second home,” and lastly at Meadow Brook Club in Jericho. Szczerbiak, who has a 5.9 Handicap Index, can be as lethal with a putter as he used to be from three-point range.
“At my clubs I have my typical group, but I play all over the place with a network of friends at different clubs,” he says. “Sleepy Hollow and Shinnecock are a couple of my favorites. Sebonack, Piping Rock, Garden City Golf Club – you name it – I play them all. I’ll play anywhere with anyone. And I travel too. I loved Cabot Cliffs (Nova Scotia) and Sand Valley (Nekoosa, Wis.); I go to Ohoopee (near Cobbtown, Ga.), Pinehurst (North Carolina), the Ocean Course at Kiawah (South Carolina). I can’t get enough of the game.”
Szczerbiak’s habit turned into addiction when he retired from the NBA in 2009 and began his commentating career. His longtime agent passed him on to a colleague who specialized in broadcasting and told him, “Wally, I think you’re going to be very successful in TV. It’s the perfect transition for you.” He started working immediately as a studio analyst on CBS Sports’ college basketball coverage, where his Cinderella story run to the Sweet 16 gave him great cache.
The New York Knicks took notice of his work and brought him in for audition. He’s in his 13th season as a studio analyst for Knicks telecasts on MSG Network, appearing on all Knicks pregame, postgame and halftime shows. Occasionally, he travels with the team and will sneak in golf on an off day with longtime play-by-play announcer Mike Breen and former Knicks John Starks and Allan Houston. Of his broadcasting style, Szczerbiak says, “I rely heavily on my experience from playing so long and still see the game through the eyes of my dad, the way he taught me to play. I try to bring that wisdom to the fans in a way that they can relate to it and they can learn from it. That’s my strategy when I go to work.”
Doing TV has kept Szczerbiak involved with the game that is his first love but that he no longer can play. A bum left knee has kept him off the court – even for pickup games – and nearly five years ago Szczerbiak underwent a left hip replacement, which has been a boon for his golf.
“The fact that even as you get older, you can get a lot better at golf – that’s pretty cool because all other sports you’re normally declining as you get older,” he says.
Golf has been a lifesaver, filling both the locker room mentality and the competitive void of no longer being able to compete at a high level.
Wolf games and the PLT fill his fun quota, but he says they will pale in comparison to fulfilling his dream of playing with all six of his children.