Star athletes like fish out of water at Tahoe golf

San Diego Union Tribune - United States - It's one thing to ride a bike as fast as Lance Armstrong, drive the lane like Michael Jordan, throw a pass like Carson Palmer or catch one like Jerry Rice.

But hit a golf ball in front of a big crowd?

“Golf,” Armstrong says, stretching out the word like a British sports analyst. “It's a whole 'nother sport, whole 'nother beast. Hell, I get nervous when the lady in the beverage cart pulls up on the tee box.”

And he's not even in the tournament.

The seven-time champion of the Tour de France is set to play in the pro-am event preceding the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship at Lake Tahoe on July 13-15.

No, it's not the British Open. But it might as well be for the 81 past and present star athletes, actors, entertainers, politicians and other celebrities chasing the $600,000 purse at Edgewood-Tahoe Golf Course on the banks of the azure mountain lake.

Armstrong is the first to admit he's not much of a golfer.

“I'm happy to break 100,” he said.

But like Marcus Allen, John Elway and Charles Barkley, he understands when some of the best athletes ever try to explain what it's like to be a fish out of water on the 7,445-yard, Par 72 golf course with a national television audience watching.