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Kyle Berkshire smashes ball speed world record

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Tiger Woods recently called Bryson DeChambeau’s search for length as ‘something historic’. On the 15th December, Bryson himself then tweeted about recording a personal best of just over 221mph for ball speed at a recent Cobra testing session.

However, two-time World Long Drive champion Kyle Berkshire has upped the ante.

At the same media launch and with less fanfare, Berkshire surpassed the PGA tour’s longest driver by almost 10mph but has now gone a touch further, adding another 2mph and recording 233.4mph. Check out the moment at 5:20 in the video below.

 

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Appearing on the long.drivers page on Instagram, the 25-year-old stood in front of a whiteboard, the posting entitled ‘The King of Ball Speed’ and with the simple comment ‘Berkshire breaks the record for the fastest golf ball hit in the history of life’.

An alum of the University of North Texas, in 2017 Berkshire moved from standard golf to concentrating on the World Long Drive Tour, being rewarded with back-to-back world crowns within four years. Those particular events take place on what is a long ‘landing’ strip and shouldn’t be compared to a PGA golf hole, but it remains that he recorded a drive of 422 yards to win this year’s world crown and a personal best of 492 yards in competition, some 168-odd in front of Bryson’s PGA average in 2021, a player he beat into seventh place in Nevada.

These figures are something to behold, but they are almost certainly not the end of it all.

Right or wrong, players seem to get bigger, stronger and more determined to find even more length. DeChambeau commented that he ‘wants to inspire’ and he may well do so, but when new measurements such as ‘smash factor’ come calling, it will be interesting how those same university coaches treat the progress of the game and will surely closely monitor his tournament results.

Certainly, now and for a while, Kyle Berkshire can claim to be the longest driver and in possession of the fastest ball speed in the world, inspiring in his own way.

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3-time PGA Tour winner calls for LIV to buy Champions Tour to fix ‘joke’ purses

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While speaking on the Subpar podcast, former PGA Tour winner and current PGA Tour Champions player Chris DiMarco said he hopes LIV buys the Champions Tour.

“We’re kind of hoping that LIV buys the Champions Tour,” he said.

“Let’s play for a little real money out here. I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2 million. There were like seven guys last week from TPC (Sawgrass, at the $25 million PLAYERS Championship) that made more money than our purses.”

In 2024, the Champions Tour had a total of $67 million in prize money over the course of 24 events.

DiMarco also defended LIV players for taking the money and said he would take it also.

“They wanted to play for a lot of money, and they deserve it. They have had some great careers, why not go and get some money?”

DiMarco also offered insight on Graeme McDowell’s move to LIV.

“I saw Graeme McDowell at the Old Memorial Pro Member, and he goes, ‘Listen, I went up to Jay Monahan and said I love the tour but I am struggling to keep my card and these guys are offering me all this money and less golf. I’m sorry, I’m going.’ And I do not blame him one bit, and I said I would have too.”

DiMarco was ranked as high as 6th in the world in 2006.

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‘It won’t win you golf tournaments’ – Golf analyst rips Charley Hull’s course management

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Charley Hull came just short of her third LPGA Tour victory over the weekend at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship when she played her last two holes at 3 over to slip all the way to 10th on the leaderboard.

After the round, Hull was blasted by Sky Sports commentator and former LPGA Tour player Trish Johnson for her lack of golf course management.

While speaking on the Sky Sports Golf podcast, Johnson spoke harshly of Hull.

“I’m probably her harshest critic, because I know how good she is. She doesn’t win anywhere near enough for her talent, and she doesn’t get involved enough, in all honestly.

“The thing with Charley is that you’re never going to change her. I read something the other day that said how much she loves the game and it’s her love of the game [that costs her]. She’s never going to change and she’s just going to go for every pin.

“In theory that’s great, but it won’t win you golf tournaments, it just won’t because she’s not that much better than anybody else. If you put Charley against Nelly Korda, then I’m picking Nelly every single day of the week.”

Johnson also made a fascinating comparison between Hull and a famous male golfer, John Daly.

“Golf-wise that’s the way she plays the game and it’s a little bit like watching John Daly I suppose.”

“There’s something that John Daly had that made him a major winner and a winner, but Charley is kind of lacking that. Her talent is not in question, but maybe her application is. Maybe it’s just the case of her never changing and that will cost her golf tournaments, there’s no two ways about it. You cannot go for every pin because that’s the way you play and it being fun, as other players are better than that and you have to have course management.”

Hull is still only 27, and therefore has plenty of time to work on her flaws to achieve the success her talent should allow.

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Former agent lifts lid on being fired by ‘zombie’ Tiger Woods

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Discussing his new book “Rainmaker” with the Daily Mail, Tiger Woods’ former agent, Hughes Norton, recounted the events leading up to and after his split with the 15-time major champion.

Norton was abruptly fired by Woods in 1998 after his 1997 Masters win and monster deal with Nike.

In the book, Norton talks about the way Tiger views his relationships, calling him a “zombie.”

The solace I can take, which doesn’t provide much, is this: He was an equal opportunity zombie with relationships, his swing coaches, his lawyer, the guy negotiated the IMG representation deal, with caddies, When it’s over, it’s over.”

Norton added:

“It is the way he terminates relationships with everyone. Whether it’s girlfriends, whether it’s his former golf coaches. It’s ironic, really. In a way he’s so good at confrontation on the golf course. If he’s playing you, he will beat your brains out every single time.

“But when it comes to confronting things like me and other people that are in his life, he has no social skills whatsoever. It’s maddening, actually.”

After he was fired by Woods, Norton was let go by IMG, which he believes was due to Woods’ influence.

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