WHISTLER, B.C. — Chris Spring and Justin Kripps take swing after swing at the soggy driving range.
As rain falls on the picturesque setting, one surrounded by breathtaking mountains mostly hidden by clouds on this day, some of the golf balls go straight and some don't.
Others don't even get in the air.
Then one of the Canadian bobsled pilots steps up and connects.
"Oh boom!" bellows Spring, pointing off in the distance and grinning ear to ear. "Did you see that? That is gone!"
A passerby might mistake the pair for a couple of friends getting in a few hacks before their next round, but this is actually serious work.
Under the direction of former Olympian and current national team coach Lyndon Rush, Spring and Kripps have taken up golf this summer as part of their training program, with a goal of sharpening focus and improving mental toughness.
"A huge part of being successful is how you handle pressure," said Rush, who piloted Canada to a bronze medal in four-man bobsled at the 2010 Games in Whistler. "You can become a very good driver, but then being able to transfer that and perform when it counts is a whole other ball game."
The idea to try and speed up the process with Spring and Kripps came to Rush while listening to an interview given by 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett.
"Danny was talking exactly about what I want to hear from my athletes. You focus on what you can control and you stay inside the game," said Rush. "The stuff that's outside are external forces that can't help you, so you just stay focused on your game."
In bobsled, medals are won and lost by hundredth of a second — a single slip is often the difference between a podium finish and coming home empty handed.
"A lot of bobsled is not laying down the perfect run," said the 32-year-old Spring, who raced for Australia before joining the Canadian team. "It's laying down a run that's good enough to win. To be absolutely perfect is near impossible. That's just like a golf game."
With the athletes in bobsled so close in terms of physical and technical ability, shaking off even the smallest mistake is huge.
"People get frustrated on golf courses and people get frustrated on bobsled tracks," said Kripps, a 29-year-old from Summerland, B.C. "Having that skill to battle through that frustration and bring things back under control is really important."
Kripps finished sixth overall in the four-man and seventh in the two-man World Cup standings this past season, while Spring was 13th in two-man and 20th in four-man.
Rush said there were specific instances where a lack of focus cost his drivers, and both agreed they need to be sharper next season as attention turns towards the 2018 Olympics.
"Believe it or not, even when we're doing 150 km/h, I could be coming down the track and be like: 'Is someone smoking?'" said Spring. "It's crazy ... then I'm thinking: 'Whoa, let's get back on task.'"
"There's definitely times when you're on the track where you're thinking: 'I screwed up that corner,'" added Kripps. "Then all of a sudden you're three corners further down and it's like: 'Shoot, now I screwed up all these other ones.'"
Rush conceded that he hasn't seen any scientific proof that golf strengthens the minds of athletes from other sports, but added that even if there's a placebo effect it will be worth it.
"People recognize that there's value in sports psychology," said Rush. "If you want to win, it's something you have to check off."
Spring and Kripps had dabbled in golf — both said they would consistently shoot around 100 — before linking up with Fairmont Chateau Whistler head golf pro Padraic O'Rourke.
The bobsledders are having their swings taken apart and put back together, and will be entering tournaments this summer on the Vancouver Golf Tour.
"At first I thought: 'What a unique idea,'" said O'Rouke, an Irishman in his fourth season at the club. "This could really help these guys achieve their goals in bobsled.
"I explained to them I don't have a thought in my swing when I play and they were amazed by that."
Spring and Kripps have both competed on the Olympic stage, but getting them outside their comfort zones is another part of the plan.
"I'm nervous going into my first tournament," said Spring. "There's going to be kids there that can whack the ball way farther than me and they probably see the size of me and think: 'This guy's going to crush it 300 yards.'
"I just hope to get a hold of it."
Although they're teammates racing for Canada, Spring and Kripps are also in direct competition at the track.
It's no secret the pair have had personal issues in the past as rivals, but those appear behind them, and the journey in golf seems to be further strengthening their bond in bobsled.
"We definitely enjoy laughing at each other when things aren't going right ... and even when they are," said Spring. "Honestly, I didn't think golf could be this fun."
