{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
TAMPA, FLORIDA | By his own admission, Art Sellinger beat the hell out of himself.
The deterioration started as a top junior from Las Vegas who played college golf at UNLV and then moved to Houston with his brother, Saul, a club professional. After missing out on qualifying for the World Long Drive Championship in 1983, ’84 and ’85, Sellinger made it through the regional stage in 1986 and then won it all in the national competition, hitting a drive 311 yards — measly with today’s technology but monstrous at the time.
His ability to crush a golf ball into orbit sent him all over the world.
During the next three decades, Sellinger conducted more than 2,100 clinics, full of long drives and trick shots, in more than 30 different countries. He won a second long-drive title in 1991 and then bought the championship itself from Golf Digest in 1994, setting off on a 20-year run where he transformed the competition into a true spectacle. Before Sellinger, the long drive championship was usually an afterthought attached to PGA Championship week or buried at a location near sea level where drives were no more impressive than what a typical PGA Tour pro could accomplish. And several PGA tour pros did win the event in the ’70s and ’80s, from John McCommish to Lon Hinkle to Dennis Paulson.
Under Sellinger’s leadership, the entire dynamic changed. He moved the event under the lights to the visually stunning Mesquite, Nevada, and upped the production quality to where the long drivers, known as hitters, took on larger-than-life personas.
There were characters like Golfzilla (Jason Zuback) and The Beast (Sean Fister). Hitters like Jamie Sadlowski and Joe Miller became not just long drivers but marketable athletes who were setting world records for ball speed in front of raucous galleries encouraged to do everything you aren’t supposed to do when watching golf.
The fireworks, literal and figurative, made people stop and watch. Even non-golfers, surfing channels at home, couldn’t turn away from the furious pace, the screams after impact and the outward displays of raw emotion a PGA Tour player would never show.
It was golf’s response to WWE in its theatrics and storytelling. Sellinger, wanting to develop the sport into something recognizable and understood, sacrificed his body as a competitor and a master promoter to make it all possible.
“I always thought the spectacle of hitting a ball as far as humanly possible would be something people would be interested in,” Sellinger said. “I got out in 2015 because I took it as far as any individual could take it. It’s like Dana White took UFC to where he did. But without the Fertitta Brothers, he wouldn’t have what he has. And I didn’t have those guys.”
Sellinger sold the championship to Golf Channel but stayed involved as a lead color commentator on the broadcast. Long driving continued to gain notoriety over the following five years, going from one televised event to six. Entering 2020, the long drive circuit was coming off its two most-viewed seasons. Its last full year of competition in 2019 saw more than 130 million people tune in to watch nearly 120 hours of television coverage. There were 96 men and 20 women who competed in the last world championship, gaining entry from dozens of qualifiers all over the world.
Never has the sport been more popular. However, its future is now shrouded in mystery.
CLICK HERE TO READ THIS UNLOCKED STORY AT GGP+... AND USE COUPON CODE GGP48 TO SAVE 20% ON AN ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION