Long drive record was ‘not just luck’
Smashing a golf ball 371 metres is a shot that ’’doesn’t happen often’’, Kiwi world record-breaker Phillis Meti says.
‘‘It’s a really rare occasion where everything happens as it should.’’
The 30-year-old west Aucklander broke the women’s world record for the longest drive with a monster shot in Denver in the United States on July 26 (NZT).
‘‘It’s pretty overwhelming to be honest. I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet, but it’s been an interesting 24 hours.’’
Various US media outlets had suggested her semifinal drive had hit a sprinkler to advance her ball 60m.
But Meti said no sprinklers were on the grid and the ball had hit a ‘‘crack or hard spot’’.
‘‘You figure out where it’s good to land the ball. We always knew the right hand side was going to be hot and I’m just lucky enough to have put it on the right crack I suppose.’’
‘‘It’s just part of the game. There isn’t anything else I can do about that.’’
American Troy Mullins claimed the Mile High Showdown event title, but Meti stole the limelight with her world record shot. Meti credited her success to her parents’ reminders of ’’doing the small things right, and the big things will come’’.
Her father Raz Meti died of cancer in 2015 and his death pushed her to complete her studies in sport and recreation at AUT in Auckland.
‘‘That was a huge gamechanger for me,’’ she said.
‘‘Born and raised’’ in west Auckland, Meti moved to Avondale in 2015 and her rise to golfing royalty began again the year after.
She claimed the world longdrive title in Oklahoma in 2016 – an event she’d previously won in 2006 and was runner up in 2007 and 2008.
Meti had been competing in the US since April after making the ‘‘hard decision’’ to pursue a professional golf and long-drive career.
Now she’s teeing up her third world title next month.
‘‘I’ve had to compete against the men if I was to get any kind of competition match fitness time . . . because the girls don’t have many events to practice on,’’ she said.
She planned to become an ambassador of the sport to ‘‘get more Kiwis who can hit the ball a long way and give the people over here a good run for their money.’’