The 2009 Australian Long Drive Championships presented a spectacular weekend of Long Drive Golf under perfect conditions. As there is each year there was jubilation, heartbreak and disappointment. The winners have a year being National Champions and have their place in the record books for eternity. Others through disappointment will be spurred on to greater heights when next year comes. The standard of competition this year was world class.

Open Men's Division:

Mark Bylsma has won his way to the National Title and also a spot at the world championships. It was on his 4th ball that Mark hit his winning drive of 348.6 metres. He was up against Brent Kearney who has also represented been an Australian champion and represented Australia at the World Championship finals. On Brent's 5th ball there was silence as he sailed a solid hit away down the middle. the distance came back at 333 metres though which was still 15m short. He had one more ball to beat Mark with but missed the grid and Mark Bylsma became the 2009 Australian Long Drive Champion.

Mark made it through to the final by beating the World ranked Nathaniel Barnes with 351.3 metres to 340.3 metres. In the other semi final Brent Kearney beat Wayne Stewart 349.3m to 329.3m

Mark will now represent Australia at the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championships next month (October) in Mesquite Nevada - One hour from Las Vegas. Good luck Mark - all our hopes and wishes are with you.

Mark's off to the World Championships in Mesquite!

Australasian Long Drive Tour Final

Craig "The Animal" Grigson is the 2009 Australasian Tour Champion. After fighting his way through 5 rounds he made it into the final, up against the ever dangerous Bent Kearney. Brent has won this title before and wanted it again. In a great finish Craig won the title with 333.2 metres to Brent's 317.5m

Anthony Donovan finished in third place and Jason Atkins in fourth. Congratulations to all the competitors.

Craig "The Animal" in a serious moment

Senior Men's Division:

In the Senior Division Long Drive newcomer Andrew Brennan won the National Title on his first attempt. In the Semi final he beat the defending champion Graeme McCurdy with 305.0m to 290.7m. His opponent in the finals won his way through with the longest hit of the semi finals at 311.3 metres over Michael Grant 282.0m.

In the final he started with a 289.7 metres. Mark Sanford hit 287.6m and was just trailing, but knew he could hit well over 300m. Andrew increased his best distance to 290.3m on his last ball but had to endure waiting for Mark to hit his last ball. Mark's last ball rolled out and Andrew is the 2009 Australian Champion.

All four competitors in this division were extremely competitive and congratulations to them all.

Andrew Brennan (1st), Michael Grant (4th), Mark Sanford (2nd), Graeme McCurdy (3rd)

Super Seniors Division:

The Super Senior division provided Kerry Devenish with his first National Title after 5 years of competiton. It was a tense and exciting final. Kerry hitting second hit 258 metres with his first ball. This was in the lead until defending champion Wayne McDonald hit 268m on his 5th ball to take the lead. On the last ball of the playoff Kerry had to hit past the 268 metres to win the championships. He caught one perfectly and it sailed past the 268m mark all he way to a new Australian Record at 301.4m.

In the Saturday eliminations one of the favourites Brendan Gorman had a shock exit when he hit all six balls out. A world class competitor he had to watch from the grandstands. He'll be back next year hungrier than ever.

In the semi finals Kerry Devenish got through beating Peter Atkins 291.0m to 275.0m. In the other semi final Wayne made his way through with 289.3m to 260.6m against Gordan Hall.

A high class field, a last ball win and a new Australian Record. Well done.

Kerry Devenish - Champion and Australian Record Holder

Junior Girls 14 years and under:

The Junior girls divsion had 2 great ambassadors for the sport with Erin Chiverall up against Jasmin McCurdy. Both girils had broken the Australian Championship on Saturday in qualifying with Jasmin qualifying in number 1 spot.

Erin Chiverall started things off with a 100m drive. Both girls had hit way past this on the previous day so knew it wouldn't last, but this ball held the lead until Jasmin's 3rd ball of 180.0m. This was the eventual winning ball and created a new Australian record at 180.0m. Erin could not bridge the gap and finished a fine 2nd place. Congratulations to both girls for a great weekends competition and adding something really special to the Australian Championship finals.

Erin Chiverall (2nd) and Jasmin McCurdy (1st)

Australia's best Trick Shot:

This was a new competiton and we weren't sure what to expect. We had hitting from the knees, Happy Gilmores and hitting the middle ball from a sleeve of balls. The final 3 contenders all deserved a trophy.

Jason Atkins had the most technical trick shot hitting a drive while sitting on a swiss ball which itself was sitting on a swiss ball. An amazing feat!

Craig Grison's effort was the funniest. Holding his club in the air he quickly twirled around 10 times then tried to hit his ball. He missed by further than some of his drives and finished in a heap on the ground. It was very funny to watch

Young Jasmin McCurdy stole the show though when she elegantly walked to the tee and exectured a perfect one arm drive down the middle of the fairway.

It was great fun, congratulations to all who participated and expecially Jasmin who took home the trophy.

State Shield:

NSW are once again the State Shield Champions. Graeme McCurdy, Anthony Donovan, Jason Gruber and Ben Dyer hit a combined 1,227.6 metres to beat Queensland on 946.1 metres with WA in third place. Half way through the competition QLD were leading by 25 metres, but hten last their chance with a zero score. The same happened with WA on their 3rd ball. All NSW had to do was hold it together and score with their final 2 players and the title was theirs.This they did with style with Gruber hitting 307.6 metres as third hitter. All Ben Dyer had to do was land one on the grid at a qualifying distance of 200 metres or more and the title would be there's. Did he hit conservatively - NO. He hit the longest ball of the State Shield playoffs with 322.1m to prove NSW are the champions.

Congratulations to NSW and all the competitors.

QLD (2nd), NSW (1st) and WA (3rd)

Team Championships:

It was Team Slide (Moylan and Dick) up against longdriver.com.au (Gruber and Bylsma). After round 1 Team Slide was winning with 323.3m to 286.3 metres a lead of nearly 40 metres. Big Mark Bylsm then went to the tee with no intentions of handing over the trophy. He smashed one 333.4 metres to give his team a total of 619.7 metres. Ian Dick hitting for Team Slide would need to hit over 296.4 metres to win. In an extremely close finsih he hit 300.4 metres and Team Slide are the champions by a mere 4.0 metres.

Team Slide (Brendan Moylan and Iain Dick)

Champion Club

Colonial Golf Club almost own this trophy. Mark Sanford, Brent Kearney nad Graeme McCurdy hit 963.7 metres to win this trophy yet again. Congratulations on the title and a great score.

Colonial Golf Club Team (Graeme McCurdy, Mark Sanford and Brent Kearney)

Other Pics. (More to come)

A very happy Mark Bylsma

Bylsma in action

Australia's Top 8 (Nathaniel Barnes, Mark Bylsma, Jason Gruber, Wayne Stewart, Brent Kearney, Iain Dick, Craig Grigson and Jason Atkins)

Australasian Tour Brent Kearney 2nd with Craig Grigson 1st. To the left is Michael Shield president of the Esk Golf Club and to the right the Mayor of the Sommerset Regional Council Graeme Lehmann.

Craig Sconce in action

Ian Dick

Brendan Moylan - longest hit of the tournament with 359.3m

Super Senior competitors (Kerry Devenish, Wayne McDonald, Gordon Hall, Brendan Gorman and Peter Atkins)

Defending Champion (Seniors) Graeme McCurdy - not to be his year this year

Pinnacle Gold FX Long - Official Long drive ball

Wayne Stewart 4th

Brendan Moylan willing his ball on!

Jason Atkins- having a great time and a great season