The world of Lisa Longball
A rare glimpse into the real life of a Canadian athlete
A sweet moment: Prior to competition, Vlooswyk shared some fun with Luke—Photo courtesy Lisa Longball
The 2009 Women’s World Long Drive Championship was held October 2 and 3 in Palm Springs, California. This is the pinnacle event for the sport of Women’s Long Drive. Typically the event has been organized and run by Long Drivers of America (LDA) and the championship finals for women have been held since 2000 in Mesquite, Nevada. The LDA removed the Women’s Division from their roster after the 2008 finals citing lower enrolment and a lack of economic feasibility. The Open Men’s, Seniors’ and Super Seniors’ Division World Championships continue to be hosted by the LDA and will take place in Mesquite from October 26 - 30, 2009. The women’s event is now run by the International Women’s Long Drive Alliance headed by Pamela and John Joseph. The inaugural event was a huge success and was a World Class experience. I recently returned from the competition and would like to share my journey with you. To give a little background, my nickname is Lisa Longball (because no one could spell or pronounce my last name—Vlooswyk). I am a born and raised Albertan and I won my first Canadian National Long Drive Championship title in 2001 and have retained it every year since. I won the 2004 LDA Tour Championships and my top finish at the World Championships was third place in 2005. The following year, I was the first pregnant athlete at World Championships and teed up six and a half months pregnant and still squeaked in a top ten finish, a place I have become familiar with the last two years. Athlete and mother My son is now 2, and I am the only competitor that has a young child, which presents unique and interesting challenges. In addition to the pressure of picking cute outfits that will look good on TV (reader note: white on the bottom is not tremendously slimming on television, I found that out the hard way once) and packing my clubs with sawed off hockey sticks and concrete form sonotubes (ok, yes, can you tell I married an engineer?) to ensure the sticks will arrive safely with unsnapped over length shafts was the least of my worries. We arrived at Calgary International Airport at 6:00 am on Friday October 2. In addition to luggage and my clubs we had two backpacks filled with children’s toys, books, snacks, and games. I snuck a few Golf Digests and Golf magazines in there but who was I kidding…no time to read on the plane with a little one. It took over an hour to get through customs and security. There are only so many times one can sing Dora the Explorer songs and make a bag tag look interesting to an active toddler. Apparently Diego yogurt is a potential bomb hazard and was confiscated, but a small yogurt drink under 100 ml, once placed in a plastic Ziploc bag…was now no longer a threat to National Security. Once through to the gates my husband Anton and I were able to tempt our son Luke with nutritionally sound egg sandwiches from Harvey’s and what appeared to be hash browns. Luke has flown many times for my competitions and or events but this was the first time he had his own seat. Like any good parent we purchased a DVD player for the flight to try to entertain our little man on the journey to Denver then onto Palm Springs. The trick worked magnificently until the flight attendant asks for all electronic devices to be turned off during decent. You can imagine the hullabaloo that ensured. That’s when Dora the Explorer sugary snacks come in very handy as a bribing technique. Hitting the greens Once in Palm Springs it was off to find a driving range. This proved to be a difficult task as most of the courses in the Palm Springs were overseeding and ranges were closed. While I was practicing, Luke hit balls for the first time with non plastic shafts. It was pretty exciting. Even though he has a bit of a hockey player move—a true Canadian—and his shafts were too long, he seemed to have a good swing. We hope to use the pictures at his wedding one day. That evening it was the Players’ Welcome Reception held at the Spotlight 29 Casino just out of Palm Springs. We were treated to martinis, and scrumptious appetizers and we each were taken aside for individually recorded interviews with a cameraman. We went over the rules of the event which included one on the tee at a time. Each competitor receives six balls, has three minutes to hit the balls which must land in and stay within the grid that was 380 yards long and 40 yards wide. The longest ball of each set would be officially measured. We then all received forms to fill out so that the announcer would have some fun and interesting tid bits to share about each of us as we came to the tee. Upon leaving we all received a gift bag with a beautiful collapsible putter (drive for show, putt for dough…heard it before) and many other fun goodies. Prepping for competition It was off for a good night’s sleep before competition day. The sleep was slightly interrupted as Luke got up at his standard 6:45 in the morning but with the time zone change it was actually 5:45 am desert time. My husband kindly got up and took Luke for a drive so I could get a bit more sleep before the big night. They checked out Home Depot and with a lack of the standard Saturday morning stop at Tim Horton’s, went to Starbucks instead. Once they got back it was off to another driving range to have a short practice session and prepare for the evening. The focus of my practice was to get into a rhythm of hitting sets of six balls in three minutes and a pre-shot routine. I practiced hitting solid shots and pretending to have the pressure to have to make it happen on the last ball, if need be. At 5:00 it was off to the grid. A large electronic sign welcomed the competitors and had each of our names scrolling waiting for numbers to be posted beside. We warmed up and chatted on the range complimenting each other when we knew a ball was well struck. We stayed hydrated as it was over 30 degrees Celsius and the cooler night air would be a blessing. After each girl was introduced to the crowds in the grandstands it was off to the first round. The field was smaller than in previous years but was stacked. There were no easy rounds this time as in the past. All the girls except one had international experience in long drive competition and had all won an event at one point. Former World Champion and Los Angeles Fire Fighter, Sheila Keller, European Champion Sandra Carlborg and former Swedish National champion Helena Rhodin were all among the competitors that were looking to bring home the title. Taking on the challenge We went through a series of six rounds with a double elimination format. The winds continued to increase in intensity through the competition and unfortunately were in our face. After three rounds the field continued to get whittled down until the final round which would be a fresh start final with the top three seeds from the round. We competed in reverse order and certified instructor and physical trainer on the PGA Tour Leanne Quinn from the United States was up first. She hit a great ball—256 yards into a 50-70 km/hr head wind. I was next to go. I looked over at my husband and son and couldn’t believe how good my little guy was being—as he to be there for over three hours in the stands—and how supportive my husband was. I felt very lucky at that moment, like I had already won. I had a great set hitting four of my six balls in. I smashed a ball 276 yards which felt like 330. I knew it was a great number in those conditions but I was nervous with one competitor left. Current European Tour player Carlborg who lead the competition came up and hit her first three balls OB. She killed her fourth ball and the crowd went nuts thinking it may be the winning drive. It was called back one foot short of mine. The excitement built. I couldn’t believe I was two balls away from potentially being the World Champion. She hit her fifth ball and it started to drift right. It landed in at 281 yards and she won the event. She was a gracious champion and it was well deserved. We stood up for the cheque presentation and Carlborg received a Happy Gilmore-sized cheque. We teased that she should take it into the bank like that. All of the girls were fantastic and extremely supportive of each other; the way the sport should be. We celebrated as a group afterwards and I am already excited about training for 2010 to try to move up one spot and bring the World title back to Canada.