Hitting a golf ball over 300m? Snow worries

Ben Morgan, of Whangarei, takes a swing from the balcony of the Chateau Tongariro during the New Zealand Long Drive Championships. Picture / Alan Gibson

New Zealand's 2005 long drive champion Davyn Nola has no trouble explaining why he loves nothing more than to belt a golf ball as far as he can.

"To hit it 380 yards [350m] plus in front of a big crowd is the best feeling in the world," he says.

The 31-year-old Aucklander is one of 18 golfers from New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Sweden taking part in the inaugural Long Drive World Cup at the Chateau Tongariro this weekend.

A separate event - the New Zealand Long Drive Championships - was held at the venue yesterday as a qualifier for the world finals in Nevada this year.

In long drive, players power the ball down a fairway, aiming to hit it as far as possible.

The Chateau fairway is 380m long and 40m wide, and players have the advantages of natural elevation (the green is about 1000m above sea level) and their tee-off point on the hotel balcony, which adds another few metres in height. Nola said altitude boosted distance by 10-15 per cent.

A salesman at a golf store, he said the popularity of long drive was evident in the equipment customers wanted.

"No one cares about putters, sand wedges and irons. They go straight for the big dogs, because they are the sexiest thing in the game of golf."

And it is not just men who are getting into long drive. Auckland student Phillis Meti, who had not tried long drive until a week ago, got the top score in the women's section of the New Zealand championships, hitting the ball a whopping 281.92m.