“I didn’t feel like it was all that special,” said Borgmeier, who was working a corporate desk job when a few folks noticed his ridiculous length with the driver and decided to take action.

“Some of the guys from that particular golf club saw that and saw me doing it over and over again, and they actually signed me up for a long-drive tournament in Germany,” he added. “I did pretty well there, and then I actually learned what long drive was, and I got into all the nitty gritty stuff of long drive. I got completely hooked.”

Borgmeier wound up finishing second in that event, and the only reason he didn’t finish first was because he hit one drive out of bounds in the final match. Fast forward to 2023, and he’s now the defending champion of the World Long Drive Championship, which is set to take place this week in Atlanta, Georgia, at Bobby Jones Golf Course. Once stuck behind a desk at the cubicle farm, he’s now a long-drive legend who doubles as a social-media influencer with a following of nearly 200,000 on Instagram and a subscriber count over 66,000 on YouTube. In other words, he’s living the dream, all because a few folks signed him up for a random long-drive event in his home country.

“It was such a wild ride when you think about it,” Borgmeier said. “Just because I outdrove a 65-year-old guy, they signed me up for this event.”

If outdriving a 65-year-old was the bar for long drive, we’d all be signing up. Clearly, Borgmeier had plenty of game before, but it’s still hilariously absurd that a few bombs in front of some old guys led to him taking down Bryson DeChambeau and Kyle Berkshire at the 2022 World Long Drive Championship in Nevada. A wild ride, indeed.

Main image: Stuart Franklin

The post The reason Martin Borgmeier got into long drive is kind of absurd appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Rick Gehman
MESQUITE, Nev. — Bryson DeChambeau’s run in the Professional Long Drivers Association World Championship has come to an end, but not without fireworks. DeChambeau was eliminated in the Round of 8 after battling through the Round of 16.

DeChambeau drew a gauntlet group in his first set of the day, battling Martin Borgmeier, Nick Vorbeck and Kyle Berkshire. DeChambeau rallied the crowd with a long drive of 406 yards, beating Berkshire and finishing second to Borgmeier (416 yards).

Last week: Helps U.S. Team win the Ryder Cup
This week: Top 8 at Long Drive World Championships

An impressive showing from @B_DeChambeau. pic.twitter.com/VuDy9OA3WO

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 2, 2021

He would go on to post long drives of 406, 386, 403, 396 and 394 in his five sets. That final shot was worth a victory in set five, propelling him into the next round.

After re-seeding, DeChambeau faced off against Borgmeier, Justin James and Colton Casto — some of the game’s best and biggest hitters. He put forth a valiant effort but posting a long drive of 391 wasn’t enough.

The result certainly surpassed DeChambeau’s expectations before the week began.

“Not even final 16, I thought I’d make it to the round of 32, but getting to the top 16 is pretty sweet,” he said about his pre-event expectations and subsequent performance on Thursday. “To say you’re one of the top 16 long drivers in the world and one of the longest drivers in the world is pretty sweet.”

At this stage in the event, DeChambeau ran up against some of the world’s best long drivers with ball speeds that scant few humans can obtain. He was second on the PGA Tour last season in measured ball speed at 190.72 miles per hour, just behind Cameron Champ. At the World Championships this week, his ball speeds had been recorded as high as 219 mph, a personal record thanks to a singular mindset and equipment designed for maximum distance.

Even that outrageous achievement doesn’t measure up to Kyle Berkshire, for example, who reached a top speed of 229 mph this week. There’s a reason that Berkshire is the reigning world champion and that’s the type of athlete that DeChambeau has attempted to shine a light on this week.

“Just be a part of it and encourage them as much as possible,” DeChambeau told Golf Digest on Friday when asked about his continued advocacy of this sport. “Tell them that if they work on their wedge games, they can be on the Korn Ferry Tour and be on the PGA TOUR … they are good enough.”

Berkshire would go on to defeat Justin James in the finals, winning the World Championships and defending his own title.

After a two-week stretch of golf that spanned both a Ryder Cup and a Long Drive World Championship, DeChambeau indicated that a break will now be coming, offering up the Hero World Challenge as his next likely PGA Tour start.

But this week and on this night, he is not only the seventh-ranked golfer on the planet but also the 6th longest hitter on the planet.

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