Evel Knievel and Son Kelly Bonded Through Golf, Broken Bones and the Occasional Broken Club
It may seem like a stretch that golf would be a favorite pastime of the most prominent daredevil in world history, but for Evel Knievel, that was the case. And a byproduct of the game was the bond created between he and his son, Kelly.
For close to four decades, Kelly Knievel has been competing in Southern Nevada Golf Association amateur tournaments in the Las Vegas area and keeping the family name in the news via more than a few victories.
“I'm a competitive golfer and I love the competition, but I doubt I would play golf if there wasn’t competition,” says Knievel, a 1.2 handicap. “When you play golf, it's a game against yourself and it's a game against other people that you can measure objectively.”
Knievel still recalls the first time he and his dad played golf together. It was 1971 and Kelly was about 11 at the time. His father was preparing for two jumps in Great Barrington, Mass., when he jumped 10 and 16 cars, respectively, on his Harley Davidson XR-750. But it was the golf outing during the trip that created a lasting memory.
“We played nine holes when he was jumping there because they had a little 9-hole golf course behind that place we were staying and that was the first time I ever played golf,” Knievel said.
Prior to Evel’s death in 2007 and ever since that 9-holer in Great Barrington, the two played countless rounds together. Golf was a way to pass the time between jumps for Evel, but it was also a game of connection. According to Knievel Evel carried a handicap of “between 5 and 10, depending upon his injuries.”
“My dad was fun to play golf with and he liked the interaction with other people,” says Knievel, the 2019 Nevada State Senior Amateur champion and 1998 Las Vegas City Amateur Champion, among other amateur tournament victories.
“He was a gambler and he liked ribbing the people in the group. He wasn’t all serious and sour on the golf course. He was a fun-loving golfer and gambler. He had fun and he wanted to bet everybody. He also always wanted everybody to say their score at the end of the hole so he didn't have to ask it. To this day, I always do that. It's funny. I do a lot of things my dad used to do in my own game when I play.”
Much like he does for the epic jumps, Knievel has a golf bag full of stories about his father’s golf days, including one involving a friend.
“My dad has done so many funny things I can't even tell you how many,” Knievel says. “For instance, my dad and I were golfing with one of my high school friends and he liked to bet, but he didn't have any money. My dad said, ‘How about a dollar?’ because my dad would get whatever he could get out of you to bet. He was game to bet anything. And on about the fifth hole things were going well for my dad and he turned to me and he goes, ‘Son, I wish your friend had a million dollars.’ He used to say stuff like that all of the time.”
Off the course, Evel Knievel was known for his many devastating injuries earned by crashing during his dangerous stunts and jumps. In all, it was estimated that he broke 433 bones over the years, but one injury didn’t make big news.
“Another thing about playing with my dad is he broke so many clubs,” Knievel says. “He would smash them up against the golf cart all of the time. He would get mad and throw his clubs, so in Butte, Montana, where we're from, he went and got his golf cart armor-plated. Then the next time he threw a club at it, and I'm not kidding, the club broke in half and it spun around and stabbed him right in the shoulder like an arrow. He had to have stitches.”
Knievel says he still plays about 180 rounds a year and many of those are in local amateur tournaments, including four recent rounds during the Las Vegas City Amateur and Las Vegas City Senior Amateur.
“I saw a video with my dad one time and he said, ‘I've done a lot of things in my life. I've won some marbles. I've lost some marbles. I won some golf games and I lost some golf games," Knievel says. “That's the way I feel about it. I've lost some golf games and I've won some golf games.”
Away from the course, Knievel continues to manage his father’s iconic brand that features a licensing deal with Evel Pie, a downtown Las Vegas-favorite pizza restaurant, and he is also assisting on the move of the Evel Knievel Museum to Las Vegas, which is scheduled to happen by 2023.