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By less than the length
of a golf club shaft, Jason Zuback was denied
a fifth consecutive RE/MAX World Long Drive championship
Sunday, Oct. 22, at Palms Golf Club in Mesquite,
Nev.
In the wind-blown finals
– postponed from Saturday due to 60-mph winds
and stormy conditions – Zuback was edged 315 yards
to 314 by Sweden’s Viktor Johansson, who won the
Scandinavian regional tournament. In the finals,
a strong wind in the golfers’ faces kept distances
down.
Johansson, 22, attends
East Carolina University in Greenville, S.C. He
pocketed $75,000 of the $275,000 purse. Zuback,
a resident of Calgary, Alberta, was the first
four-time Long Drive champion.
In the early qualifying
rounds, Johansson became the first Long Drive
competitor to record a 400-yard drive in the three
years the event has been held at Palms. More than
a dozen 400-yard drives were recorded overall.
Stacy Shinnick of El
Cajon, Calif., won the inaugural Women’s Division
with a drive of 249 yards. And Mike Gorton of
Lafayette, Colo., was the Senior champion with
a blast of 310 yards.
Representatives from
the United States, Canada, South Africa, Germany,
Austria, Japan, England and Puerto Rico competed
in the championship.
The finals will be televised
by FOX Sports Net on Christmas Day. Check your
local listings for time.
The RE/MAX World Long
Drive Championship is an eight-month program that
provides local golfers, who think they can hit
it big, the opportunity to visit a local golf
facility and take their best shot at becoming
the RE/MAX World Long Drive Champion.
The RE/MAX World Long
Drive Championship is open to all amateur and
professional golfers at every skill level. Every
participant has a chance to win the world championship.
In 2000, the event will
be viewed by an estimated television audience
of more than 10 million. The finals will be shown
on FOX Sports Net on Christmas Day. Check your
local listings for time.
More than 300 Local
Qualification Events were held in 2000, and more
than 12,000 golfers in a dozen countries participated.
Please check the Marketing
Materials on this Web site for further details
on how to enter, etc.
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