The talk amongst the competition this week is that Steph Curry is the name to watch at the American Century Championship at South Lake Tahoe, Nevada at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course this weekend. The reason being that Curry has had more time to work on his golf game leading up to the 54-hole tournament that starts Friday because his Golden State Warriors had an early end to their season, getting knocked out in the Western Conference Semifinals this spring.

“I’m very confident in my game,” Curry said during a press conference here on Thursday. “Unfortunately, the extra time I have to knock off the cobwebs with the playoffs ending a little sooner than I wanted to, the golf game will benefit from it I hope.”

Curry, a two-time fourth-place finisher in this ultra competitive tournament, noted that some of the Warriors’ most successful seasons have come after he had a great finish in Tahoe. He’s hoping, of course, that’s the case for the 2023-24 season.

Curry has also paid attention to the movement of the top teams in the Western Conference this summer and is hopeful that the Warriors will be a major factor next season after making some moves headlined by the Jordan Poole and Chris Paul trade.

“The competition is always high and there always a few surprise teams every year, but we kind of know the who the top echelon of the West is and that starts with Denver since it won it all this year,” Curry said. “Every team this offseason adjusted, trying to get better … We tried to make the pieces fit a little better to get more versatility on both sides of the floor. Our core is back and we added CP and some other veterans wh will help our rotation and increase our depth. Both (Johnathan Kuminga) and Moses Moody both have huge opportunities to take another step in their careers … Our team makes a lot more sense this year. It’s just a matter of making it work. There will be a lot of good teams and I want us to be one of them.”

Curry, who bragged that he beat Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes by one yard in the longest drive contest Thursday, said that his goal is to win the Tahoe tournament while he’s an active NBA player. Only one active athlete has won the tournament when hockey legend Mario Lemieux took first in 1998. Curry, who started playing golf at the age of 10, said there are some comparisons to playing in the NBA and his golf game. “It’s the next shot mentality,” he said. “There’s less time to dwell on a bad shot in basketball, though.”

You can watch the event, which features fellow tons of athletes and celebrities, including Curry’s father Dell, his brother Seth, his teammate Andre Iguodala, and former notable Bay Area football players Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Charles Woodson, Alex Smith, and David Carr, on the Golf Channel on Friday, and on Peacock on Saturday and Sunday.