Club head speed, smash factor and yards. Those are the numbers, especially yards, that have put the sport of Long Drive on the map. But for last Tuesday’s RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship winner Jeff Flagg, the only number that mattered was measured in inches.

Flagg, a 29-year-old former minor league baseball player, edged Jeff Crittenden to win the $250,000 grand prize in Las Vegas, Nev. by booming a 365-yard-drive that landed a mere 13 inches past his competitor. It was the shortest margin of victory in the event’s history.

Cold weather and a stiff crosswind challenged all eight finalists who competed that night. Five matches were decided by 2 yards or less. Surviving the battle of attrition weren’t the sport’s big guns — the Jamie Sadlowski’s or the Joe Miller’s — it was Flagg, an unheralded second-year player who didn’t even have an equipment sponsor until the showcase event in Las Vegas.

Flagg grew up playing baseball. A naturally long hitter, he had ambitions to succeed as a Major Leaguer but his career came to an end playing for the Traverse City (Mich.) Beach Bums of the Frontier League. So he turned to long drive, where he regularly produces 143 mph of club head speed and 213 mph of ball speed.

In spite of being a newcomer, Flagg was among the final 32 competitors at Mesquite, Nev. in 2013, the last stop before Vegas. His rapid advancement in the sport helped convince Connor Powers, his Mississippi State University baseball teammate to take up Long Drive. Like Flagg, Powers was able to take his homemade golf swing and ride it all the way to the Las Vegas Eight.

Without Powers, Flagg wouldn’t have been this year’s Long Drive Champion. He actually failed to advance to Mesquite at a regional qualifier in Alabama earlier this year. All set to pack it in, a conversation with Powers made him change his mind and he ended up punching his ticket to Mesquite through a qualifier in Chicago. After that, Flagg didn’t stop winning.

In my interview with this year’s Long Drive Champion, Flagg discusses the highs and lows of being a long drive competitor. He explains how having control over his swing gave him an edge in the Las Vegas finals and how a subtle adjustment to his Callaway driver might have been the difference between winning and losing. But first, in true GolfWRX fashion, his WITB.

What’s In The Bag?

Driver: Callaway X2 Hot Pro LD (5.5. degrees)
Loft and Lie: Standard
Shaft: UST Mamiya Pat Dempsey LD4 (3X flex, 50 inches)
Grip: Golf Pride Z Cord

The Q&A

RC: For someone who is still pretty new to the long drive competition scene, how does it feel to beat all these veteran players and hoist the championship belt?

JF: It’s unbelievable and it’s been surreal. It’s one of those things where as a new guy, I don’t know if it makes things easier or harder. Maybe it’s easier in the sense that I didn’t have a lot of expectations. But I just love getting out there and competing. It’s a lot like being in a batter’s box back when I was playing baseball. And I don’t see it in terms of it being me competing against another group of guys. It’s really me against myself. I think that’s what really helped me out with the conditions on Tuesday [at the Las Vegas final] and with all the nerves, the lights and the TVs. I just always try to put a good swing on it and see what happens.

RC: How did you feel the day of the finals? Walk me through your routine. Did it change in any way?

JF: For me, waiting around all day was way worse than being at the course. We had all these dinners and showing off all these hype videos a week leading up to the competition. All I know is that my palms were always sweaty and that I was going stir crazy. But once I got there, and I had my coach there with me which was a help, I was able to separate myself from everyone else and go through my routine — that helped. And once you start swinging — you kind of just flip the switch.

I have some swing feels and positions that I try to get into — that’s all I’m consumed with — just trying to hit those spots. That’s what keeps me from getting nervous. I’m not thinking about the fact that I’m on TV, that I’m under the lights. In my mind, it’s just me and the ball.

RC: Tell me about the weather conditions you faced. I would imagine you had a strategy for dealing with the cross winds?

JF: I thought that played to my advantage. From the get-go, when I started this long drive thing two years ago, my coach and I discussed a strategy. There were basically two routes to go. Either tee it high, swing as hard as you possibly can and hope you can time it all up and put a good ball out there. Or build an efficient golf swing that will let you be in control of what you’re doing and help you maintain your balance. So my coach and I decided to take advantage of my bigger frame and long levers to create speed.

The thing is, in long drive, conditions are not always such that it’s going to be 90 degrees with a 15 mile per hour downwind. So the key for me, at least, was to make sure to keep my sequencing consistent in order to be in control of my launch and spin rate numbers.

Take, for instance, the situation in Mesquite. Over there it was downwind so I had to flight it higher. I had to spin it more to keep it up in the air and keep it going. Guys out there were putting up big numbers. Compared to Mesquite, the conditions in Las Vegas was the polar opposite. The two guys in the finals — myself and Jeff Crittenden — we were the ones who could control the spin and control the flight better than the other guys (while still creating speed).

RC: How do feel about making history? Your margin of victory — just 13 inches — is the shortest ever. Do you say to yourself — damn, I got a little lucky?

JF: There’s so many different variables that go into this sport. We don’t hit in a vacuum. If that were the case, we could all go inside and hit off TrackMan and the fastest guy would win.

I know that during my second round I was lucky enough to get through with a drive that only measured 335 yards. But it was in the grid and it was enough. I know that this year, with having to deal with the weather conditions, and having to play shots, it felt more like golf than in past years.

RC: What do you think about the fact that the event was hosted at a golf course this year as opposed to a modified racetrack?

JF: [Laughing] I didn’t get to do the racetrack last year, I only saw it on TV. But I do know it was a unique venue. Look, we’re swinging golf clubs, we’re hitting golf balls — it should be at a golf course.

RC: I read in a recent story that you admitted that you never took golf seriously. 

JF: I won’t say that I never took it seriously. Granted, baseball was always No. 1 and as a kid I would’ve loved to have taken [golf] more seriously. But it’s kind of some of the problems going on now — it’s expensive. It’s not something every kid growing up can participate in. In a way I was lucky. I was at that age growing up that Tiger [Woods] was in his prime. He made it cool. And I remember hitting whiffle balls in the front yard trying to mimic him.

I was always athletic enough growing up to get the ball up in the air. Of course I would shank the ball left and right, but I always enjoyed it. I loved getting out to the course and playing. These days I’m down to a six or an eight handicap. Hopefully I can refine my game a little bit more. Short game’s a little lacking [laughing].

RC: Well, it’s not exactly the same thing as hitting a ball 400 yards.

JF: Exactly, exactly. It is a little bit different. But with the things I’m working on with my coach — it’s crazy to see how the things we do can actually transfer to golf and scoring.

Anyway, I was a power hitter in high school. But when my baseball career was over I was trying to find somewhere to compete, find some way to get those competitive juices going. Just wanting to recreate that feeling of being in the batter’s box. You know — bottom of the ninth, two outs…

RC: Are you surprised that a guy like yourself and your former teammate, Connor Powers, have been able to succeed at long drive in such a short amount of time?

JF: I feel like everything has happened so quick for me, but Connor’s been able to do it in half the time. He actually called me earlier this year, in February or March. He said, ‘Hey, I know you did long drive last year. I may start doing some of that. How was it?’ So I told him about my experience, how fun it was. So I feel like I had a little hand in getting him going.

I know he didn’t have his best outing — he didn’t hit his best balls in Vegas. But with that unconventional swing that he has, moving that clubhead at 156 miles per hour – -it’s pretty impressive. He has the speed… if he can reign that in a little bit he’s going to be tough to beat.

RC: Can you tell our readers a little bit about your physical fitness program. Is it similar at all to the kinds of workouts PGA tour-caliber players perform?

My whole approach is to build a well-rounded, athletic body. You know — front, back, left, right, plus balance. This will allow you to do what you want, whether that’s simply a matter of not feeling hurt when you wake up in the morning or go play 36 holes. Or, if you have the frame and the strength for it, to hit the ball 400 yards.

As far as my workout, I try do everything so that it’s optimized and efficient. Whether that’s lifting or swinging. Personally, I think everyone’s an athlete. If you’ve got a body, then your an athlete. All the different qualities: balance, coordination, strength, go into being an athlete. The more you can train that way (in an athletic fashion), while at the same time moving weight, the more your body will adapt and be better able to perform that athletic skill.

I don’t hit a heck of a lot of balls when I go practice. I kind of just work through the bag. I probably hit maybe 40, 50 drivers. My goal is to train myself to go top-max speed, while maintaining control.

RC: So I would be pretty ignorant if I didn’t bring up the fact that more than half the guys in the Las Vegas Eight were gaming a Callaway X2-Hot driver including yourself. A what point did you get fit for it and why is it such a great club for the long drive competition?

JF: To tell you the truth, just six weeks ago I went to Mesquite with one gamer, just one X2. God forbid if something would’ve happened, I don’t know what I would’ve done because I was on my own. I was under the radar; just some guy who qualified. Nobody knew about me.

Last year I used the X-Hot [the first generation model]. Actually, I used that this year right up until Mesquite. Then I got an X2 head which I took to Mesquite and have ridden it all the way to the championship. I love it. And I’ve been lucky enough to align myself with Callaway. The head just looks so good — it looks like a golf club. Some of the long drive stuff is kind of crazy-looking. Look, they’re effective clubs but they don’t fit my eye as good as the Callaway club. And the thing is, the heads don’t break. If I take something off the rack, I’ll cave the face in pretty quick. But these LD heads that Callaway makes are unbreakable.

RC: Just to clarify some things for our readers — were you recently re-fitted for an X2-Hot at the Ely Callaway Performance Center?

JF: I signed with [Callaway] after Mesquite. I got to go out to Carlsbad where we tried a bunch of stuff, but we didn’t make a whole of changes. Just some small tweaks. We ended keeping the same shaft, same grip and same settings. (I’m a stickler — I love the neutral settings.) All we did was put five grams of hot melt in the heel. If you look at the final results –13 inches — those little tweaks made a big difference.

RC: For those of us who only casually follow the sport of long drive, can you describe the pressure you and your competitors face each year just to make it to the Las Vegas Eight?

JF: I could’ve very easily been on the wrong end of that 13-inch rollout and I could’ve gone home with nothing. So it’s one of those things where you just try to control what you can control. You have to know going in that there’s going to be an element of luck involved: a bad bounce, the breeze kicks up. And all these guys are so close in terms of speed that little things end up making a huge difference in the outcome.

Mesquite itself is grueling. You have to hit in seven to 10 rounds out there against 100 of the best guys in the world.

RC: Now that you’ve won the competition so early in your long drive career, how will you adjust your goals for next season?

JF: The one thing that I learned from last year (my first season competing) that I committed to this year is to stick with a process. To trust that what I’m doing is working. I kept reminding myself of that throughout the different situations: the local qualifier, the regional qualifier, Mesquite and then Vegas.

Going forward I’m going to do what I can do, try to put my best swing on it to hit it as far as I can. And then we’ll see what happens at the end of the day.

RC: Seems like it’s worked out pretty well so far.

It’s been pretty humbling. It’s a dream for everybody to be able to hold that belt. I hope to be a good ambassador for long drive and make a valuable contribution to the golf community.