"Golf has helped me": When a 2025 Cooperstown inductee revealed the role golf played in his addiction recovery

Former Major League Baseball (MLB) star CC Sabathia opened up about his relationship with the game of golf. Having faced issues with alcohol addiction at a vital point in his career, he now celebrates six years sober and credits golf for helping him achieve this goal.

In his recent memoir covered by Golf Digest, Sabathia opened up about his struggles with anxiety, depression, and alcohol dependence in 2015. After he decided to get sober, the former Yankees pitcher found himself with a lot of free time and decided to take up golf as a hobby.

Here's what the 2025 Cooperstown Hall of Fame inductee had to say six years into his recovery (via Golf Digest):

"It’s important for me being a black man to share it just because we don’t talk about those things in our community. Whether it’s alcohol dependency or anxiety or depression, we’re always taught to be tough and to not show our emotions and deal with these things internally. Those things can break you. They almost broke me in 2015. For sure, golf has helped me. Being able to detach from my phone, hang out with some buddies, and enjoy being where my feet are. That’s one thing I always try to tell myself. Just be where your feet are.”

He played golf for the first time with his Cleveland teammate, David Riske. Having never swung a golf club before, Sabathia broke Riske's driver with his very first swing. Since then, the retired MLB has been an avid golfer who enjoys playing rounds with his friends.

Sabathia has also been regularly taking golf lessons to improve his skills with John Mascari. The 41-year-old now is a regular at the serene Alpine Country Club in New Jersey and bears a handicap of 17.5.

Building on his love for the sport, CC Sabathia is also an investor in the New York Golf Club in Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's newly founded TGL league. He is joined by his fellow athletes and celebrities like Eli Manning, Derek Jeter, Michael Strahan, John McEnroe, and Jimmy Fallon as investors in the team.

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CC Sabathia hosts annual golf tournament to benefit the community

CC Sabathia poses with Jenna Karlitz at the Celebrity Chefs and Friends golf tournament benefiting City Harvest at Alpine Country Club in Demarest on October 25, 2021 - Source: Imagn

With golf playing such a vital role in CC Sabathia's recovery from addiction, he decided to share the benefits of the sport with his native New Jersey community. The MLB star hosts annual tournaments at the Alpine Country Club along with the help of title sponsors.

Sabathia hosted the 4th edition of the tournament last year to benefit his PitCCh In Foundation. His former Yankees teammates, along with current players, come to the tournament to show their support. Yankees rival, the New York Giants, also showed up at the 2024 edition of the event.

The PitCCh Foundation was created by Sabathia and his wife Amber in 2008 with the aim of providing youth communities in Cleveland, New York, and California resources to excel in sports and school.