Stephen Curry’s first pro golf round on the Web Tour was actually a huge success

When news first broke that Stephen Curry would tee it up in this week’s Web.com Tour event, you’d be forgiven if you wrote the NBA superstar off a bit. Even on the PGA Tour’s developmental second-tier, tour pros are still eons better than your run-of-the-mill club champion or scratch golfer. The track record of other athletes stepping into professional, competitive golf hasn’t been great — most all of them have finished dead last by a large margin when granted similar sponsors’ exemptions.

Then again, Steph Curry isn’t normal.

Charlotte Christian’s former top high school golfer fit in just fine among pro golfers, firing a 4-over-par 74 to open the Ellie Mae Classic at TPC Stonebrae. That’s not a figure that’ll win the event, nor will it put him in great position to make the cut, but it’s better than at least 10 or so full-time pros thus far — a number that will likely grow as play finishes up later this evening. That group already includes Sam Ryder, one of the Web.com Tour’s top two points earners on the season, and one of Curry’s playing partners on Thursday morning.

But what’s perhaps more amazing? Steph’s round could’ve been even better.

Starting his round on the back nine, Curry struggled out of the gate -- making bogey on three of his first five holes. But this birdie on the par-5 15th broke the slide.

From that point, Steph looked the part — logging two more birdies en route to playing even par golf until the par-5 9th, where he made bogey to conclude his day.

Uh, small sample size thus far, but pretty dang good, man.

Unlike other athletes that have dabbled on the Web Tour in the past, he’s not at all a joke. We shouldn’t laugh Steph off if he wants to pursue some amateur golf career after, you know, that whole basketball thing finishes up. Beating a handful of tour pros with little prep time is not nothing.

Thanks to a packed golf calendar across the globe this week -- the WGC in Akron, another PGA Tour event in Reno, and the Women’s British Open — Steph’s round didn’t get a ton of coverage. There’s no ShotLink at most Web.com Tour events, so strokes gained stats aren’t measured, either. He’s by no stretch a big hitter — averaging just around 265 off the tee — so that might cap his ability to get into red figures on a course of any length. Still, man, just consider this list of players Steph’s currently ahead of at Stonebrae. These are names golf people know! They don’t suck!

Sam Ryder, 181st ranked player in the world, 2nd in Web.com Tour standings

Frank Lickliter, 2-time winner on the PGA Tour (albeit not since 2003)

Matt Goggin, longtime Tour pro, played supporting role in Tom Watson’s 2009 classic Open Championship near-win at Turnberry

Casey Wittenberg, former amateur star, two major championship top-10 finishes

John Mallinger, handful of second- and third-place finishes on PGA Tour within the decade

This is pretty dang cool. Steph’s pretty good. The 4-over 74 is a fantastic number, and that’s pretty much the consensus among anyone who knows anything. Don’t let his place near the bottom of the leaderboard fool you. This was not some astronomical number over 80 that was expected. And the crowds and attention he’s bringing to an event that wouldn’t otherwise have it? That’s pretty awesome, too.

Curry will tee off at 5:15 p.m. ET (2:15 p.m. local on the west coast) Friday alongside Ryder and Stephen Jaeger.