Want to know how to hit it like a World Long Driver? Before we start, congrats Josh Cassaday for qualifying for the 2017 World Long Drive competition this past weekend at Mesquite! He will be one of only 96 competitors in the 2017 Open Division Championship. Let’s see what it takes to make it.
When Josh Cassaday (right in the picture) started working towards qualifying for the World Long Drive competition a couple of years ago, he had all of the physical talent (swing speed, solid contact) but needed a little work on a couple of issues that were robbing him of distance. First was attack angle. His negative attack angle created so much backspin that he was barely getting 340 yards on his drives. When he came back 6 months later, he had dramatically changed to a positive 4 to 6 degrees that dropped his spin under 2,500 rpm and put him out to that 380 – 400 yard magic mark.
After he competed in the 2016 World Long Drive competition, he also started working with another long drive competitor on increasing his club head speed even more. The results have been pretty amazing putting him at a 140 mph+ club speed.
And of course, getting in better physical and mental shape to know that he is competing at the highest level in his sport. If you want to be the best you have to prepare and compete with the best!
From an equipment perspective, it took us a little while to get Josh dialed in to the proper shaft weight, tip profile and flex to keep him in the grid and create the optimal launch and spin. Ultimately, he is playing a 48″ driver (maximum LDA and USGA length), with a Krank 7 head at 5 degrees loft. The shaft is roughly 70 grams and XXXX flex. The actual flex is 12.0 on the FCM scale. Put in perspective, a PGA Tour player is usually at a 7.0 to 8.5 flex with a 45″ driver. At the end of the day, these strong, fast swings need a great combination of weight, flex and shaft profile just like any other golfer.
Way to go Josh! You are an inspiration to any golfer that wants to take their game to the next level!!
Dan Sueltz
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