Golf & Football: The NFL's Top Gridiron Golfers

Alex Myers — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 05:00:00 GMT

We are at that point in the calendar when the remaining NFL teams are desperately hoping to extend their season a couple of weeks and into the Super Bowl. But that's not to say life is so bad in the off-season, especially when there is golf involved. Here we look at how some of football's best measure up when trading their cleats for soft spikes.

Is it possible Tim Tebow has a 141-mph swing speed?

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:36:00 GMT

I suggested this morning that Tim Tebow might be lying. Or at least misinformed. Or confused.

Now before Gator Nation starts burning me in effigy, or maybe literally setting me on fire, let me explain. A report this morning on a USA Today blog suggested that Tebow's golf swing "has been clocked at 141 mph." The story focused on an arresting photograph of Tebow mid-downswing, biceps flexing, triceps flaring and driver shaft bowing as if it were being wielded by Thor, God of Thunder.

(Related: A frame-by-frame look at the swing of long drive teen phenom Dominic Mazza)

Certainly, anything is possible with exceptional athletes, and golf, despite the emergence of more athleticism in recent years is not so physically demanding an activity that a finely tuned physical specimen such as the 6-foot-3, 245-pound Tebow might not experience some level of excellence that goes beyond what we see from mere mortals. But I decided to poll my own little equipment universe, including many fitters in our list of America's 100 Best Clubfitters.

First, some perspective. A swing speed of 141 mph would be more than 28 miles per hour faster than the current PGA Tour swing speed average (112.64), as measured by the TrackMan launch monitor at PGA Tour events. It would be 16 mph faster than the leader in swing speed average, J.B. Holmes (125.12). It would be 14 mph faster than the fastest speed recorded by Bubba Watson this year (127.02). It also would be the equivalent of the average swing speed recorded by the eight finalists in the 2009 RE/MAX World Long Drive Championships (141), but two miles per hour slower than the speed of the finalists recorded at the 2010 RE/MAX WLDC (143).

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Golf & Football: The NFL's Top Gridiron Golfers

Is it possible Tim Tebow has a 141-mph swing speed?