JuliaKate E. Culpepper

Golfweek

It's no secret NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin is good at golf. But is he good enough to play with the pros?

Maybe. But not yet.

When asked if he'd like to play in a future PGA Tour event as former quarterback Tony Romo has done on sponsor exemptions , Hamlin said it's something he'd love to experience, but he wants to do it when he's truly able to compete at the level of Tour players.

Hamlin, who drives the No. 11 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing, said his handicap is 3.5.

"I'd definitely love to do that on one of those many tours, but I wouldn't do it until I got better," Hamlin said. "I still think I need to get three or four strokes better at least be at scratch should I go out there and embarrass myself."

Until then, he said, he'll settle for being "the best driver in NASCAR."

In his 14th year as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver, Hamlin is seeing a resurgence in 2019. He won the O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in March and the Daytona 500 in February, which snapped a 47-race winless streak. He finished 16th Saturday in the Digital Ally 400 at Kansas Speedway, one week after experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning at the end of the NASCAR race at Dover International Speedway.

However, no matter how stressful or busy racing season becomes, he still finds time to hit a golf course.

The most recent event he participated in was the Wells Fargo Championship Pro-Am on May 1. Hamlin and fellow NASCAR drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Larson were matched with PGA pro Harold Varner III.

The most memorable part for Hamlin was getting to know Varner who not only helped the group navigate the difficult greens of Quail Hollow but also cut loose with the racing crew.

"He definitely has got a lot of energy. He's really outgoing," Hamlin said of Varner. "He's probably the most outgoing pro I've played with in any kind of golf tournament. … He chats up everybody and has a good time. He cracks up with us. We kind of got a little game going between me and my friends and he's trash talking in between."

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Hamlin, Larson and Stenhouse are friends and avid golfers, but they were thankful for Varner's advice during the event. Varner helped lead the group of avid golfers to finish in second place with a score of 56 behind the group led by Webb Simpson.

"That place is pretty hard to prepare for because the greens are really fast," Hamlin said. "(Larson, Stenhouse and I) play golf probably once a week, I'd say last year I posted somewhere in the 85-90 rounds a year and those guys were pretty close. … We prepare by just playing a lot."

Hamlin said he schedules two or three Pro-Ams at Tour events every season. The specific Pro-Ams and events in which he will participate this year are still up in the air, but Hamlin said he was "certain" he'd have a few more on his schedule this summer.

Outside of Pro-Ams, Hamlin and fellow drivers will frequently schedule informal rounds on Saturdays after they're finished racing for the day. They find a local golf club, get a group together and compete away from the speed and adrenaline of the racetrack.

The friends play in a more organized format too. It's called "Golf Guys Tour."

The brainchild of Hamlin and Stenhouse, the "Tour" is in its fourth year. Comprised of 21 players, the field includes mostly NASCAR drivers like Stenhouse and Larson with a few club members at Hamlin's home course, The Peninsula Club in Cornelius, North Carolina, mixed in. The group averages one tournament per month from March through October. This month's "Golf Guys" tournament began Wednesday, Hamlin said.