Jeff Linville | The Mount Airy News

SCC golfer Justin Young rears back for a hard swing at Hardy’s Custom Golf Center. Young will be showing others how to hammer long drives in a clinic at Hardy’s on Wednesday.

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North Surry and SCC golfer Justin Young is holding a long-drive clinic this week before he heads off to Nevada for the world championship later this month.

Young heads for Mesquite, Nev., Oct. 20 to compete in the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship. Back in June, Young took fourth in a regional event in Tennessee to qualify for the world tournament.

Because of all the expenses involved in this trip, Young and his family have been seeking local sponsorship. As his way of giving back to the community, the young man will show others some of the techniques needed to maximize power off the tee.

He will be at Hardy’s Custom Golf Center on N.C. 89 this Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Expect to see the golfer blast some shots 400 yards or more.

At the match in Tennessee, Young had to take a little power off to keep the ball inside the narrow landing strip and still reached 375 yards.

In a head-to-head battle, each golfer gets six balls. It isn’t enough just to swing for the fences – the ball must come to rest inside a narrow alley on the fairway, typically 40 yards across.

The dimensions would be like hitting a 100-yard pitching wedge onto a green just 30 feet across – except the player is swinging as hard as he can.

Young said he used two different Adams drivers for the event. One has a loft of 7 degrees, while the other is even flatter at 5 degrees. The entire club is 50 inches long, the maximum allowable for the competition, and the stiffness of the shaft is a 3X.

These clubs were made just for long-drive matches, he noted, and cost $500 to $600 each. He hopes that he can attract enough attention at the championship that Adams takes a sponsorship interest in him.

As for his competition, most of these long-drive specialists are not good golfers. In fact, Young said many of the people he met at the regional don’t even play golf. He met a 6-foot-7 college basketball player from the Midwest and several “bodybuilder types” who just focus on drives.

Some of these upper-level hitters have big corporate sponsorship, noted his dad. They fly around the country taking part in long-drive contests with sponsors footing the plane and hotel bills.

Those interested in helping sponsor Justin on his trip may contact his father, Joe Young, at 648-2299.

Reach Jeff Linville at jlinville@heartlandpublications.com or at 719-1920.