Bolton club professional Paul Slater (34) has set a new world long distance record for a golf ball struck by a driver…720 yards.
But don’t try this at home – unless, of course, you have a half-mile long runway in your back garden!
Paul set the record at London’s City airport, the ball bounding 24 yards further than the original record set last month in Australia but PGA Tour regular Stuart Appleby.
He said: "I knew it was right as soon as I hit it. You know when you’ve hit a good shot, the surge goes right through your body. That’s what we do it for, really."
The current RE/MAX European Order of Merit holder and 2004 Scottish long drive champion, remained outwardly calm despite all the acclaim from his fellow long driving competitors and celebrity golfers.
The secret of his success, the Warrington golfer insisted, is about practice and the quality of the club he used.
Paul’s was a new SMT head with two degrees of loft and a 50 Apache shaft which he described as ‘the stiffest I’ve ever tried.
"I took some loft off the club I was using after the first couple of hits because the ball was losing energy on the runway as it was dropping from a height. I owe a lot to Mike Tait, of SMT. Without him I would not have achieved this."
Ross Broadstock, managing director of the
London Golf Show, which hosted the event, explained: "Like everything else to do with the London Golf Show (April 21-24 ExCeL Centre) this has become huge. It’s the first time we have done this and golfers from across Europe turned up and we broke the world record."
Junior golfers and celebrities – including rock legend Rick Wakeman, and rugby stars Zinzan Brooke and Simon Shaw – also participated, with Shaw taking the amateur prize with 465 yards.
