There are plenty of folk used to a long drive here in Caledonia. Anybody who been forced into a diversion at the Rest and Be Thankful, for instance, will vouch for the scunnered truth in that particular statement. Glasgow golfer Ilona Stubley is no stranger to raking distances. And mercifully, that doesn’t includes closures on the A83 and 60 mile detours. As the UK’s Long Driving Champion – and by that we mean the No 1 at battering a golf ba’ off a tee and into the great wide open – Stubley’s game is all about gains. “It’s very addictive,” said the 34-year-old. “You get a bit more serious and you go on the launch monitor and you see you have added a bit of distance and you start thinking ‘I wonder if I could add a wee bit more?’. Initially the goal was to break the 300-yard barrier but then it got to the point where I was more than breaking that. Once you hit a goal, there’s always another one to aim for.”
In a technologically advanced age when all and sundry are getting more distance off the tee, whether it’s the hang-on-to-your hats bombers at the top of the pro game or auld Davy at Linn Park Municipal, the quest to find that little bit more is par for the course.
Stubley could do with a little bit more herself on the competition front. Long driving events require long hauls. With events in China, the US, the Middle East and South Africa, the Scot’s lack of funding leads to a lot of thumb-twiddling. “There are plenty of events but getting to them is difficult,” she added. “It’s a bit uncertain. I won the UK finals and went to the World Championships but I may have to wait until the UK Finals again in the new year to get some competition. It is frustrating. When you watch it the TV, you just want to be there. It gets good coverage on the TV, particularly in the US where it attracts a younger audience who wouldn’t necessarily be into golf. I’m still relatively new to this too and I want to build up my experience.”
In her teenage years, Stubley embarked on a golf scholarship in the USA but, like many, the move across the pond didn’t quite work out. Upon returning to her home city she had “kind of lost the love for the game” but a casual meander round the stands and exhibits at the Scottish Golf Show a couple of years ago stirred a passion for a different type of golf.
“There was a stand with long driving for ladies and someone there saying ‘come and have a go and see how far you can hit’,” recalled Stubley, who was a dab hand at tennis before golf became her main sporting focus. “So I gave it a go and after a couple of hits they said ‘you’ll need to come back for regional qualifying for the UK Championships’. I’d entered something I didn’t know anything about by accident. I went home and started reading up on it. That was it. I got hooked.”
An almighty clatter off the tee always stokes up oohs and aahs. Those who saw Dustin Johnson’s 489-yard humdinger at the WGC Matchplay Championship earlier this season are still re-attaching their jaws to their face. Stubley’s own record comes in at 338-yards, which would certainly give the weekend warriors at the Cowglen club where she is a member the heebie-jeebies.
“It is physically demanding,” she said of the kind of fearsome, swiping activity that’s usually required to fell a Redwood with a blunt axe. “In the UK Championship, for example, you hit six drives in two minutes 45 seconds. You are going all out on every one shot so it takes a lot of effort. I’ve been doing a lot of heavy lifting exercises to increase my swing speed. To get the ideal long drive, everything has to come together. The launch conditions have to be bang on, the strike has to be perfect, everything.”
And in the frenzy to hit a pearler out of the screws, what about that ultimate golfing calamity? “No, I’ve never had a fresh air shot,” she said with chuckling reassurance.
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