The Loop
World Long Drive champ Kyle Berkshire's "stock" yardages are pure insanity
Last February (also known as three years ago), Rory McIlroy gave us a glimpse at his "stock" yardages for the week in Mexico City, where he was competing in the WGC-Mexico Championship. The numbers were absolutely mind-blowing. 169-yard pitching wedge, 235-yard 6-iron, 300-yard rescue. And these were all "carry" distances, by the way.
Of course, the numbers were aided by the fact that the Northern Irishman was playing at Club de Golf Chapultepec, which is about 7,600 feet above sea level, translating to a 15 percent difference. That's not to say McIlroy doesn't hit it extremely far anyway, but that week the air helped him hit it extremely, ridiculously far.
Incredibly, McIlroy's stock numbers in Mexico are almost identical to World Long Drive champ Kyle Berkshire's stock numbers. The difference being: these are Berkshire's regular stock numbers without any altitude help. Here's a look courtesy of GOLFTV:
Pure insanity. What's particularly crazy about these, is that Berkshire is likely leaving a lot of yards off the table with these answers. These are more than likely his 80-85 percent swing stock numbers. Remember, this is a guy who once hit a ball 492 yards in competition, and recently reached the fringe at the 667-yard par-5 16th at Firestone Country Club in two shots with relative ease. In September, he also posted a video of him driving a 444-yard par 4 with a ... 7 iron? OK, so the wind helped a lot and so did the elevation at the course he pulled off the incredible feat at in Wyoming, but it's still stupid far.