Danica Patrick says she shot an 83, and for the 44-year-old former racer, it was the best 18-hole golf score she has posted since taking up the game a few years ago. She shared the round on Instagram last week and made clear it came with no mulligans, no second tee shots, no gimme putts and no breakfast balls.
“Shot a [100 emoji] legit putted out no gimmies no breakfast balls 83 yesterday!!!!!!” Patrick wrote in her Instagram story. She added, “And let me tell ya, I missed about 5 very very short putts. On the other hand, don’t tell my GHIN,” before later describing golf as “a funny game… And mostly played by those who just love to be hard on themselves. A game you will never master and repeatedly wonder — why am I doing this to myself?!”
The score matters because Patrick is still new enough to the sport that each small jump carries weight. She retired from racing in 2018 after a career that included seven seasons in the IndyCar Series, 191 starts in NASCAR Cup Series competition and 61 races in what is now known as the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. Her place in racing history was already secure long before golf entered the picture: in 2008, she became the first woman to win a race in the IndyCar Series at the Indy Japan 300.
This was also a more upbeat update than one she gave last March, when she said she had forgotten how to hit her driver to start the year off and remembered again about 10 days before that post. The latest note suggests a player still learning the game, but one who is beginning to string together real progress rather than just survive the round.
For Patrick, the 83 is less a polished finish than a marker of how quickly the game can change from frustration to reward. Golf, she said, is still the sort of sport that leaves players asking why they keep coming back. Her latest round gives one answer: because sometimes, even with a handful of missed short putts, the numbers finally break the right way.
