Louis Oosthuizen joined golfing great Jack Nicklaus as a winner of the US PGA Championship Long Drive competition, after delighting fans in Kentucky with an unbeatable 340 yard monster.
The South African Major Champion was one of many in the assembled world-class field in Valhalla who chose to take part in the fun event staged at the 10th hole on Tuesday, with the top three receiving a money clip inspired by the one that Nicklaus was given for the first of his two consecutive wins in 1963.
Oosthuizen managed to edge out Jason Day’s previous-best of 338 yards to earn the big drive bragging rights, as well as a $25,000 donation to be split between two charities in his name.
“When we got to the tenth and I saw all the names up on that board, I knew I needed to hit it a long way,” said Oosthuizen. “So I had to find that extra gear. Normally it doesn't go straight, but I think the wind was in my favour.
“It’s just fun to take part in these competitions. You have the Par three at Augusta, you have the caddies hitting the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, and you have this. It just allows us to relax a bit and entertain the fans at the same time.”
Man of the moment Rory McIlroy didn’t win a prize for the first time in a couple of weeks, after missing the fairway with both of his efforts.
While third place went to Oosthuizen’s playing partner for the day, Johan Kok, who is one of the 20 PGA club professionals in the field for the year’s final Major.
Kok was presented with his money clip by the President of the PGA, Ted Bishop, who hailed the event as a success.
“It was a fun day,” said Bishop. “I think we accomplished everything that we hoped to do with this competition. We tried to make it player friendly, we tried to make it comfortable and we tried to make it not an imposition on the players in any way, shape or form, and it was very interesting to follow the leaderboard as the day went on.”
Although Oosthuizen took this year’s title in Louisville, the scene of the first Long-Drive competition in 1952 was at Big Spring Country Club, where somewhat fittingly it was 18-time Major Champion Jack Nicklaus who set the record for the longest drive in the event.
Nicklaus achieved his winning mark of 341 yards in 1963, using a persimmon driver and a wound ball.
