How South Carolina football's Kai Kroeger used summer golf to develop punting technique

COLUMBIA — Nearly every day after he completed his workouts with South Carolina football this summer, punter Kai Kroeger headed to the golf course.

The senior sometimes went to the driving range alone, but more often he was accompanied by other Gamecocks specialists. Backup kicker Alex Herrera is the group's ringer according to Kroeger, though he said he's starting to close the gap.

"I try to switch off golf and going to the range ... I love doing that and it kind of takes me away from football and all the outside noise," Kroeger said. "The specialists try to play (together) every week, every other day. I practice every day like football, so hopefully I'll keep getting better."

Kroeger's daily golf sessions aren't just for pure enjoyment; they also help him refine certain punting skills. Kroeger was named a preseason All-American by the Associated Press after averaging 46.1 yards per punt with nearly half of his attempts landing inside the 20-yard line last season.

"For me golf is identical to punting, and vice versa. When I'm trying to hit a short punt, it's like trying to chip a wedge and have it spin to three feet. I use techniques like that to make it more laid back (while punting) and just think like, you're just swinging a wedge," Kroeger said. "It's more mental, but with golf if your club faces a degree open you can slice it, and with punting if your drop is an inch inside you'll hit like a 20-yard punt, so in that sense it also relates."

Special teams coordinator Pete Lembo loves that his unit has a shared hobby outside of football, and he said he has seen the specialists develop an even closer bond this summer. He also backs up Kroeger's assessment that time on the course can translate positively on special teams.

"The level of detail and sophistication that goes into being a successful specialist is very much reflected in golf," Lembo said. "Everybody who has ever golfed appreciates how much goes into it, and how just being off by a centimeter in one aspect can make all the difference in the world. Much the same is true with what these guys do every day, so for them to go out and focus and be consistent in the muscle memory to be good golfers, I think there's a lot of correlation."

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Other South Carolina teammates have gotten involved in the friendly competition, too. Quarterback Spencer Rattler teamed up with fellow QB Tanner Bailey and sophomore linebacker Stone Blanton to beat Kroeger, kicker Mitch Jeter and long snapper Hunter Rodgers in a scramble. Blanton and Kroeger also traveled to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, together in July to play TPC Sawgrass, which hosts the PGA Tour Players Championship annually.

"We beat them at Cobblestone (Park Golf Club), so we were pretty saucy about that," Rattler joked. "We also played Aiken Golf Club in this tournament, but it wasn't really head to head. The one time we played a scramble we beat them so — but Kai's a great golfer, though. He's a better golfer than me for sure."

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: How golf has made South Carolina football's Kai Kroeger a better punter