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Golf strokes are something Eagles receivers can't drop, Wentz discovers

The golf outing seemed like just the thing to Carson Wentz, looking to bond with his Eagles receivers in North Dakota. Except, some of them hadn't been on a course before. Hilarity ensued.

Eagles wide receiver Marcus Johnson admittedly had a hard time on the golf course.
Eagles wide receiver Marcus Johnson admittedly had a hard time on the golf course.Read moreDAVID SWANSON

When Carson Wentz hosted a group of his receivers in Fargo, N.D., earlier this month, the Eagles quarterback wanted to make sure everyone had a good time, so he arranged plenty of leisure activities when each day's football work was finished.

Most of the extracurriculars went pretty well. Except for the golf outing. Here, Wentz might have misread his audience.

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"Kind of a disaster … I've never seen so many swings and misses," Wentz acknowledged in his first news conference since quarterbacks, rookies, and select vets reported to training camp  Sunday. "It took eight guys about 4 ½ hours to play a best-ball scramble. But we had some fun, and it was really fun to get that bonding time in, on the field and off the field."

Turned out, several of Wentz's receivers had never actually played golf.

"That was my first time on the course," said Marcus Johnson, identified by a fellow receiver as the Eagle who had the most trouble connecting with the ball.  "We have Topgolf [a chain of somewhat high-tech driving ranges] back home [in Texas], and I struggle with that. … They were telling me I swing and it's like a batter's form, so it veers off to the right every time. It was fun being with the guys, but I struggled. They gave me a hard time about it."

Johnson said that hole after hole, he found he was not improving. Eventually he made a decision to give the rest of his group a break.

"I'm swinging at the ball, I'm like, 'You know what? If I hit it and miss it, doesn't matter. I'm going to swing at it one time, and whatever happens, y'all go, go ahead.'

"Wentz was good. [Fourth-round rookie] Mack Hollins was pretty good. I didn't realize Torrey [Smith] could hit the ball real well. Everybody else was kind of in-between. And then there was me, shanking every hit."

Johnson, who spent time on the Eagles' practice squad last season as an undrafted rookie, said he is not ready to write off golf as a potential hobby.

"I definitely want to learn, because anything I'm not good at and I know I can get better with, I'm going to do it, so I don't have people giving me a hard time about it," he said.

Fifth-round rookie wideout Shelton Gibson said, "It was really fun," although "I  [stink] at golf. … Just the laughs and everything. I know we aren't supposed to talk about people, but Marcus really [stunk] at golf."

Like Johnson, Gibson had been to TopGolf, but this was his first time on a real course. "Carson didn't miss anything, but I swung and missed about a million times," Gibson said.

Gibson said that since being introduced to the game, he pays more attention when golf comes on TV: "Trying to see how people are swinging."

Asked if he had any ideas about turning the tables  —  taking Wentz into an environment where Gibson was comfortable but the quarterback might struggle  —  Gibson settled on fishing.

"I've fished a lot," Gibson said. "Torrey thinks he's better than me, but he's not better than me."

Gibson, who grew up in the Cleveland area, said he mainly goes after catfish. "I like going into fights with fish. … Just the fight with [catfish] is so much fun."