World long drive champ Kyle Berkshire has the need for speed
World long drive champ Kyle Berkshire has the need for speed
When you swing a golf club as hard as Kyle Berkshire does you're bound to break some records. Berkshire routinely tops club head speeds of 150 mph (241 km/h). The vast majority of PGA tour golfers sit between 110 (177 km/h) and 125 mph (201 km/h).
On Tuesday night at Mickelson National, Berkshire attempted to beat his own world record for outdoor ball speed.
It took a little time for Berkshire to get his speed up but when he did, he had himself a new world record. It's something he's very proud of.
"The outdoor ball speed record was 231.3 mph (372.2 km/h)," the two-time world long drive champ said.
"I knew it was a very gettable number in the right conditions. The conditions weren't ideal today (Tuesday) but with the energy from the crowd and everybody we were able to get it to 232.6 mph (374.3 km/h) to break the record by 1.3 mph (2.09 km/h) which is pretty nice and it worked out really good. The crowd was really energetic."
BROKEN RECORD
Berkshire, who also owns the world indoor ball speed record at 234.4 mpg (377.2) got to double up his fun at Mickelson National. He broke the record twice. Berkshire said he wasn't surprised because he his club head speed was high and he was hitting the ball square on the club face.
"You know this is my passion," the 25–year-old said.
"This is what I live for. Pushing the limits and showing people what is possible through the sport of long drive. Showing how exciting it can be and it was great to be able to break another limit today so it was a lot of fun."
RIGHT DECISION
Berkshire played college golf at the University of North Texas. He was always able to hit the ball far and a lot of people encouraged him to try long drive.
Berkshire said he didn't really want to do it but finally gave in and it ended up being the best decision he could've made.
"I just went to a long drive championship qualifier just to shut everybody up because I would get destroyed and I went there and I won. My coach kind of gave me a red shirt semester so I could keep my eligibility and compete in long drive the rest of the summer.
"(It was) kind of a way to reset and re-engage the next year so I would play better golf. So I did that and then went to the world championships after a really good season on the tour and finished third and realized how much money I would've won and kind of said you know coach I think I'm going to go this route and he was fully supportive and to this day we're great friends."
WORDS OF ADVICE
Berkshire said to get into long drive you have to have a club head speed of 140 mph (225 km/h) and ball speed of 210 mph (337.9 km/h). You have to be very strong and very quick.
Berkshire's advice if you want to try it out is go to the range, hit a boat load of balls as hard as you can and keep trying to push your numbers up.
"Just see where your numbers are at with trackman, a flight scope ore a launch monitor. Have fun smashing balls three times a week, (hit) 50 to 60 balls at a time and when you feel ready go to a qualifier and see where you stand.
"You don't need to spend $6-7,000 on a set of clubs," he said. "You can spend $4-500 on a driver and $40 on an entry fee and see where you stack up."
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