The long drive circuit is golf, technically speaking. But the things these long drivers do to the golf ball are so eye-catching, with swings that look so different, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s an entirely different sport. And if you ever needed more evidence of that, then check out the Trackman numbers of 2013 ReMax World Long Drive Championship Tim Burke during a 2016 driver practice session.
Burke mashed a 427-yard drive at one point during this practice session, but on this specific swing, only mustered a 409-yard pop.
Here’s his swing…
And his numbers for that 400-plus yard pop, courtesy of Trackman.com…
As you can see, there are all kinds of interesting things going on. A few notables:
-141.3 mph clubhead speed, which would place him first on the PGA Tour by quite some distance.
-211 mph ball speed, which, for reference, is about 20 mph higher than the current PGA Tour leader, Cam Champ.
-A maxed-out smash factor of 1.5. It’s a metric calculated that divides ball speed by clubhead speed that, basically, gives you an idea of how efficiently players are applying speed onto the ball.
-An attack angle of almost 8 degrees. The average PGA Tour, as you can read about here, hits about a degree down on the ball with their driver.
-A spin rate of 1850 rpm, which is pretty darn low. If he wasn’t swinging so fast, the ball would be struggling to stay in the air.
