Pitch Perfect

Astros ace Justin Verlander on his favourite off-season sport

- KEELY LEVINS

JUSTIN VERLANDER can handle more pressure than most. The Houston Astros ace has won two Cy Young awards, a World Series, pitched three no-hitters and surpassed the 3,000-strikeout mark. “If I’m in front of 100,000 people, put a baseball in my hand and I’m comfortable,” he says.

Yet put him on a golf course and he feels butterflies. “With golf, if there are five people and a ball on the ground, I’m like, Oh, God,” he says with a laugh.