Competitors

The Event was a TOTAL success! We ended up with a total of 24 competitors with a purse of $5400. I would have to say it was one of the best group of competitors ever assembled in a Canadian event all together at one time. It made for a real tough Re/max qualifier as well. It was a very high energy, testosterone filled day. It went real smooth, and we never ran into a problem. I'd like to thank all those competitors that showed up from all across Canada. No competitors from the US showed up, which was really too bad. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was around 20-25 degrees Celsius all day long with just a slight breeze. The wind at times was slightly with us and sometimes slightly against us. It rained for almost 2 weeks straight here in Swift Current right up until the day before the contest. I guess my praying paid off for the rain to stop :-) The grid was cut short and we still got a surprising amount of roll considering how wet it was. The balls made divots in the ground about 1.5 inches deep by 3 inches long! From at least a 50 feet elevated tee box we were still getting up to 25 yards of roll. 

Jim Holland of Red Deer had a very successful Day. He won both events. Watch out for him this year at the worlds! He is dialed in right now! I'll have to day though, he got very lucky! In the 1st round of the Zeider contest, he went 0/6, but then so did 2 others in his group. So, there was a 1 ball playoff with the 3 competitors and he beat them out with a drive of 363 yards! Talk about coming through under pressure! He was just getting ready to go home when he heard the good news that he was in the 1 ball playoff, then he came back and won the damn thing! Good job Jim! 

If you see my 306 and are wondering what happened, I really screwed up! The 1st round of the contest, I went 0/5, then on my 6th ball, I got one in at 381 yards. In the semi-finals, I again went 0/5, then got my 6th ball in at 374 yards. Then in the finals, I missed the grid on all balls except the one I popped up at 306! 

As for the Re/max qualifier that was held the same day. It was held in the morning, so the distances we a little bit less because of the soft wet ground. We had 55 open division tries and 6 senior division tries and 3 womens division tries. the result's being:

Open:

1st-Jim Holland, Red Deer, Alberta: 364 yards 2"
2nd-Stewart Young, Markham, Ontario: 359 yards 32"
3rd-Rod Rezka, Osotoos, British Columbia: 352 yards 31"
4th-Craig Robinson, Swift Current, Saskatchewan: 352 yards 31"
        (my brother)

Senior:

1st-Ted Fostey, Calgary, Alberta: 361 yards 29"
This guy just turned 45, and bombed the 2nd longest drive of the morning! He is going be the next Senior World Long Drive Champion (my prediction anyways)! Give him a big applause for that hit!

Women:

1st-Jolen Wood, Swift Current, Saskatchewan: 267 yards 8"

Junior (they competed for a $50 gift certificate):

1st-Jordan Wagner, Swift Current, Saskatchewan: 324 yards
Look out for this kid boys. He is only 16 years old! And he is a 3 or 4 handicap to boot! WOW! Give him 3-4 years to fill out and he'll be giving all of us a run for our money.

We had a big 30 X 30 foot long re/max tent and even had the big Re/Max flying balloon there giving people rides all day long! Very impressive, but I learned one thing about my event. Don't let them fly that damn balloon all day long. It was about 200-300 yards away from the tee-box and we could hear that thing making a lot of noise all day long! During the Zeider finals, while I was on the tee box, It came and made a landing about 400 yards away. It was a little distracting to say the least.

Throughout the day, its hard to estimate, but there was probably a total of about 1000 people coming and going watching the long drive contest all day long! The bleachers were filled throughout most the day. Overall, I thought it was a great success and just want to thank all those that were a part of the event.

Shawn Robinson