Wow. Just read this article linked on the homepage, and realized it was my roommate from college. I haven't talked to him since this summer, so I had no idea this happened. I remember he hit a home run to win the intramural softball championship, and it was the longest bomb I've ever seen at Penberthy. I knew he could hit a golf ball a long way, but this is ridiculous....
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2171869
[This message has been edited by Special Ed (edited 10/22/2003 9:17a).]
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2171869
quote:
Most golfers only dream of hitting 300-yard drives. Houston's Clayton Burger outdrives the dreamers by an entire football field.
At the 2003 RE/MAX World Long Drive Championships in Mesquite, Nev., on Saturday, Burger won the event and its $80,000 first prize with a drive that measured a monumental 402 yards, 5 inches. That winning shot came on the last of six chances afforded each contestant in the finals. Burger said he was so focused during that swing he doesn't remember making it.
But the other 400 contestants from the United States and Canada who earned spots in the championship at the Palms Golf Club remember the moment because Burger was the only player that day to hit an inbounds, for-the-money drive longer than 400 yards.
He can hit it farther. Burger, 25, said his fourth drive of the six was still rolling when it crossed the boundary line at 412 yards. He once hit a measured drive of 417 yards, and he split the stripes at 403 during the RE/MAX semifinals in Missouri.
Burger was raised in Beaumont, where he played baseball at Kelly High School and aspired to a professional career in that sport. He moved to Houston recently after graduating from Texas A&M.
Burger has played golf for 10 years and plays well. He carded 29-39--68 once at Cypresswood Golf Club, one of his favorite courses, and drove the green of the par-5 No. 2 hole at Tour 18, another local favorite.
Involvement in long driving began just this year during a friendly round at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla. In his group was an uncle, Mike Clayton, who played on an Oklahoma State team that won an NCAA championship in the 1970s, and one of Clayton's friends.
Burger said he drove the ball longer than usual that day but didn't score particularly well. Afterward, his playing partners encouraged him to, "put my irons and putter away."
He took up the fast-growing sport of long driving in June. To improve his chances, Burger had a custom driver built by Art Sellinger, who heads Long Drivers of America, which hosts a 10-stop professional tour for long-driving specialists.
Burger's winning driver is 50 inches long and fitted with a triple-X stiff Penley shaft. Its head is a Cobra 427 SS with 4-degree loft. (Standard driver length is roughly 45 inches, and average loft is around 10 degrees.)
His path to the world championship began with a qualifying event this summer at a driving range on the city's west side. There, he earned entry into regional competition in Dallas. On the advice of friends and prior to competing in Dallas, he qualified a second time at Norman, Okla., "just in case."
The backup plan proved worthwhile. Burger hit all six balls out of bounds in Dallas. He took advantage of that second regional chance, which forwarded him first to St. Louis and ultimately Nevada.
"The pressure doesn't seem to bother him," Sellinger said. "He's got (club head) speed, raw, young power, and a baseball background."
And an ability to harness those assets.
"With the longer club, it's a lot more about generating lag in your swing and then throwing the club head at the ball," Burger said.
That patient, whipping motion generates tremendous club speed. During the finals, Burger's driver was clocked once at 159 mph. His average is a few ticks slower, but he has made swings measured in excess of 160 mph. (Average swing speed among low-handicap amateurs is around 100-110 mph.)
The combination of power and accuracy does not come naturally, even to gifted athletes. It takes practice, and Burger gets plenty at a local driving range.
"I hit 200-300 balls a night," Burger said, "and I'm up there three or four nights a week."
Now that he is the world's long drive champion and a senior project engineer for a major oil company, Burger has some options to consider.
As champ, Burger earned exemption for the 2004 LDA Tour and five-year exemption into the world championships. If he chose, he could chase a share of that tour's $1 million total purse next year, Sellinger said, or conduct exhibitions around the country.
"It's all up to him," Sellinger said.
Burger said Tuesday that he plans to continue his work, and leaves in two weeks for a yearlong assignment in Wyoming. He will use weekends and vacation time to showcase his driving skills, and he is working with Penley on development of a signature shaft.
There is tremendous talent in this young man, Sellinger said, for swinging a stick and hitting a ball.
"The golf comes from my mom's side," Burger said, "and the baseball from my dad's side."
Gifted as he is in both sports, he might as well be the offspring of Babe Zaharias and Babe Ruth.
Whatever the combination, it works.
[This message has been edited by Special Ed (edited 10/22/2003 9:17a).]
I drove to Michigan from Houston once.