Yao Ming is not particularly good at golf

Were it not for persistent and ultimately career-ending injuries, Yao Ming might have been one of the greatest basketball players of all time. But even the greatest eventually shuffle off to the golf course, where — to put it charitably — they don’t always look as graceful as they did on the hardwood.

This clip, from the Mission Hills Celebrity Pro-Am in Haikou, China, is a thing of beauty, if only because it shows that pro athletes can’t do everything better than us. Poor Yao needs two hacks to get the ball up on the green, but cut the 7-foot-6 guy a break; for the rest of us, that’d be like trying to chip a marble. Yao is apparently giving this golf thing a real go, which is fun because a normal-size golf bag looks like a child’s Christmas toy next to him.

Yes, it’s bad, but it could be oh so much worse … as another ex-NBA’er demonstrates:

Devil Ball Golf – Golf – Yahoo! Sports