Long Drive World Series, one of Golf’s most exciting new formats, is all set to come to Dubai for the second time at 19:00 on February 9, at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
The event in Dubai is the first in the series of 10 tournaments that will be held across all the cosmopolitan cities in the world, with 16 of the world’s best, including three UAE wild cards, competing for a share of the Dh94,500 event prize pool.
Unlike regular golf, Long Drive is all about hitting a golf ball as far as you humanly can by driving, and is a visual spectacle of strength, power, and speed.
The format for this year’s contest is going to be very different from last year’s and the total points gained by each player throughout the series will determine the winner in the end.
Jamie Marland, director of operations for the Long Drive World Series, said: “This year we are going to run a little bit different from 2017, we are going to run a point-system. It won’t be the case of someone winning each and every event, but it will be more like if you finish first in one and finish second in the next one, it (the points) will accumulate and that is how we’ll decide the winner, just like Formula One.”
Two-time world champions, Joe Miller from the UK and Tim Burke from America, are gearing up to add a third victory to their collection, and catching up with them is James Tait, also from the UK, who currently balances a regular job and the sport, but plans on taking it up full-time eventually.
Miller, who has built quite a reputation for his monster drive, has been in the game for the last 16 years and says that maintaining his fitness and being consistent at the sport has been his biggest challenge.
Miller’s longest drive is 474 yards and he combines weight and powerlifting to maintain that drive.
He sat down with Sport360 and shared the secret behind the perfect long drive, which is all about speed.
He said: “The secret to it is speed, the faster you can swing a golf club, you’re going to give yourself the best opportunity to hit a ball long way and to get the most distance out of it. I’d rather be the guy swinging the fastest and hope to get one in the grid than to fill the grid with eight that have no chances of winning.”
For more information, visit www.longdriveworldseries.com
