Golf Course Report

Jeremy with the Long Drive Driver

In my quest to qualify for the Long Drive Championship I went and saw the King of Clubs in Elk Grove last week.

The King is a PGA professional and a certified club fitter as well. If you go and see him he will put you into the cage and he has a really nice computer that analyses your ball speed, club speed, launch angle and a bunch of other stuff. He can then change out shafts and club heads to reduce your target variance. It’s a nice way to go if you’re thinking about purchasing new clubs. He can give you a lot more information than just some guy at the golf shop measuring your arm length. Oh, and if you suck, and face it, you do… he can give you a lesson as well. A fitting takes about 60-90 minutes and he changes $60 for this.

Here is the link for more information on The King: The King of Clubs

So I got into the cage and tried out a few drivers and shafts for the long drive championship. According to the machine and the math, I don’t have what it takes to get very far in the competition. The magic numbers that the best long drive guys have are 200mph ball speed and 135mph club head speed. Then it’s just a matter of getting it into the grid under pressure.

My numbers were 160mph ball speed and 124mph club head speed. According to the math, I suck. I hate math, I was never good at math and I’m hard headed. The King did fit me for a Long Drive Driver and was kind enough to lend it to me for a month. So I’m going to practice with it and see if I can increase my numbers.

Sunday after golf we headed to the Pleasanton Golf Center to enter the ReMax Long Drive Championship.

Unfortunately, we were too late to enter which was probably a good thing. I was expecting an organized event, which it was. But I didn’t understand the format and was surprised by the fact that the competitors stay out there all day. I thought it was just show up, pay, hit and the longest advances. Apparently if you hit it over the range, which 5 guys did, then there is a playoff. BTW, to hit it over the range is over 400 yards.

So its the real deal. And even if you can hit the ball along way, you need a special long drive driver if you think your going to hit it 400 yards.

The good news is that there is one more qualifer in July. And that will give me time to get a long drive driver and learn to hit it 400 yards right? Then I just have to qualify two times, go to Vegas, and win the whole thing for 250K. I’ll be on ESPN during the middle of the night and everyone is invited to the after party at Tao.