The NHL season also allows for plenty of the game’s best to fully enjoy their summers, so it makes complete sense that hockey stars would gravitate towards the low-impact nature of golf. But while they have the physical attributes to smash a golf ball, Batherson says it’s a little simpler than that.
“Maybe it’s the hand-eye part of it – it’s similar right? You’ve got the stick and the puck and the club and ball,” he explains. “It’s something fun to do in the summer that isn’t too taxing on the body too. Depends on how hard you’re swinging I guess, but it’s also fun to get out of the house and do something with your buddies.”
The resemblance between Batherson’s slap shot and golf swing is what Tommy Asuma, the co-founder of SMART Golf & Fitness in Chicago, is one of several major factors in NHLers being such good players.
“From a biomechanical standpoint, a lot of the things done in hockey are very similar to the motions that you want in golf,” Asuma says. “Taking a slap shot, or even a wrist shot, creates the same type of velocity for golf and it’s all about sequencing. We want to keep the hands ahead, and we want everything to get generated from the ground up.”
