Justin Timberlake: `Golf gives me a mental release`

The 30-year-old singer and actor was first taught to play by his stepfather, Paul Harless, and said that his skills came in handy when he needed to find a way to escape the tediousness of being on the road.

Talking to the New York Times, he explained, 'About eight years ago, I was on tour, and you get cabin fever because you're always indoors. Every day becomes the same, like the movie Groundhog Day. So one day my stage manager said, 'We're going to play golf, want to come?'

'And it might sound silly, but I went out there and had a couple of beers, and all I was thinking about is getting a little ball into a little hole. It was just the best mental release from performing on stage. It took my mind somewhere else. I haven't stopped chasing that little ball since.'

But the Social Network star said that he gets less time to play now that his film career has taken off.

'I don't have those Jack Nicholson, Samuel L. Jackson type of movie contracts where it's written in that I get to play golf during the shooting,' he said. 'I don't have that kind of leeway yet. But I get out there. I don't let golf get too far away.'