Sundays are for football. But for more and more 49ers, the offseason is for taking hacks at a tiny, dimpled white ball.
Of the Niners’ 90-man offseason roster, more than 40 were trying to keep their front-nine scores under 40, so to speak.
And that doesn’t count golf hound Robert Saleh, who is back as the 49ers’ defensive coordinator after four years away from the Bay Area tee boxes as the New York Jets’ head coach.
Entering the golf chat this offseason was Nick Bosa, the 49ers’ premier defensive end. Not surprisingly, the 27-year-old five-time Pro Bowler has been a quick study.
“Bosa’s great. He already broke 90. He is very controlled,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “He did it right, where he got lessons first. Whereas everyone else, like, you play for a number of years, and then it’s like, ‘Maybe I should get lessons,’ but then you already have all these bad habits. He’s very technical.
“He just started in January. It’s insane.”
Bosa is just the latest 49ers player to get serious about golf.
When the 49ers hosted their annual Golden Gateway fundraiser near Carmel in May, their players turned out in droves, and dozens took part in the golf tournament. The group included wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who was still recovering from last season’s right-knee reconstruction. Aiyuk wore a compression sleeve on his right leg, a backward white cap on his head and had a cigar in his mouth, all while playing alongside quarterback Brock Purdy and tight end George Kittle.
Later in the summer, Kittle was an instant fan favorite when he debuted in the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament at Edgewood Tahoe.
“I’m not a professional golfer, and some of the places people line up here when I’m on the tee box is just crazy to me,” said Kittle, who finished 81st in the 90-player field.
Juszczyk tied for 59th – with New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and former NBA star Vince Carter – in his second straight Tahoe appearance.
Kittle had rebuffed previous invitations to play in the tournament until he got more serious about golf. Helping turn that tide was a 2023 Christmas gift he and some other teammates received from Christian McCaffrey. After one practice around the holidays that season, each of the 49ers’ offensive players found a personalized golf bag and a voucher for a complimentary fitting for clubs waiting at their locker, courtesy of the star running back.
Kyle Juszczyk talks to fans after completing the 14th hole prior to the American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course on July 10, 2025 in Stateline, Nevada. (Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
“I had some other clubs, but I used to just play in Cabo (San Lucas, Mexico) after the season,” Kittle said. “Now I’m playing two times a week, which is a blast.”
Left tackle Trent Williams snatched up multiple sets of clubs once he got hooked on golf two years ago.
“We went to Cabo in the offseason with Kyle (Shanahan) and Mike (Shanahan) and Juice (Kyle Juszczyk), and everybody was down there. Everybody knew how to golf but me and Deebo (Samuel),” Williams said. “They put a club in my hand. That challenge just sparked a fire in me.
“Dealing with sports things, I hadn’t really met a bunch of stuff I couldn’t do. Golf was one of them. I couldn’t sleep with that. I had to figure out a way to get better.”
But it’s not all just fun and games. Golf is a method the 49ers use to study NFL Draft candidates.
In recent years, when prospects visit before the draft, the 49ers pit them against each other at the nearby TopGolf facility to spy their competitive instincts and team-bonding ability.
Golf is not new to the 49ers franchise, of course.
After quarterback John Brodie’s distinguished tenure with the team from 1957-73, he joined the Senior PGA Tour. Brodie posted one win (the 1991 Security Pacific Classic in Los Angeles) and had a dozen top-10 finishes.
Hall of Famer Jerry Rice also made a run at a second career as a pro golfer, and he’s been a regular in Tahoe, finishing as high as 10th in 2009 at the American Century Championship. Rice has played there since 1996, the only exception coming during his 2001 transition from the 49ers to the Raiders.
Dozens of former 49ers showed up in June at Pleasanton’s Ruby Hill Golf & Country Club as Keena Turner hosted his 30th tournament to benefit Tracy’s Boys & Girls Clubs.
Who are the 49ers’ top current golfers?
Kittle praised Juszczyk, McCaffrey, even Bosa, of whom he said: “Everything about him looks lackadaisical, and so that’s his golf swing. It’s always so smooth and easy.”
Of the newbies to the game, Kittle might be the most smitten.
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The six-time Pro Bowl tight end became so enchanted with golf that he hopped on a mower and converted part of his 75-acre Nashville property into a six-hole loop.
Kittle arrived in Tahoe this summer with one of the most unconventional putting stances in golf, with him hunched over and his back almost parallel to the green.
“I think he watched ‘Happy Gilmore,’” Juszczyk quipped, referencing comedian Adam Sandler’s classic golf movie. “No, he’s a great putter. He can smash the ball off the tee. George is good for one 40- to 50-foot putt per round. He’s the best scramble putter in the world because he’s got those wow! shots.”
Backup quarterback Tanner Mordecai, who spent 2024 on the practice squad as an undrafted rookie and was in camp this summer, might have been the 49ers’ best under-the-radar golfer.
“Mordecai is disgusting. It’s not even fair,” Kittle said. “I give him jabs, like: ‘Maybe you should focus more on quarterback, and you’d be better at that than golf.’ That’s terrible. No, you can quote me on that.”
Such is a golfer’s banter. Until the next round.
Jerry Rice plays his shot out of a bunker on the 15th hole prior to the American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course on July 10, 2025 in Stateline, Nevada. (Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
