Suburban heavy-hitter to compete for $250K in long-drive contest
Austin Christy always brings his hunting rifle case to the range.
But the Elgin native isn't out to shoot.
He's launching bombs instead.
Inside the case are a specialized golf drivers and a few broken club heads from ... well, you'll find out.
Today, the 31-year-old West Chicago resident will begin his journey to compete in the grandest of all long-drive contests.
"It's like the home run derby," he said. "That's the way I look at it."
Christy once hit a golf ball 425 yards, or 1,275 feet.
To put that into perspective, that's a quarter of a mile, or one lap around a high-school track.
That's also more than twice as far as the Guinness World record 634-foot home run that Mickey Mantle hit against the Detroit Tigers in 1960.
If Christy succeeds at the Rockford preliminary today, he could earn a trip to Las Vegas for the Re/Max World Long Drive Championship Oct. 20 through Oct. 25 and a shot at the $250,000 grand prize.
Christy, who owns a basement remodeling business, didn't always have a long-drive title aspirations.
His foray into the world of longest drive competitions began three years ago when he dropped by the Greene Valley Driving Range in Bartlett.
There, Christy caught the attention of a man named Dan Scardini, who won the Duel in the Desert long drivers competition this past June and is the Long Drivers of America player of the month for August.
Scardini liked Christy's swing and decided to measure its speed. Turns out Christy was swinging at around 144 mph, where most professional golfers swing in the 130-mph range.
The power and torque generated by Christy is tough on the body and the club, of course. Over the years, he's (unintentionally) snapped his share of club shafts, which start at about $200.
He doesn't have a swing coach and he shuns wearing a glove. It's just practice, focus and consistency.
In a long drive contest, each contestant gets eight rounds with six shots each. The ball must be relatively straight, landing between markers on a 40-yard-wide grid. The longest overall shot within the boundaries wins.
"It seems easy, but when you start getting distances out to 300, 400 yards, it gets pretty small," said Christy, whose goal this year is to make it to the finals and perhaps land more sponsors.
He finished 16th out of 64 people in the Duel in the Desert in 2007. Two years ago, he finished fifth in a regional competition to make it to the Re/Max event. Only the top four qualified.
Part of Christy's power comes from playing baseball at Elgin High School and at Elgin Community College. He's golfed since he was a kid, but only played golf competitively his sophomore year at Elgin High.
If Christy had a good short game, he might be on a professional tour instead of swinging a hammer most of the week.
After all, there's an old saying: "Putt for dough, drive for show," said Mike Lehman, director of golf services for the city of Elgin.
Still, Lehman said the distance Christy can achieve is rare.
"The average Joe is hitting drives between 250 and 280 yards off the tee," said Lehman, who has golfed for 24 years. "You can see he's 100 yards plus (more than everyone else.) He's just hitting it huge. It's a great thing."
On a recent visit to St. Andrews Golf and Country Club in West Chicago, Christy was launching balls on the fly into the woods behind a red flower bed berm that was more than 300 yards away. Most need a good downhill road to make 300.
"If I don't hit between 380 and 400 (yards), I'm not happy," Christy said.
The driving range supervisor even politely asked Christy to move to the far side of the range so they wouldn't lose so many balls.
"He's not cocky about it at all. He enjoys it," said Christy's friend Chad Jensen of Huntley. "He can hit the hell out of the ball. It's ridiculous."
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="/multimedia/?category=9&type=video&item=237">Clips of Austin Christy golfing </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>