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When all is said and done, there’s a good chance that we’re talking about New York Knicks big man Karl Anthony-Towns as a Basketball Hall of Famer. Towns, 30, is already a six-time NBA All-Star and could well help one of the league’s most prestigious franchises end a historic championship drought.
So it’s no surprise to learn that Towns is an elite athlete. But as it turns out, he’s not only a great basketball player, but he’s also a high-level golfer.
Towns previously sat down with Alex Myers of Golf Digest to discuss his love of the game, and in the article, he made a pretty dubious claim about how far he hits the ball.
Karl-Anthony Towns Says He Can Hit A Golf Ball 400 Yards
According to Towns, who also noted that he has never taken a lesson in his life, he’s capable of driving the ball 400-plus yards off the tee.
“I told (Timberwolves TV analyst Jim Petersen) I could hit 400-yard drives, and I don’t think he believed it,” he told Myers. “On the 18th hole, I decided to go for the green with driver. I think it was 390 away, and I hit it over the green.”
For comparison’s sake, Aldrich Potgieter currently leads the PGA Tour in average driving distance at 328.4 yards. Meanwhile, four-time World Long Drive champion Kyle Berkshire’s longest drive in the competition is 422 yards in 2021. The longest drive in the history of the event is 435 yards.
Now, Towns undeniably has a pretty good-looking swing. Especially for someone who claims to have never taken a formal lesson before. And given the fact that he stands at 7-feet tall and 250 pounds, he naturally generates a good amount of clubhead speed, based on physics alone.
But the odds of him hitting the ball 400 yards are just highly unlikely. The amount of torque he would need to put into that swing would be immense, and unless you’re trained to do so, it’s a back injury waiting to happen.
Add to that the fact that Towns’ natural swing is fade/cut, which already goes shorter than a draw, and the 400-yard drive claim becomes extremely dubious.
Who knows, maybe he’s telling the truth. But if he is, Knicks’ president Leon Rose might want to call him into to his office and tell him dials things back a bit.