JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It doesn't take long for professional football players to take something and turn it into a contest in the locker room.

Take, for example, a couple of golf balls, a putter, and a putting cup. They were an early Christmas gift from Drew Straitt, an intern on the Jacksonville Jaguars' equipment staff, to the offensive line.

What started as a small contest between the offensive linemen to make progressively longer putts morphed into a longest putt contest that has nearly spanned the entire length of the Jaguars' locker room.

The leader, as of 3 p.m. ET Monday, was left tackle Luke Joeckel, who made a putt that paced off at approximately 78 feet -- in other words, it stretched from the offensive linemen's lockers past the running backs' lockers and into the wide receivers' area.

Every putt has been marked on the floor in masking tape with the players' name and date. Joeckel sank his on Christmas Day at 4:30 p.m. ET.

"It's a pretty lucky putt, but I'll take it as skill," Joeckel said.

The Jaguars' 2013 first-round pick does play golf, though not during the season. He said he'll get his handicap down to around a 10 by the time training camp begins.

There are few rules to the contest, but one is that each attempt to break the current leader has to be by at least a foot. That's why left guard Zane Beadles' putt, which was two before Joeckel's mark, was disqualified. So sitting in the first three spots are Joeckel, rookie offensive lineman Chris Reed, and Kyle Tucker.

Quarterback Chad Henne was the leader twice, sandwiched around a putt by long snapper Carson Tinker.

Several players tried to best Joeckel's mark on Monday, and there was almost a controversy to rival what happened at the Solheim Cup in September. Running back T.J. Yeldon inadvertently stepped in front of a putt by tight end Ben Koyack, who at one point last week had the mark for longest putt. The ball bounced off Yeldon's shoe -- and he didn't seem too broken up about it, either.