Danny Luirette hit second in the finals and posted a drive of 381 yards on his second attempt. Then the big left-hander had to wait.
None of the other seven hitters in the championship round came close, and Luirette earned his second Laughlin Memorial Hospital Long Drive Shootout crown.
More than 30 long drive professionals entered this year’s event on Saturday at Graysburg Hills. It marked the sixth anniversary of the shootout. Luirette has been here four years and finished in the money every time.
“Obviously I like it real well,” said Luirette, who pocketed $10,000 for this year’s victory. “I’ve had two wins, a third and another top 10 in the four years I’ve been here. It’s always been good to me here.”
Luirette, from Bakersfield, Calif., actually made it into the final round as a wild card.
He was hitting in the first group of semifinalists and was only fourth best with a hit of 387. Before the second group of semifinalists could hit, a storm front moved through.
The changing weather affected the competition tremendously. The best hitter in the second round of semifinals wasn’t as good as the worst in the first group.
For comparison, world long drive record holder Scott Smith hit a drive of 407 yards in one of the early qualifying rounds. He hit in the second group of semifinalists and was the longest hitter with a 364.
Once the finals were set, the order was determined by a random draw. Luirette was in the first group of two to hit his six shots and put two of them in the grid. It was his second shot of 381 that counted, and it stood up to win the tournament.
“I don’t mind going out first,” Luirette said. “You get out there, hit it, do your best and don’t worry about it. You’re going to have to hit your best ball to win, anyway. I got in on the wild card. I hit the ball extremely well, but I did get very lucky.”
Local long drive professional Bart Hartsell placed second in the event. Hartsell put only one of six in the grid, but that was a $4,900 ball that went 374 yards. Hartsell said he could have done better, but is happy with the result considering he hasn’t been practicing much lately.
“I haven’t been playing a lot of golf,” Hartsell said. “I get to play about once every three or four weeks. I used to hit balls every day. I think I can still hit it with these guys when I’m on my game, but when you don’t practice enough, it’s kind of hard to compete with these guys that do it all the time.”
Smith placed third with as shot of 365 yards. David Gurekis was fourth at 359, followed by Rock Hicks at 357, defending event champion Jeff Swihart at 355, Michael Zeigler at 354 and John Downey, who failed to hit the grid in the finals.
The longest drive of the day came during semifinals when Swihart launched a shot 408 yards. Smith, Jeff Gavin and Tom Peppard each had hits of 407 yards. Hartsell had a hit of 399 yards in the semifinals.
