If Elton John played golf: rated 76, best at course IQ

Elton John as a golfer: scouting report

Elton John would be the most colorful golfer in the field, but the flair would hide a very clever player. Course IQ is the top mark on his card, and he has proved his sporting brain for real. As chairman of Watford Football Club, he backed the club's climb from the Fourth Division to the First Division and an FA Cup final in 1984, so he understands that a long campaign is won with planning as much as talent.

His nerve is right behind his course IQ. He has played to enormous stadium crowds for more than half a century, from his breakthrough in the early 1970s through the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, and a man who can command an arena with a piano will not freeze over a putt. Putting is the best of his shotmaking skills, and it fits a pianist who won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music as a boy. Soft hands and a steady rhythm are exactly what a great putting stroke needs. His short game is solid too.

Iron play is the soft spot on his card, with his driving only a shade better. He can struggle to control his distances into the green, so firm targets and long approach shots test him. His toughest week is The Long Course Championship, where long irons and raw length come up hole after hole. The Links Open suits him best, because creative play, a great putter and nerve in the wind let him make up for loose approaches. He has written songs with Bernie Taupin since 1967 and completed his Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony collection in 2024, so he knows how to finish. Draft him for his putter and pair him with a precise iron player.

Plays like A showman with a soft putting stroke and a sharp golf brain

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