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Our latest adventure took us to the 2013 North Carolina Long Drive Championships. If you’re unfamiliar with Long Drive, this will give you a glimpse into the scene. The sport of Long Drive is shrouded in mystery and in the midst of a yet to be determined transformation. If you enjoy extreme and aggressive golf, this might be for you. Everyone has to start somewhere and even if you aren’t ready to compete, you should check out the action when it’s in or near your area.

We began our latest journey on Friday, the 17th. This day was not only travel day but it was my birthday as well. We decided to travel a day early in order to save a drive on competition day and to allow Sasquatch to get acclimated to the local conditions. As is our tradition, we made a stop at the Dick’s Sporting Goods on the way up, near Charlotte, NC. Some of our best travel memories have taken place at Dick’s but this time, it was pretty uneventful. Click below for a video of the stop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzJ5slzQErE

After a 5 hour drive, we arrived at the site for the event. The location was Keith Hills Country Club, home of the Campbell University Fighting Camels. Is that a cool mascot name or what? Click below to see Sasquatch arrive on the range.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0I7BK824JU

In between range sessions, we were able to check out some of the local qualifying tries and as witnessed below, a rarely seen, Krank on Krank action. Lance Reader of Krank Golf was participating in the qualifying and I just had to film the effort.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZYpWHdZTIs

After our time at the range, we headed to the hotel. By the way, when you hear the PGA stories of how they had to suffer and travel in the beginning, I can guarantee that they never struggled in a room like we had. Let’s just say the shower felt really dirty, the water from the shower felt thick and we were greeted by a giant black hair on the side of the bed. There were also probably about 20 channels on the television and they did not include the Golf Channel. There was a bright spot on the trip between the range and the hotel room and it took center place in our “what did we learn this weekend” segment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCg9cfKYTVY

Sasquatch, “the Coach” Mark Swinford and other friends competed in the satellite event the next day on the 18th. This is basically a way to allow higher ranked and non ranked players to play their way into bigger events. American Power Golf promotes a developmental tour which is also like a farm system or minor league tour for Long Drivers who either haven’t made it to the pro level or who might be on their way back up in the rankings. The link below will provide a look into that system and how the players compete.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbUwblA5WJQ

Unfortunately, our boy Sasquatch waited a little too late in the event to start hitting his best shots and he was unable to get an exemption into the Main Event the next day but our buddy the Coach as well as Adamm Oliver did nail down the 2 spots. Both represented themselves well the next day against some of the best Long Drivers in the world. Below, you can catch some highlights of the Main Event. There was a pretty severe storm that rolled through the area about mid way through the competition and after the air horns sounded, there was a break in the action. Shark Attack cameras did not capture the finals of the event as we had a long trip ahead of us but it was a tightly contested event with the eventual winner being Jeff Gavin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP_jHEdo1eM

It’s always awesome seeing old friends and making new friends at these events and it makes us even more determined to make our upcoming Long Drive Event (The East Coast Classic) the best that it can possibly be. If you haven’t done so already, be sure to check out the links to the event.

http://www.incepta.ca/forum/index.php/topic,16202.0.html

 

Moby