Golf Channel will showcase personalities and excitement surrounding golf’s high-adrenaline competition where champions hit ‘straight-as-an-arrow’ drives more than 400 yards
Oct. 29, 2012 – Long Drivers of America announced today a new, long term broadcast partnership with Golf Channel for the premier event in power golf, the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship, which will move to Golf Channel in 2013 after 17 years on ESPN.
“The move to Golf Channel and NBC will attract a new legion of long drive fans and garner exposure that is unmatched for this event. This is the right move at the right time for the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship, and it will benefit our sponsors, our competitors and, most importantly, our fans,” said Art Sellinger, LDA’s owner and chief executive officer. “With this explosion of interest in the sport, viewers will be able to go behind the curtain of power golf and see the ways and means to achieve superior swing speed and distance.”
The RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship – and the bigger-than-life personalities of the men and women that compete in long drive – will be showcased next year throughout October on Golf Channel through three primetime specials and the first-ever live, two-hour finale. Additionally, NBC will air a 60-minute recap show of the entire RWLDC later in the year, which will mark the first time golf’s premier long drive event in its 38-year history will be seen on network television.
Golf Channel will allow viewers to experience the high-adrenaline excitement of the RWLDC, beginning with grassroots qualifying through regional LDA Tour events and culminating with the Finals on October 30, 2013, when eight finalists compete for the title of RE/MAX World Long Drive Champion.
“As a viewer, it is mesmerizing to see these competitors hit drives to unimaginable distances,” said Tom Knapp, senior vice president of programming for Golf Channel. “This new partnership with the Long Drivers of America will provide Golf Channel the opportunity to showcase one of the most electrifying facets of the game and profile these big hitters across our schedule next October.”
The RWLDC is an annual world championship of long driving, which has taken place each year since 1975 and attracts competitors from all over the world. Finalists in the competition often have swing speeds of up to 150 miles per hour and can hit a ball more than 400 yards, which is more than 100 yards longer than the average PGA TOUR professional. The record distance achieved in the RWLDC is 474 yards.
“There’s no question long drives are one of the most exciting aspects of the game of golf, and the RE/MAX world finals identifies the longest hitters on the planet,” Sellinger said. “In my opinion, LDA’s new partnership with Golf Channel delivers one of the most exciting events in golf to millions of enthusiastic fans and represents the most dramatic development in the evolution of long drive since RE/MAX International signed on as title sponsor. The sky’s the limit for us now.”
About Golf Channel:
Golf Channel is a multimedia, golf entertainment and services company based in Orlando, Fla. The Golf Channel cable network, co-founded by Arnold Palmer in 1995 and part of the NBC Sports Group, is available in more than 120 million homes worldwide through cable, satellite and wireless companies. Exclusive partnerships with the world’s top tours allow Golf Channel to feature more live golf coverage than all other networks combined, added to a programming schedule distinguished by golf’s best news, instruction and original programming. Golf Channel’s digital platform of businesses is led by www.GolfChannel.com, a leading golf destination on the Internet, delivering unmatched coverage of the world of golf, as well as services that help the recreational player with how to play, what to play and where to play golf.
About Long Drivers of America:
Based in Roanoke, Texas, Long Drivers of America (LDA) is the organizational and administrative body for the sport of long drive. Owned and operated by long drive legend Art Sellinger, LDA conducts and oversees the premier event in power golf — the annual RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship. LDA also stages the annual LDA Tour, a series of professional long drive competitions, and the LDA Power Academy, intensive three-day power golf schools.
Contact:
Media Contacts:
David Schaefer, Golf Channel
407-355-4542
dschaefer@golfchannel.com
Dan Higgins, Golf Channel
407-355-4018
dhiggins@golfchannel.com
Steve Wiley, Long Drivers of America
682-549-2105
steve@longdrivers.com
