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1998
World Long Drive Championships
Mesquite, Nevada
World
Long Drive Championships
October 1998 - Mesquite, Nevada
Mesquite, NV--The World Long Drive Championships were held October 21st thru the 24th at the Oasis Golf Club. Eighty-four of the world's longest hitters were vying for the title and the $75,000 first place, prize money. The conditions for the event were perfect. Wind was negligible, skies were clear and the temperatures were in the low 70's in the daytime and in the 50's at night. The grid was flat and appeared to be in very good shape. Of the Eighty-four players in the field, Zeider Golf had by far the largest number of entrants.
They included:
| Tomislav Kralj, CA | Stewart Young, ONT | Mike Moulton, CA | Brent Surratt, NC |
| Morrie Nelson, GA | Jack Hunter, WV | Greg Basom, FL | Bob Strege, AZ |
| David Bivins, FL | Pat Dempsey, CA | Rod Rezka, BC | Dan Boever, MO |
| Vince Howell, CA | Shawn Robinson, SASK | Trez Simmons, LA | Greg Brooks, VA |
| Obie Anderson, CA | Marty Joyce, IL | Richard Morgan, TX | Kent Couchee, CA |
|
Scott Johnson, ONT |
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Of these players, four of them made it to the Open Division semi-finals; Greg Brooks, Pat Dempsey, Brent Surratt and Vince Howell. In addition, Greg Brooks successfully made the finals where he finished in 7th place. The other 3 semi-finalists just missed by 2 to 3 yards of getting to the final round. These players finished in the following order; Pat Dempsey 9th, Brent Surratt 10th and Vince Howell 12th. These players did a tremendous job. This was the strongest long drive field ever assembled. Both Pat Dempsey and Vince Howell were first year players and had never been in a tournament like this. Brent Surratt came in the top 10 for the second year in a row and Greg Brooks made it to the final round for the first time. He also hit his 5th ball OB(it was out by 3 yards) 365+ yards. This would have won the tournament!
In the senior division, we also did exceptionally well by placing two players in the top four. They were Marty Joyce, 2nd place and Richard Morgan who came in 4th place. For Marty, this was the second straight year that he made it to the final round. Richard Morgan was playing in his first championship tournament and he surpassed a tough group of veteran competitors to get to the finals.
Long drive has been around for many years. It seems that today it has more competitors than ever before. Most of this popularity is due to the Long Drivers of America(LDA) organization. Without them, the sport would be a small local event that wouldn't have any national or world following. In Zeider Golf's opinion, this sport, if it is going to continue to grow, needs to get the general golfer to be more publicly aware of long drive. We believe that in order for this to happen, more tournaments need to be held with more sponsors and articles need to be written in local and national magazines and newspapers. Long drive is a very exciting event to witness. We believe that long drive has unique attributes that will help it grow. Everyone wants to hit the ball farther, and I believe that by watching these athletes strike a ball, most people will be awestruck with the power and consistency that these athletes possess. The tournaments can be held in a much shorter period of time than a PGA event. A spectator can see the entire event from beginning to end. In addition, the spectator doesn't have to walk a course and compete with others to get a good view of the action. And finally, this sort of event is still in its infancy, there are still hundreds if not thousands of potential competitors completely unaware that this sport even exists. The quality of play will only increase with time.
As mentioned before, the LAD has done a tremendous job with this sport. We believe that more needs to be done by more people. If there are any potential sponsors or even potential participants please e-mail us. We would be very interested in talking with you.
Open Division
| Club Head | # Used | Shafts | # Used | Grip | # Used |
| Zeider | 15 | Penley | 20 | Golf Pride | 23 |
| Titleist | 9 | Aldila | 16 | Griptec | 18 |
| Callaway | 7 | Harrison | 5 | Lamkin | 3 |
| Taylor Made | 5 | Graman | 4 | Winn | 2 |
| Ping | 4 | Taylor Made | 2 | Taylor Made | 1 |
| Yonex | 2 | Yonex | 2 | ||
| Miscellaneous | 19 | Miscellaneous | 8 | Miscellaneous | 9 |
Senior Division
| Clubs Heads | # Used | Shafts | # Used | Grip | # Used |
| Callaway | 7 | Harrison | 10 | Golf Pride | 7 |
| Zeider | 6 | Aldila | 5 | Griptec | 4 |
| Taylor Made | 3 | Penley | 3 | Taylor Made | 2 |
| Ping | 2 | Taylor Made | 2 | Winn | 2 |
| Titleist | 0 | Graman | 0 | Lamkin | 1 |
| Yonex | 0 | Yonex | 0 | ||
| Miscellaneous | 5 | Miscellaneous | 3 | Miscellaneous | 7 |