Dempsey wins windy long drive contest
LA QUINTA, Calif. – Nice day for a long-drive contest, eh?
The wind was blowing steadily at about 20 miles an hour, directly into the long-drive competitors. Furthermore, the grid, or fairway, looked microscopic with a width of 40 yards.
At one point, nine straight drives sailed out of bounds. For the day, just 23 of 68 drives found the grid. Welcome to the long-drive portion of Golfweek's Industry Cup, held Saturday, Sept. 27, at the Greg Norman Course at PGA West.
The Industry Cup is the annual 36-hole tournament bringing together the top players from a variety of golf campanies. The long-drive portion is earmarked for the biggest hitters in the golf industry, with each player allotted three drives in each round of the single-elimination competition.
But, oh, that wind.
Titleist's Grant Martens, the 2013 Industry Cup long drive champion with a poke of 314 yards, had a best this year of 274 yards, 40 yards shorter. Regardless, he went all the way to the final before losing to Pat Dempsey of shaftmaker UST Mamiya.
The longest drive by Martens in the final was 267 yards. Dempsey stepped up, took one swing, and swatted the ball 292 yards for an easy victory. Chalk one up for the old guys, as Dempsey is about to turn 58. Martens is 24.
Dempsey's driver contained a Nike VRS Covert 2.0 head (7 degrees loft) with a UST Mamiya Elements Chrome LD6XXX shaft at 48 inches. Dempsey used the exact same driver last week when he finished second in the Grand Champions division and third in the Super Senior division of the 2014 Re/Max World Long Drive Championship.
This UST shaft, which is about to become available in limited quantities, is marked Pat Dempsey Hall of Fame Long Drive Edition.
Meanwhile, the driver used by Martens was much more normal. It was a Titleist 915D3 with 8.5 degrees of loft. It was 44.5 inches in length with a Fujikura Motore Speeder 7.2X shaft.
Dempsey is famous among those who follow the long-drive circuit. Yes, he is a member of the Long Drive Hall of Fame. Yes, he has won four world championships in different age divisions, although he never played golf seriously until he was 39.
Dempsey is a tour rep for UST Mamiya. traveling as much as 40 weeks per year on the PGA Tour and Web.com Tour. However, he is about to cut back on his tour rep responsibilities.
What will Dempsey do with the extra time? Focus on his golf swing and try to accomplish what no one before him has done. At 58 he wants to make the final 8 of the open division in the World Long Drive Championship. He already holds the record, advancing to the final 8 when he was 45.
"I'm going to try to turn back the hands of time," Dempsey said. "I'm ready to challenge myself. It will give me a reason to get out of bed and keep in shape."
Dempsey was seriously tested in the first round in a match against Andy Curtis of Cobra Puma. After both players missed the grid with all three of their drives, the match went to sudden death. Curtis found the grid with a 242-yard drive, forcing Dempsey into a do-or-die situation. No problem, as his drive split the fairway and measured 271 yards.
The long-drive contest was something of a Cobra Puma feast for Dempsey, as he defeated three Cobra Puma employees in succession – Curtis, Andrew Ash and Brett Viboch – before beating Martens in the final.