Volvik World Long Drive Championship - Anyone Been?

[Smpear]

This will be held at Winstar World casino and Resort's golf course at OK/TX border. I am planning to go Wed. night (Sept 5) for the finals, tickets are free general admission. I have never been there before for this and not sure the setup and how early to get there. There does not seem to be a lot of seating if i remember right from seeing it last year on TV. Planning to get there 1.5 hour before the actual event starts which is 30 minutes before a live concert of some sort. Also the golf channel will broadcast it live at 8PM.

 

Anyone been before and can help with advice on best viewing areas, what crowds to expect etc.?

[EKELLY]

I have been twice. To be honest, there aren't usually a lot of people there, not what I had anticipated at all. Usually the stands hold maybe 200 people, with a little viewing on the side. You can usually get near the range where they are warming up, see them side by side. It's been a few years since I went. The last one Joe Miller and Jamie Sadlowski were hitting next to each other, it was ridiculous. The grid usually isn't that wide, so their misses are usually off the chart. Fun to watch, for sure.

[Jagpilotohio]

It’s definitely a “made for tv” event.

 

Watching guys swing as hard as they can with crazy long golf clubs and struggle Mightily to hit a landing grid gets old pretty quick in person I imagine.

 

I’ll always switch it on for 30 minutes at home to watch the finals and semifinals from my couch, but I wouldn’t travel any distance to see them in person. I guess I might if it was real close.

 

I started my PGA apprenticeship at a practice center in So. Cal. Where Gerry James used to practice so I’ve seen many thousands of very long drives. I remember when Justin, his son and current world champ was just learning to hit balls next to him when he was about 5 or 6 in the mid 90’s. It was a little surreal to turn on the TV some 20+ years later and see that he was crowned the longest driver in the world.

[Lagavulin62]

Yeah if you have nothing better to do why not? You can make the trip the casino so it’s not a waste. I can take maybe 10 minutes on TV. The big attraction is when they slice it almost as far as their forwad movement. It’s amazing how bad they are on so many shots. It is without a doubt a gorilla man competition.

[WidespreadPanic]

So I was just watching a replay of an event last yet, and it seemed like every one of them uses an XR16. Is there something with that driver that we don’t know? (Aside from being sponsored by Callaway)

[Kevin Blenkhorn]

Actually 3 of the top 4 were all hitting Krank drivers and most hit Krank or Callaway because of the low lofts. TM and most of the OEM's wouldn't last 10 balls at our speed. As far as it not being a great in person sport I would have a hard time arguing with that if you don't know any of the hitters and the format they use where 1 guys hits all his balls then the next guys hits his is a terrible in person format. We are trying to get them to change to both guys on the Tee at the same time and alternating shots. SO the OB misses....yes there are a lot of misses but unless you have competed in LD you really have no idea how small of a margin we have for error. When I go to the tee I am trying to hit the ball about 1/4" above the center of the face, not dead center cause too much spin...not off the toe or heel cause too low balls speed and too high on the face not enough spin. If we are hitting it say 375 and farther if our club face opens 1 degree that's a miss on the grid. An average golfer can probably get a way with there face being 5 or 6 degrees open or closed and still be in play. At our speeds that's the huge misses you see so in reality our terrible misses are really only about the same as average Joes average shots...they just miss by so much more because we hit it 100 yards further.