Frequently Asked Questions

Click on the "person" icon in the top right corner.  Click "sign up". Complete the information and click the "sign up" button. Once you recieve a confirmation e-mail, log-in and create your player profile.

Go to the shop and purchase "professional directory" under advertise.  Then, click on the "person" icon in the top right corner.  Click "sign up".  Complete the information and click the "sign up" button. Once you recieve a confirmation e-mail, log-in and create your professional profile.

PLD is committed to honoring athletes who inspire us with their Passion, Sacrifice, and Determination. PLD featured players are nominated by the PLD community on the contacts page.

Yes. Ultimate Long Drive (ULD) streams amateur and professional events on Long Drive TV. Footage from the XLD Tour World Challenge for events like Crush the Canyon is available for online viewing. 

According to Guinness World Records, 64-year old American golf professional and kinesiology expert Mike Austin smashed a drive 515 yards at the National Seniors Open Championship at Winterwood Golf Course (now the Desert Rose) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The record long drive was hit during tournament play using a persimmon wood driver with 10 degrees of loft and a 43.5” extra-stiff steel shaft and a balata golf ball.

Chloe Garner. After finishing runner up to the Number One ranked Phillis Meti in two season-culminating events in the past three years, the 28-year old South African got her redemption by winning the 2019 Women’s Pro Long Drive Championship at Thackerville, Oklahoma.

For the 2020 season, Bryson DeChambeau gained 40 pounds of muscle to reshape his body into the image of today’s Pro Long Drive competitors. Although the long drive subspecialty has not always matched up well tournament golf, it has paid dividends for DeChambeau he has a couple of tournament wins and leads the Tour with a driving average just above 321 yards. 

No; but the golf balls used in long drive competitions are manufactured from the latest urethane and thermoplastic materials to be virtually indestructible. At each event, players are required to hit the golf ball provided by the event’s sanctioning body. In recent years, Volvik was the ball used for the Pro Long Drive Association world championship events, but the supplier varies based on seasonal sponsorship.

On Earth, a pro long drive competitor can hit a ball about 450 yards, with a few notable exceptions traveling a little farther. But, on the Moon, it is a little different. With no atmosphere, no air resistance, and only one-sixth of the Earth's gravity, scientists were able to figure it out. With a little help from physics, they concluded the ball would carry two and a half miles, not only that, it would take more than a minute for the ball to come back down

The official world record holder Mike Dobbyn, whose longest drive measured a world record 551 yards, is 6’8” at a muscular 310-pounds. Nonetheless, much smaller men and women have proven competitive by developing strength, agility, and raw power (particularly in the left shoulder, right pectoral, and left-side twitch muscles for a right-handed golfer).

At the final of the World Long Drive Championship in Thackerville, Oklahoma (then 23-year old) Kyle Berkshire took home the first-place prize money of $125,000. The reigning PLDA world champion has a recorded swing speed of 152.6 mph (consistent 150-mph-plus club head speed) and a competitive drive of 474 yards. Kyle started playing golf at age 3 and was hitting 250-yard drives by age 6.

In the men’s division of World Long Drive Championships, Canadian-born Jason Zuback has five world championship titles in the Pro Long Drive Open division and one title in the Pro Long Drive Senior division. In the women’s division of World Long Drive Championships, Sweden’s Sandra Carlborg is the queen of Pro Long Drive and a five-time World Champion.

If you remember when John Daly developed his “grip it” and “rip it” technique back in 1992, he hit the longest recorded drive of the PGA Tour season at 308 yards. Justin Thomas hit a 449-yard drive during PGA tournament play earlier this year. In 2020, there are eight-six professionals averaging more than 300 yards off the tee box. 

Although not known as one of today’s longest hitters on the PGA Tour, a younger Tiger Woods uncorked a 498-yard drive on the 18^th hole at Kapalau’s Plantation Course during the Mercedes Championship. The 2002 tee shot holds up today as the longest recorded drive of the 21^st century on the PGA Tour.

At the 1992 H.E.B. Texas Open, Carl Cooper smoked his drive on the 456-yard third hole at Oak Hills Country Club outside San Antonio, Texas. His ball landed on a downhill cart path and the race was on. Cooper’s ball was still bouncing as it flew past the green in play and continued to roll all the way to the 12^th green. The drive was estimated at 787 yards, but Cooper recorded a double bogey on the hole.

Yes. The drivers must appear on the United States Golf Association - USGA Conforming List, which limits shaft length to forty-eight inches. However, the drivers that the professional men and women competing in long drive competitions today are individualized to each competitor’s swing, just like those used by PGA and LPGA Tour golfers.

In 1971, astronaut Alan Shepard smuggled two balls and six-iron aboard Apollo 14 and became the first person to golf anywhere other than on Earth. After he shanked his first attempt, Shepard connected on a drive that was estimated to have traveled more than two miles. To date, our nation’s first man in space holds the unofficial long drive for the moon.