"It's always a challenge": Legendary coach Nick Saban has candid response to his golf skills at WM Phonix Open Pro-Am

Former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban knows he isn't the best golfer out there. Saban recently participated in the Celebrity Pro-Am at the Waste Management Open on Wednesday. After his retirement, Saban has been golfing quite a bit, and he reckons his game is coming along rather well.

"I think good, I think good. I mean, it's always a challenge, but you just got to keep on overcoming all the adversity, you have in any sport. But, I think that's a great lesson for us all to learn by playing sports."

Although Saban retired as the head coach of Alabama, he will still be involved with the game in some capacity, but it is evident that he is excited about using his time to hone his golf prowess.

“It’s great to meet a new sort of group of people and be associated with events like this, where you have a lot of fun. You know, I love coaching. I love trying to help create value for players. But you know, it was inevitable at some point in time that I was gonna have to do something else,” Saban said, via GolfWeek.

Saban added:

“And now hopefully, I can help the game and college football even more in retirement than before and do a lot of other things to start the next chapter of your life. I don’t want to really quit work, I just didn’t want to work all the time."

It was recently announced that the head coach would work as an analyst on the set of the network’s College GameDay program, and will also be part of ESPN’s NFL Draft and SEC Media Days coverage.

Nick Saban's coaching career

Nick Saban decided to retire as the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide after 17 seasons with the program, during which he won six national championships. Saban also won a national championship with LSU.

The 72-year-old is considered to be the greatest college football coach of all time. He made the decision to retire after leading Alabama to the college football playoffs in 2023, citing health and age-related concerns.

"Last season was difficult for me from just a health standpoint, not necessarily having anything major wrong, but just being able to sustain and do things the way I want to do them, the way I've always done them," Saban said to ESPN. "It just got a little bit harder. So you have to decide, 'OK, this is sort of inevitable when you get to my age.'"

Saban finished his college coaching career with a 292-71-1 record. He can be very proud of his accomplishments and rightly deserves to spend his days enjoying a bit of golf.