Hockey on the Golf Course

Yep - pretty odd place to find hockey, but that's where you can find alot of hockey players during the off-season. It was just as odd to hear my husband tell me that Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby among others were in this month's issue of his Golf Digest, but there they were!

The article, called "These Guys are Good," ranked the Top 150 Athlete Golfers and here are just a few of the results (in reference to hockey players although there were other athletes on the list like NFL greats as well):

#11 - Marc Savard (Boston Bruins) - 0.6 index

#12 - Jamie Langenbrunner (NJ Devils) tied with one other athlete with 0.8 index

#16 - Mario Lemieux (big surprise!) - 1.1 index

MARIO SAYS
I have just two simple thoughts with my driver: Get my left shoulder behind the ball going back, and release the club through the ball.

#17 - Mike Modano (Dallas Stars) tied with one other athlete with a 1.3 index
#44 - Brenden Morrow (Dallas Stars) an index of 3.5
#50 - Daniel Alfredsson (Ottawa Senators) tied with five other athletes with an index of 4
#105 - Wayne Gretzky - has a 10.6 index
#125 - Sidney Crosby (who tied with 6 other athletes) - and has a 15 index which the article says makes him more proficient with a hockey stick than a golf club

For those of you, like me, who really aren't into golf - they're referring to a "handicap index" ("index" or "handicap") which represents the golfer's potential scoring ability / playing potential. It's "based on the best scores posted over a given number of rounds, ideally the best 10 scores of your last 20 rounds. However, you only need 5 scores to establish a handicap index. It allows golfers of all skill levels to play on "equal terms," so the higher the index, the less skilled the golfer.