Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Mark Scheifele and extra: A look at the NHL’s best golfers

With Capital One’s “The Match 2” offering some a lot wanted stay sports activities content material for followers round the world, the highlight might be on two newbie golfers from a really totally different sport — NFL legends Tom Brady and Peyton Manning — as they play together with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. 

Like soccer, hockey is one other sport that options its justifiable share of part-time golfers. Many NHL athletes take pleasure in hitting the hyperlinks in the offseason or at any time when they get a break day. Some are higher than others, however nearly all of them take pleasure in getting out on the course once they can. 

With “The Match 2” underway, this is a look at a few of the most notable golfers from the hockey world:

Alex Ovechkin

Ovechkin can be the first to confess golf isn’t his strongest sport, as evidenced by this footage from on the course.

However, the celebrity ahead turned the envy of anybody who has ever picked up a golf membership years in the past when he made a hole-in-one in his first-ever spherical. Just to place the insane odds of that in perspective, some estimates have predicted that a low-handicap participant who performs 25 rounds of golf every year for 40 years has a couple of 20 % likelihood of creating only one hole-in-one of their total lifetime. For a participant that appears barely able to hitting the ball, that is fairly darn spectacular.

Sidney Crosby

The Penguins star does not play as a lot as he used to, however he was nonetheless listed by Golf Digest as having a 12-handicap. The left-hander performed simply the different day with former teammate Phil Kessel, and additionally made it onto the course with Avalanche ahead Nathan MacKinnon final summer time.

Video incorporates NSFW language.

John Tavares

The Toronto Maple Leafs captain is listed as an 11-handicap by Golf Digest, down from his former mark of 19. Apparently, he bumped into NBA celebrity Stephen Curry at Sebonack Golf Club in Long Island a couple of years again. 

“I play golf mostly recreationally, but if I can go a little lower somehow, I’ll take it. I’m pretty competitive,” he instructed Newsday in 2013. “I played a lot early in the summer, which is when I’m usually not very good.”

Wayne Gretzky

He’s not a present NHLer, however “The Great One” is definitely a reasonably nice golfer, as evidenced by his quite a few appearances at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am over the years. He’s good pals with Mike Weir, arguably the most profitable males’s golfer in Canadian historical past, and he’s additionally the soon-to-be father-in-law of former world No. 1 Dustin Johnson by way of his daughter, Paulina. He even obtained his swing analyzed by famed commentator Peter Kostis on TV a number of years in the past. 

T.J. Oshie

Listed as a 6.1 handicap by Golf Digest, the Capitals winger went viral a few years in the past after draining a protracted putt at the American Century Championship whereas carrying a beer helmet. As in, a helmet strapped with two beer cans and a collection of tubes to permit for hands-free ingesting. The NHL veteran was really residing his best life

Nathan MacKinnon

The Avalanche star joined up with a number of different fellow execs at the Compuware Golf Outing a couple of years again.

Even although he claimed he is “not very good,” Golf Digest listed him as a four-handicap earlier this yr. Perhaps he is been bitten by the golf bug lately?

Blake Wheeler/Mark Scheifele

Wheeler, the Winnipeg Jets captain, is supposedly certainly one of the best golfers in the NHL and was supplied a sponsor’s exemption to a PGA Tour Canada occasion in 2018. However, he finally could not attend and was changed by his teammate Mark Scheifele. Scheifele did not fare too effectively in his place, sadly, placing up a first-round rating of 15-over-par 87. He additionally obtained caught on video hitting a stone-cold shank at his charity golf event in 2016.

Anthony Mantha

According to Golf Digest, Mantha is the best golfer in the NHL with a shocking +three.2 handicap. For non-golfers, that signifies that his common rating is best than three strokes below par. Maybe if the complete hockey factor does not work out, Mantha may have a future profession teeing it up with the execs. On the different hand, he did put up 38 factors (16 objectives, 22 assists) for the Red Wings this season, so possibly he ought to persist with his weapons.