Dave Ammerman is heading to the Ultimate Long Drive world championship in South Carolina in October
MOUNT FOREST – A Mount Forest man’s decision to pick up the golf club three years ago out of pandemic boredom may have been the best decision he’s ever made.
Dave Ammerman is a mainstay on the Amateur Long Drive (ALD) Canada summer circuit, and is on his way to his second Ultimate Long Drive (ULD) world championship this October in South Carolina.
“It’s the biggest event I ever hit in, and it gets bigger every year,” he said. “You get to see friends you only get to see once a year from different countries.”
Competitors come from all over the world, from places like Mexico, China, Australia and the UK.
“A few hundred competitors that show up over the five or six day tournament,” Ammerman said.
He first picked up the driver, and other clubs, just to have something to do.
“It was pretty much the only thing I could do,” he said. “There was no hockey, baseball … guys I was playing baseball with in Kitchener, we decided to go out golfing one weekend.”
Shortly after, Ammerman remembers going to a driving range in Burlington in 2022 and saw an advertisement to try a long drive competition.
He didn’t put too much pressure on himself, but he did set a goal.
Ammerman said to himself if he finished top 10, he would consider doing another event. A top five finish, and he would take a swing at training and focusing on the sport.
He finished fourth.
Competitions are held across Canada, though most of the events Ammerman competes in are located in southern Ontario.
He got hold of the organizer of the Z Long Drive (ZLD) league, held in the winter.
Ammerman’s first event in the ZLD was a victory, and he was off to the races.
“After that, I was pretty well … you’re pretty well hooked once you get that first win,” he said.
“You hit 340 (yards), and then next you’re like ‘okay now I want to go to 350,’ then it’s 360 and you just keep climbing and climbing. It’s a never ending game.”
In the long drive, competitors have two sets of six balls each. You have two minutes per set, and the longest of the 12 balls driven is your score.
“Measurements are made by either technology or visual verification depending on the venue and safety concerns,” the ALD Canada website stated.
In competition, he said his record drive was 369 yards at a winter event.
But his overall record came on a golf course a couple years ago, when he drove the ball 374 yards.
Originally from Calgary, Ammerman grew up playing hockey and baseball, with golf as an afterthought.
“I didn’t pick up a golf club till I was probably around 10,” he said.
“It was just going to the driving range and just hitting bombs with the driver. I got pretty good at that, and then obviously Happy Gilmore came out around that same time.”
As a teen, he met six-time World Long Drive champ Jason Zuback, who told him there was nowhere to train in Canada and moved to Arizona.
Wanting to also chase hockey, Ammerman put long drive on the backburner.
After tearing his MCL while playing college hockey out west in 2008-09, he decided to focus on life instead of sport and moved to Ontario.
His swing mechanics aren’t like what you’ve seen in the movies.
No run up to the tee like Happy Gilmore, but he admits jokingly the ligament surgery mentioned in the recent sequel has crossed his mind to improve range of motion.
“I’m 40-years-old now, so I’m not as limber as some of these younger guys, but luckily I have good mechanics and a lot of weight transfer and flexibility that kind of helps me out,” he said.
Last year, Ammerman finished in the top 15 in the 35+ category and top 33 in the open men’s division at the worlds.
He is still classified as an amateur, and works as an asphalt paver. But he does still get to compete against professionals.
At the amateur level, Ammerman said long drive is pretty much “an expensive hobby,” but there is money to be had moving up to the pros.
There, the prize money depends on how many people are involved in the contest and how big the event is.
“There was an event last year in Alberta where first place, I think, was $25,000 or $30,000,” he said, adding entry into the competition was likely north of $1,000.
Turning pro is his next step.
“To be competitive on the WLD side, I’m probably a year out from what I would consider comfortable,” Ammerman said.
“I could jump into the pro ranks now with the ball speeds and the distances that I can put up, but I’m going to be in the lower echelon of athletes in that sport.
“For me, personally, I don’t want to make that jump until I know I can be competitive.”
