Long Driving High Schooler

[Stretch]

I guess Jack Hamm must have had a long lost son. How else can you explain it?!

He bends his left arm to create a double lever, allowing him to make a massively long backswing and create a huge amount of lag in the transition. Then he holds that lag well on the downswing and gets into a great impact position. BOOOMM! RAAAAAAHHH! etc.

[Quinn07]

Holy S&!t what a golf swing. I wonder what his iron distances are like with a golf swing like that? Jamie Sadlowski's swing is for long drives, but this kids swing is obviously good enough for the game of golf and long drives. Very Impressive.

[jamo]

I would have taken the $150,000 hands down. That kinda cash to not play in junior/amateur events- Where do I sign up?

He bends his left arm to create a double lever, allowing him to make a massively long backswing and create a huge amount of lag in the transition. Then he holds that lag well on the downswing and gets into a great impact position. BOOOMM! RAAAAAAHHH! etc.

Pfft! The Jack Hamm story is much more believable than your technical mumbo jumbo!

Holy S&!t what a golf swing. I wonder what his iron distances are like with a golf swing like that? Jamie Sadlowski's swing is for long drives, but this kids swing is obviously good enough for the game of golf and long drives. Very Impressive.

Apparently Sadlowski is a good all around player too. I believe he is around scratch.

[sean_miller]

Pfft! The Jack Hamm story is much more believable than your technical mumbo jumbo!

He was steered toward the long drive world by a fellow player after a qualifying round for the Alberta Open - or I may have a different long driver / golfer in mind.

[Stretch]

Pfft! The Jack Hamm story is much more believable than your technical mumbo jumbo!

Hush your mouth. Next you'll be trying to claim this kid straightens his right leg in the backswing or something.

[laconic517]

hitting it that long and being a 2 handicap is kinda meh.

Every par 5 you play, unless its incredibly tight, is really just a mid-long par 4. You can hit long irons on tight driving holes and give up nothing.

[Chief Broom]

Awesome extension through impact. You can really tell that he unloads all of the power of his swing into the ball. Whenever I manage to really uncork one I get that feeling of extension it's just that I have a hard time consistently making that happen.

[enis750]

nice swing
kid looks like he can play w that swing, w a 2 index

that being said tho, i can find lots of ways to make birdie only hitting it 260-ish...
you can still miss 3 foot birds, pars and bogies hitting it 436 yds....just sayin....

[colin007]

vid or it didnt happen...oh, wait...uh....

[sean_miller]

hitting it that long and being a 2 handicap is kinda meh.

nice swing

It can be easier to shoot good scores with drives in the 230 - 240 yard range. A ball hit off line at that distance is likely still in play and maybe even be on the fairway. Add another 60 yards and the ball might be in the trees or OB. Holes are usually pretty narrow at 300 yards. Now imagine 400. He could start his ball on the same path as a 230-240 driver and hit more balls OB in one week than the 235 guy does in a year.

[TheGeekGolfer]

His swing is really good and I'm sure he has alot of potential in Long Drive and in golf, what I can't stand about this video is the announcer.

"Imagine waking up one day and finding out your the best in the world in an athletic event you've never even tried before".

That lead-in makes it sound like he never picked up a golf club before and just belted it out there. When, actually, he's been playing golf a while and has a 2 handicap. He's a gold golfer that found out he can hit it really far and there might be a future in that sport, also.

Imo, Long Drive isn't really a 'sport', it's a by-product of an already established sport. Yes, it does take some different techniques and skills, but I doubt someone goes out and just buys 10 drivers and goes to the range to become a 'long drive competitor' without ever hitting any other clubs and playing on a golf course. Do I think it's fun to watch...yes. Is there some money for winning the championship...yes, but I still think it's a fringe sport at best. To me, it's a bit like 'synchronized swimming' or 'ice dancing', a 'sport' that someone tries because they can't quite get a handle on the entire aspect of the already established sport. Ice Dancers - I can't really jump and do spins, I'll just skate around as if I'm dancing. Of course, Ice Skating isn't a real sport anyway, but that's waaaay farther off-topic than I already am

[BostonSully]

His swing is really good and I'm sure he has alot of potential in Long Drive and in golf, what I can't stand about this video is the announcer.

It would be like holding the record for the worlds hardest slapshot without being able to ice skate, probably not going to happen. But some of the long drive guys are buff and they train for long drives not golf but im sure they can blast a 5i 250yds in the same way they can drive it 400yds.

[SouthernILGolfer]

Ive watched some of the long drive stuff on tv before, if this kid can hit it straight and that far, he'll win. Most of those guys have trouble keeping the ball in play. Take the money kid, forget being an amateur, you'll get noticed much more by winning this competition than by being 5th in some amateur tournament that noboby saw. You can still practice and play all you want with the money you'll make winning long drive competitions maybe can forgo being an amateur and go on to q school and become a pro, can make a lot of money on the nationwide tour.

[BostonSully]

Ive watched some of the long drive stuff on tv before, if this kid can hit it straight and that far, he'll win. Most of those guys have trouble keeping the ball in play. Take the money kid, forget being an amateur, you'll get noticed much more by winning this competition than by being 5th in some amateur tournament that noboby saw. You can still practice and play all you want with the money you'll make winning long drive competitions maybe can forgo being an amateur and go on to q school and become a pro, can make a lot of money on the nationwide tour.

Thats right. Don't they measure the yardage left or right of the straight line that they use to measure and subtract that from the total? If this kid hits the ball straight he could be winning those easy.

[case31]

How is this even possible? I don't doubt this is legit but how can someone generate

It's possible because he's using a club specifically designed for long drive contests. Probably a driver with a 5.5 or 6 degree loft, and a custom shaft. In the second half of the video they cut to a shot where his bag is in the background. He has two more drivers in the bag and one leaning up against it. I'm guessing he has various drivers for long driving, and regular "on-the-course" drivers.

His swing is also set up for long driving. Meaning, his setup lends itself to de-lofting the face, and then he has a large swing arc with a ton of lag and clubhead speed. I wish my swing had a little more of that, but mother nature only made me 5'10". This kid looks much taller than that with longer arms. To the people who are asking how a kid that hits it that far can "only" be a 2 handicap. We never see him hit an iron or hit a putt...just that one wedge shot (which didn't look that hard at all). If he uses the same type of swing to hit irons as he does with the driver, it is quite possible for him to be wildly inaccurate. Also, if he bombs it down the fairway 400 yards and leaves himself with something like a 60yd wedge shot, how do we know he can consistently execute that shot? What if he's a streaky putter? Just because someone is a long hitter doesn't mean they are automatically a good player. You have to figure that in a round of golf at a typical golf course, you're hitting driver maybe 14 times? That's less than 20% of shots hit for a par 72.

[Shooter McGreenkeeper]

he also has a very weak RH grip to probably get the overswing..
i wonder what the best long distance ball is?

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

Holy S&!t what a golf swing. I wonder what his iron distances are like with a golf swing like that? Jamie Sadlowski's swing is for long drives, but this kids swing is obviously good enough for the game of golf and long drives. Very Impressive.

I doubt either of the players you mentioned swing any of their other clubs, especially irons, the way they swing the long driver. I'm betting their iron shots look way more like a conventional golf swing than their long-drive shots.

I'd even venture a guess that they don't take their long-drive driver to the course; they probably have one with a shorter shaft and higher loft (the long-drive ones are usually at least 48" long and only about 6 degrees of loft) that they use when they play golf. -Andrew

[saevel25]

Well, i at this scramble i played at, for charity they had this long drive guy there. For 20 bucks he will hit a few drives on this par 5 and you can take the best one as your drive. It was fun. Well he played MOI drivers, with a Gafalloy prototype S shaft. The thing had 5 degrees of loft on it and he just launches this ball, and he wasn't swining as hard as i saw them on TV. I bet he could just demolish it if he actually let one go.

So yea, if you do long drive, your probably using a non conforming driver, and the golf ball might be none conforming. But still, they can launch it.