First Local Qualifier

 

So now we bring you up to present day. Saturday May 11^th I drove up to East Bridgewater, Massachusetts with my best friend Chris for a Super Qualifier for regions 12 and 13. The weather was questionable all day as it showed rain all day. It was raining on the drive up, but when we were a few miles away from the course things seems to halt. This made me a little more confident. I went through my regular warm-up routine prior to hitting and signed up for my first set of balls for region 13. Region 13 was the one I wanted most because it is in Hooksett, New Hampshire, a place were I have hit before and is very nostalgic to me since it was were I competed in my first ever long drive event. My first set of balls I hit all out of bounds. I had a hard time setting up to the grid for some reason and also did not stick to my game plan which was to put a couple balls in play first to fill the grid, then unleash! Second set of balls went much better as I hit one 376 to put me at the top of Region 13. I did it at the cost of another driver though…I had been experimenting with some new drivers that were suppose to be more durable, but they kept bulging on the crown of the club. But anyways, I went for Region 12 as well and qualified with a 368 drive. The wind kept changing all day and was actually downwind most of the time, which helped me. The grid was kind of uphill and did not allow for much roll out, so I was still happy with the numbers I got. But the most important thing was that I qualified for Regionals. I made some new friends this weekend too, met a great guy named Mike Gauthier who has been around Long Drive for a while and been to worlds twice. Hes local in the Massachsetts area, so it was nice to connect with another New England Long Driver Professional! Met and talked to some new hitters to the world of long drive to help offer some insight and put them on the right path. 

Still trying to keep networking and pick the brain of as many people who have been around the sport, soaking up as much advice as I can as I have already learned a lot in less than a year of doing this!

I wish I hit the ball further this weekend, but qualifying for Regionals for my first year in long drive was big for me and now gives me 2 shots at making it out to worlds as I keep chipping away at my bucket list of Long Drive Goals for 2013!

New Motivation!!!

 I left Las Vegas more motivated than ever to get myself bigger, faster and stronger. I changed around my diet and my workouts now that it is “Long Drive Season” to have my workouts focus on functional movements that involve rotation and being in the golf posture. Also the focus of many of my workouts has been fast/explosive upper and lower body days, using a medicine ball, sledgehammer and tires to activate my fast twitch muscle fibers. I have also been doing a lot of speed training as well that is very sport specific. I utilize a weighted Momentus power Hitter , Momentus speed whoosh, blank shaft with no head and my swing meters to track progress. This is a workout that I bring to the golf course. I am very fortunate to have a great friend in Marc Bayram, the head golf professional at Timberlin Golf Course who allows me to go out on the course with a cart and practice my drives, since our range is limited to irons only. He also lets me use his Foresight GC2 Launch Monitor when it comes close to competition time to help me fine tune my clubs to see where my launch numbers are at. I am beginning to plateau with my gains, but I still feel I have a gear that has yet to be tapped that will bring me to the next level in Long Drive!

Las Vegas & 2013 ReMax Long Drive Desert Launch Championship

 

So its been a while since I wrote an article, got a lot to catch you up on in a short amount of time so I will try and keep it short. The last few months have been crazy with work and studying for my national board exam so golf got put on the back burner for a bit.

I gave myself a study break for 4 days and took a trip out to Las Vegas. This was a 2 for 1 trip as I also went out there to compete in the ReMax Long Drive Desert Launch Event that weekend. My friend Dave and I went out there and stayed right on the strip. This was my first official ReMax sanctioned event ever and I was very excited to be hitting on the World Championship grid! I went there Friday feeling good about myself and where my swing was at. My first set of 6 balls I only maxed out around 350 yards and I was pretty disappointed as my numbers were much higher on the Launch monitor back in CT before I left.

I had my clubs tested and found out that 2 out of 3 of my drivers were flat, meaning that the face was slightly caved in enough to produce dead hits that would go nowhere. The one club I had remaining had too much loft and was a practice club, so I was freaking out a bit. I was originally pretty bummed out and talked to my friend about just enjoying the rest of our time in Vegas and not driving back to Mesquite on Saturday for day two. My friend talked me into going back and giving it another shot, and I'm glad he did. I was very thankful for the generosity of some of the other competitors as they let me barrow some of their clubs to use. 

So I was using a club I had never hit before with a shaft that was a little softer than I was used to as well. I stepped up for my first set of balls for the day and my best was 376. This made me very happy now knowing it was the equipment that failed me, not my swing. 376 wasn’t good enough to make it, but my second set, 386 put me at the top of my group and qualified me for Sundays top 36 final. I had my second wind of motivation for the finals on Sunday!

My friend Dave and I had a great time after I qualified. Wewent and played a little golf and hit the tables at Casino to round out the night cap. Ended up winning $300 bucks playing some blackjack so things were going well.

We woke up Sunday morning ready to make one last drive out to Mesquite to see how far I could go. Top 6 would get an automatic bid to Worlds in September. This format is a little different, it kind of goes to a double elimination format where the top few competitors move on to a winners bracket and the bottom move to a losers bracket. I went into the day with zero expectations. I was moved to the losers bracket after round 1, but finished in the top of that bracket to move onto round 3. Round 3 had some good hitters and the wind was constantly changing. I hit in pretty calm conditions and hit my first 400 yard drive EVER! I was feeling pretty good until the wind picked up. The next drive was 430 by someone and then topped by a 451 by another competitor which knocked me out. The wind is such an X-Factor in Long Drive and 10-15mph downwind can add 40-50 yards easily!

But I left The Desert Launch with my head held high and the confidence knowing I could hang with some of the Worlds Longest Hitters!