One-hit wonders
Long-drive golfers blasting their way up ladder of respectability
By ROBERT TYCHKOWSKI, EDMONTON SUN
Hulk have six-foot-long illegal driver. Hulk will kill it.
Aaaaarrrgh! Hulk hit seven balls OB!
Hulk mad now! Hulk smash Pinnacle!
Aaaaaaarrrgh ... 400 yards!
Hulk going to Worlds in Mesquite!
Aaaaarghhh! Hulk smash Mesquite!
And that, in a nutshell, is the all-too-common perception golf purists have about long drivers.
They consider it an "extreme'' sport. Extreme, as in stupid. Trash. Not to be taken seriously. No more a sport than young offenders taking time out from breaking into garages to slide skateboards down handrails.
"There are some people, like (syndicated radio host) Jim Rome who won't give us the respect, who think this is a monster sport,'' said Wayne Paradis, site director for the Re/Max Long Drive world championship qualifier yesterday in St. Albert. "But it's getting better. We're trying to conform with the USGA rules in terms of length and size of drivers, things like that, so people will look at it as a legitimate sport. These aren't steroid, muscle-bound people; golf is a game of flexibility, not just strength.''
IS IT EVEN GOLF?
But is long driving even golf? Or is long driving to the PGA what monster trucks are to Formula One - a poor cousin that folks will watch out of curiosity once in awhile, but will never take seriously?
"Mainstream publicity? Not as much as we'd like,'' said Russ Pate, communications director for the Long Drivers of America Tour, where Sherwood Park's Kevin Blenkhorn is one of the top guns. "Any new sport has to define itself and figure out what it is and what it's not, but people are always quick to put labels on.''
Like: Goofy. Freakish. Illegal.
Yet Edmonton and Central Alberta are a hotbed for long driving, the hottest bed in North America for the last five years if you go by the LDA numbers. We have more events and competitors here than anywhere else and routinely place finalists at the worlds. Drayton Valley product Jason Zubak, four-time world champion and one of the biggest long-driving names on the planet, isn't even the best in Alberta anymore - Blenkhorn beats him regularly.
"The development in (Central Alberta) has seen a huge upswing in interest the last few years. People like Jason Zubak and others can be credited with that,'' said Pate, who's based in Dallas. "And the fascination golfers have with distance has a lot to do with it, too. We're in a definite era of power golf and it's spilled over into our sport.''
Or so we've heard. But aside from the odd feature here and there, long driving remains on the outside with its nose pressed against the glass of golf's consciousness. Its reputation as steroid-filled gorillas swinging illegal equipment and hitting it straight once every 10 shots simply wasn't winning over fans who've been slaves to golf's tradition for centuries.
"We've taken a lot of steps in the past few years to downplay the extreme side of it,'' said Pate, adding clubfaces have always conformed to USGA standards anyway. By next year, the maximum shaft length will be a PGA-legal 48 inches. As well, competitions now reward overall consistency rather than one barbaric hit, and the LDA recently implemented a random drug-testing policy to further clean and legitimize its image.
"We've had guys who were swinging 61-inch clubs and we had a guy in Mesquite swinging a 72-inch club (using a tent peg as his tee),'' said Pate. "Those days are gone. That, to me, was more of the extreme, anything goes, kind of element.''
One that didn't catch on.
"When I first started out in this and told golf pros I was a long driver, they'd shake their heads and say 'whatever,' '' said Blenkhorn. "They still don't have any respect for the one-hit wonders, but when they see you go to the worlds year after year and see that we're using legal equipment and see there's going to be drug testing, they start to appreciate what we can do.
"Things are slowly improving. If you wanted to watch the World Championships they'd be on at 11 at night. Now ESPN is doing eight half-hour shows on the LDA, which will help get us more into the mainstream.''
AN EVENT AT TROON
The LDA Tour is now seven stops a season, plus the Tour Championship, with a $15,000 first prize for each stop. The Pinnacle Distance Challenge, for which John Daly is the front man, is ripe with sponsorship dollars and exposure. And in Scotland, where tradition comes before all else, there's a long-drive event at The Troon.
"The respect is coming,'' said Paradis. "The application of USGA rules are making a difference in how people from the media look at the event.''
And now, a PR bonanza if there ever was one: Former Oakland A's slugger Jose Canseco will compete next week at the LDA Tour stop in Tulsa.
"We're going to see how a major-league home-run king will translate into long driving,'' said Pate, adding Canseco's swing speed is reportedly off the charts. "He's interested and we'll see how he does.''
The exposure won't hurt, either.
"It's an evolutionary process,'' said Pate. "One step at a time.''
