Michael Phelps Shows Off His Passion For Poker & Golf

With the 2012 London Olympic Games over, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte are racing for their next life endeavors. Phelps is already back to his one great passion, poker, along with his next one that is sure to bring him to the 2016 Rio Olympics, golf. Check out his prowess for both his passions below.

Ryan Lochte has already checked himself into 90210 for October with the 2012 London Olympic Games over, and Michael Phelps has jumped headlong into his big endeavor, golf with world famous champ Hank Haney. He’s going from earning 22 Olympic medals to the golf greens, and he’s pretty excited for this next challenge. He jokingly says that he’s retired, but someone of Phelps character doesn’t stay retired for long.

“I have traveled the world through swimming, but really haven’t had an opportunity to experience the world through my travels,” Plelps said. “As I enter this next chapter of my life, I think I will be able to shift my competitiveness to anything I put my mind to and golf is one of the things I want to focus on. If I have a goal of dropping a certain amount of shots, or working on my short game or putting, those things are going to keep me motivated and fire me up and keep me excited. I want to play all the world’s great golf courses, but I’d like to play them well. I’m excited about this project with Golf Channel and I’m looking forward to working with Hank and see what we can do together on the golf course.”

Michael Phelps has signed on to be a student on “The Haney Project,” a Golf Channel original show that features instructor Hank Haney working with a variety of celebrities from different walks of life (Charles Barkley, Ray Romano and Rush Limbaugh have all been under the tutelage of Haney over the course of his show). Phelps might have some familiar company in the golf course. Ed Moses, who recently completed a return to competitive swimming with top-25 finishes in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes at the Olympic Trials, has said he plans to pursue a place on the PGA tour. Moses, a 2000 Olympic medalist, had been working toward that goal for a few years before making his brief return to the pool. The videos below show Phelps showing off his putting skills and then one with Hank Haney travelling to China to work with him. You can see that the phenom swimmer is already planning out his next few years perfecting the world of golf as he did with swimming.

Now with Phelps love of poker, rumors are heating up that he’s also planning on becoming a poker pro, although as many say, he’s quite the pro with an attitude of don’t leave the table until you win. The other rumors naturally have to hit that he’s got a gambling problem, but many times when a celebrity plays a lot of poker, someone’s bound to spread that gossip. The Daily Mail reported today that ‘close friends’ of Phelps are worried that he could squander away his $45 million worth on the tables, but he’s young and no matter what he does, the gossips will try to make something out of it to sell papers. The video below is an interview Phelps did recently talking about his love of poker…make of it whatever you want.