2013 REMAX Long Drive Championships of New Zealand

Alex Lunn, from Morrinsville has won the 9th annual REMAX Long Drive Championship with a winning drive of 377m at the Remuera Golf Club today.  Even though the competitors play off in the semi final and final in a match play format, this was in fact,  the longest drive of the three day event.

Lunn a member of the Morrinsville Golf Club plays off a handicap of 2.3 although his university studies have put his regular game on hold.  In reaching the final he qualified 4th with a drive of 337m and admits ” practising a bit and playing a bit”.

Over 200 ‘hopefuls’ attempted to qualify with entries of 3 balls each, with mutiltple entries allowed. The 16 top qualifiers were taken from the Friday, Saturday and Sunday fields.  

In the list of qualifiers were Davyn Nola, a two time New Zealand winner, (2003 and 2005), and last years winner Adam Taylor. Having won their place into the qualifying shootout, neither Nola or Taylor were able to get a ball within the 38m wide long drive grid, and therefore were unable to advance.

The 16 qualifiers in the ‘shoot-out’ were allowed two, 6 ball sequences, to drive one of four longest drives to advance to the semi finals and then into match play.  The 6 balls had to be hit within a time frame of 2 minutes, 30 seconds.

Iain Dick from Hamilton Golf Club was the 1st semi finalist with a drive of 367m, and matched against Lunn in the first semi final.  Lunn advanced to the final, with a drive of 359m, where Dick could only manage 278m.

Lunn then came up against Andrew Brennan (Australia) who had earlier competed in the senior division and was a first reserve in the Open Division when a qualifier failed to show.  Brennan, who has represented Australia in the REMAX World Championships in the Senior Division, advanced to the semi-finals with a drive of 354m.  

Brennan then went onto bet Alan Stroud (Auckland) who could not get a qualifying ball within the grid.   Brennan had shot a credible 362m.

In the gripping final it came down to the last ball, with Brennan needing to match Lunn’s massive 377m drive, but ‘time’ was called and he was unable to hit the last ball.  In the match play format, players had 2 x 3 ball-sequences that had to be hit within a time frame of 1minute 15 seconds.  An experienced campaigner, Brennan simply ran out of time.  Lunn took the trophy and the New Zealand title for the first time.

PaR nz Golfing Holidays manage the REMAX Long Drive event in New Zealand and chose the new driving range at Remuera Golf Club to host the 2013 event with the 1st tee closed to hold the finals this afternoon.    

Tournament director, Kim Buckley was impressed with the field.  “We had a full list of competitors all three days” she said “and it was nice to see a new bunch of competitors. It is a small sport in New Zealand, but at the end of the day, guys just love hitting the ball as hard as they can”.

Michael Grant (Takapuna) won the small seniors group with a drive of 335 in his final match against Michael Brennan, who only managed a drive in his sequence of balls, of 314m.