Jeff Flagg on Hitting It Long

Since I've spent considerable time this week focusing on the World Long Drive Championship and how to hit the ball farther, I thought I'd add one more post on the subject. This time, I'm linking you to an article at Golf Digest by 2014 Long Drive Champion Jeff Flagg and I'm focusing on a few thoughts in the article that may go against things you've been told.



Here are five quotes from the article that may surprise you.

• THE LENGTH OF YOUR BACKSWING DOESN'T MATTER. What matters is that it ends when you feel coiled but not stressed. At the top of my swing, I can have a normal conversation with you. I'm not straining. If you start straining, you'll lose the energy you were trying to store for the hit.

So Long Drive Tip #1 -- Stay relaxed, even if you don't get a 90° shoulder turn and your hands aren't way up over your head.

• WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT WHEN I SWING? My only real thought is, Right hand and arm drive the swing. That's it. I'm literally trying to make a sidearm throwing motion—like a 3-6-3 double play in baseball. If more golfers swung with the same motion, as if they were skipping stones, they'd pound the ball.

Long Drive Tip #2 -- Think more about swinging your arms faster, and particularly your trailing arm, than about driving your lower body.

• I RELATE THE GOLF SWING TO SPRINTING. For me, the feel is that my arms are out-racing my body. You know what track coaches say: "Fast arms equal fast feet." It's similar in golf. The faster my arms can go, the faster the club is moving.

Long Drive Tip #3 -- Think more about swinging your arms faster than about driving your lower body.

• IN TRUTH, MY HIPS LEAD THE DOWNSWING. But I don't think about that. They just do. Do you think pitchers, quarterbacks or javelin throwers think about clearing their hips before they throw? Their arms dictate all of that motion subconsciously.

Long Drive Tip #4 -- THINK MORE ABOUT SWINGING YOUR ARMS FASTER THAN ABOUT DRIVING YOUR LOWER BODY.

• IF YOU NEED ONE THING TO FOCUS ON, make it swinging your arms as fast as you can.

Long Drive Tip #5 -- THINK MORE ABOUT SWINGING YOUR ARMS FASTER THAN... Hey, are you seeing a pattern here yet???

These are just a few quotes from the article that I think are seriously overlooked in modern teaching. There's a lot more good stuff there, though, so be sure to stop by the Golf Digest site and read the whole thing.

Tim Burke Gets His 2nd Title in 3 Years

All he needed in the finals was 394 yards, that's all.

Yeah, that sounds like a lot to us mere mortals. But Tim Burke, 2013 World Long Drive champion, had smacked it over 400 yards in each of the previous two rounds... and he pretty much needed it both times.



The big shocker of the night was when Jamie Sadlowski missed the grid with ALL of his shots in the Round of Four. The competition had taken a turn when the wind picked up during the Round of Eight, quartering into the players from the left, but Jamie had successfully negotiated it to take out Jeff Crittenden.

Then the 10th seed, Jeremy Easterly, who had quietly upset each match with consistent if less than impressive drives -- if you can call 380-yard drives "less than impressive" -- posted a drive and Jamie simply lost his rhythm. Whether it was the wind, the clock, or just wanting it too much, Jamie failed to put even one ball in the grid and was eliminated.

That brought the match down to former champ Tim Burke and first-timer Jeremy Easterly.



You can find the video of the final between Easterly and Burke at this link if you missed the actual competition and the video didn't embed properly above this paragraph. It's an amazing shot.

I'm sure Tim Burke will be watching it over and over and over. After all, he's the 2015 champion now as well.

The Critter Almost Broke the Bank in Vegas

It was a winner-take-all competition at the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship last night. The temperature was in the mid-50s and the wind was swirling at the Wolf Course of the Las Vegas Paiute Resort. The winner would get $250k, the other 7 players would get zero. Nada. Zip.

The Vegas 8 were playing match play -- single elimination two-man matches -- and most people expected the winner to come from the Joe Miller / Jamie Sadlowski match since they held 3 titles between them. Miller took out Sadlowski by 2 yards... and 2 other matches were decided by a single yard.

Although I expected #1 seed Matt "The Hangman" Hanger to win, he was taken out by Jeff "The Critter" Crittenden in the first round. The Critter was a sentimental favorite for me -- not only because he was the oldest player in the field (43 years old) but because he's from Greensboro NC, a mere 30 minutes east of where I live.

And then, miracle of miracles, the Critter took out Miller in the semis... again, by one yard. He made it to the finals against Jeff Flagg, a first-timer who was formerly a Minor League Baseball player with the New York Mets.



Art Sellinger, owner of the Long Drivers of America and a two-time past champion, helped GC's Ryan Burr and instructor Michael Breed anchor the event, and he said he'd never seen an event with so many close finishes.

In the end Flagg beat the Critter by a mere 13 inches with a drive of just under 366 yards into the wind. This was Crittenden's last run at the title and he'll will likely end up being the big story from this event, given that no one expected him to get out of the first round, let alone knock off Hanger and Miller.

But I don't think Flagg will mind. He'll be too busy spending all that pretty money. ;-)

This was the 20th year that RE/MAX sponsored the event. They had an option to renew for next year but have apparently decided not to. The new sponsor is still to be announced but you have to think this event has grown big enough to draw somebody's attention.

The photo came from this golf.com article.