Long Drive World Series

Dubai amateur Ricky Dominquez catches the long bomb bug.

Tpredicts an exciting future for the Long Drive World Series after upstaging reigning world champion Joe Miller to win the inaugural tournament in Dubai.

The 30-year-old American overpowered world No.6 and Thursday qualifier Ryan Reisbeck 335 yards to 329.5 in the final and also produced the longest hit of the event at 341 yards in his first round elimination of countryman Ryan Steenberg.

Miller, undefeated in 19 straight tournaments heading into Dubai, finished outside the prizes after being outmuscled 331-316 yards by 19-year-old Swede Emil Rosberg in the playoff for third after earlier being toppled 336-316 yards by Reisbeck in the semifinals.

A gusty 25mph headwind at Jumeirah Golf Estates kept the distances in check - Burke’s competition best is a 469 yard bomb and Miller’s a 474 yarder - but not the champion’s enthusiasm for the new series.

“Oh, it’s huge…I mean this has the potential to take the sport to a new level, more worldwide, so I’m super, super excited,” Burke said. “It was a great win in my first time competing since I lost my world championship belt last year. So yeah, it’s good. I’m back in 2017 with vengeance, I guess.”

So could the LDWS, earmarked to visit London, Asia and the US this year and return to Dubai and possibly Abu Dhabi in 2018, usurp the existing World Long Drive Association and its established world championship?

“Who knows,” said Burke who won WLDA world titles in 2013 and 2015. “But there’s a ton of people here [the crowd was estimated at 500], I mean I’ve never seen so many people come to a long drive tournament so yeah, it’ll be huge. It’s great to see what’s going on and it will be cool to travel to different places around the world as well.”

The tournament, spiced up with all the usual long drive razzmatazz including a live DJ and pyrotechnics, clearly found the two form players with father-of-five Reisbeck, who had flown into Dubai in the hope of qualifying, producing the second longest nudge of 349 yards in the seeding round.

“It was more about ball flight tonight than speed and power, just trying to keep the spin rate down and hit a flat shot and fortunately it got me the longest ball along with the win,” said Burke. “You just have to concentrate on solid contact more than speed, make sure I’m hitting the centre of the face and trying to hit up on it a little more to make sure the spin rates are down so it goes through the wind.”

Event promoter Lucas Dornan and Dubai amateur Ricky Dominguez were the two players eliminated in the seeding round.