No Long Shot: Brent Surratt a Serious Contender for Driving Crown 
By HARRIS PREVOST 

It's an instructional piece in every golf magazine – usually the cover story. It's the focus of every golf ball and driver ad. It's on the mind of every golfer from age eight to eighty. It is “distance,” as golfers everywhere are obsessed with getting a few extra yards.

Imagine a pairing of Mike "Radar" Reid and Corey Pavin, two of the most accurate pros on the tour – 250 yards down the middle every time – teeing off No. 1 at the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic, and a pairing teeing off No. 10 at the same time that includes John Daly. Who are you going to follow?

Golfers love to see long drives, and more so, hit them themselves.

North Carolina has had some big hitters in its day, and currently it has some of the best.

A couple of generations ago, Big Dave Smith from Gastonia was turning all the heads. Sam Snead called him "Big 'Un." Dave's brother Charlie was a member of the U.S. Walker Cup Team, but everybody talked about Big Dave's drives.

The 2000 world long driving champion was a 6-foot-6, 275-pound Swede named Viktor "Swing Kong" Johansson, who can bench press 465 pounds. He also is a good player – he was a member of the East Carolina golf team for three years and worked out as a tight end on the football team.

Some other Tar Heel heavy hitters currently making names for themselves include Dave Mobley from Charlotte and Derek "Big" Foote from Smithfield, son of former major league catcher, Barry Foote.

The hottest new long driver in the state, though, is Brent Surratt from Matthews. Surratt, 26, has placed in the top 10 in the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship three times in his five-years as a professional long driver.

Last year was his best. Surratt won two tournaments, placed seventh in the International Championship, fourth in the Pennsylvania Championship and 10th in the World Championship.

There is no true professional long driver tour in the sense that there is a PGA Tour, but there are eight quality events and several others a notch below that together comprise an informal tour. Surratt's accomplishments are even more dramatic considering that he was in a head-on automobile collision during the summer and had to practice and compete with neck and back pain.

"There are around 250 competitive long drivers across the country regularly attending our events, and thousands of others try to compete through local and regional qualifying," says Surratt. "Around 25 can beat par regularly (Surratt is one of them).

"We are like a family," he continues. "We pull for each other, we socialize with each other and we help each other with our swings and equipment needs.

"We have three majors – the RE/MAX World Championship near Las Vegas, the International and the Texas Shootout. Five other tournaments are not far behind.

"The Texas Shootout field had seven world champions including Sean Fister, Jason Zubak, Art Sellinger and Brian Pavlet. I won it. That was a milestone victory for myself on the national level. After that win, I knew that I have the ability to win the World Championship."

Surratt's long drive the first day in Texas was 389 yards, but he was especially proud of his 363-yard drive the second day against the wind and in soggy conditions. His longest drive in competition is 420 yards.

Surratt's Texas win plus his other strong showings earned him a place on the USA Long Drive Team. The seven-member U.S. team competed in Toronto against a team made up of the best from the rest of the world in the "Ryder Cup of Long Driving." The USA team came away with the victory.

Long drive competitions usually take a couple of days with the field narrowed to the finalists on the last day. Each player hits six balls on a flat fairway 40-48 yards wide. Each competitor counts his longest drive within the fairway on the last day to determine the winner.

Most long drive tour fields have 64 professionals. The RE/MAX World Championship began with more than 12,000 entrants from around the world. Its field also includes women's and senior's divisions and totals 160 participants, who compete for a $300,000 purse. The winner in the men's division took home $80,000. The event is televised every Christmas Day afternoon on ESPN.

Professional long drivers are a different breed from long hitting tour players. Everyone raves about drives hit by Tiger Woods and John Daly, but they can't compete with these guys. The tour players work more on accuracy and their short games while the long drive pros focus on distance and more distance.

Current world champ Sean Fister generates a clubhead speed that has been clocked at 150 mph. Brent Surratt's clubhead speed averages 144-150 mph while Tiger and John Daly are in the 128-134 mph range.

Surratt actually began golfing as a hobby. Baseball was his sport at Pfeiffer University, but Kris Ambrose, a former professional golfer and the wife of Pfeiffer’s president, helped Surratt refine his golf game.

Surratt started his golf career as an outside part-time assistant at the Old North State Club, just a few miles from Pfeiffer. Initially, he wanted to use his long driving ability to help him make it to the PGA Tour. He later decided his future was in being in the drive-for-show league.

"My career goal is to win the World Championship," says Surratt. "That would be like jumping from single A ball to the big leagues in one swing."

His idol is his good friend Jason Zubak.

"Jason's a great person," Surratt says. "His work ethic and his mental discipline are superior to anyone else on our tour. He's our Tiger Woods."

Long drivers are generally pretty big guys with nicknames to match. Dan "The Stick" Scardina is 6-10 and uses a 65-inch driver (standard driver is 45 inches). Two-time and current World Champ Sean "The Beast" Fister is a former javelin thrower and pole vaulter at the University of Florida. Zubak is called "Golfzilla" but, at 5-10 and 228 pounds, is one of the smaller pros.

Surratt is a 6-foot, 200-pounder and is called "The Kid" by the other players. Being called "The Kid" isn't quite as intimidating as being "The Beast" or "Golfzilla," so how does he hit it out there with the big boys?

"My prime asset is my flexibility," explains Surratt. "Some have more strength, some have better swings. I have a bigger shoulder turn."

Surratt's flexibility may have been God-given, but he has worked hard to enhance his gift. He began working in the spring of 2000 with Sonny Gotro, Doctor of Chiropractic Sports Medicine, and George Maory, a professional trainer. They are located in Charlotte and have developed an exercise program for serious golfers called Performance Golf.

Gotro and Maory did a 2 1/2 hour evaluation that eventually included 3-D imaging to find out what muscles were firing on Surratt's swing, and if some were out of sequence. Once they completed their evaluation, they put him on a six days-a-week, one-to-two-hours a day program that emphasized flexibility, building the supportive muscles, core strength and balance.

"The abs (he calls them the core strength) are the current wave in golf exercise," says Surratt. "The abs connect the upper body with the lower body. You can get out of sequence and lose timing if one part of your body is stronger than the other. The upper and lower body are connected by the abs, and they have to be just as strong, too."

In addition to physical exercise, Surratt's training includes hitting golf balls. He'll practice six days a week during his season (March through early November).

He hits about 300 balls a day with about 90 percent of those being iron shots to develop timing. He'll hit 30 to 40 drives normally, but before tournaments, a lot more.

In addition to the physical (strength and flexibility) and technical (swing), Surratt puts a lot of emphasis on the mental preparation.

"The mental aspect is huge," he says. "It is easy to psych yourself out. You have to believe you can win. I can't be hitting balls next to Jason Zubak and say to myself I can't beat him. This is the biggest hump to get over. Hit the right shot if the wind is with you or against you. Find a way to win."

Everyone asks Surratt what club and ball he uses. His driver head is a Stiletto 320 with six degrees loft. His Accuflex shaft is 48" long, XXXX stiff flex. In competition, all participants use the same ball, the Pinnacle Titanium Extreme. Otherwise, Brent likes the Titliest Pro V1.

Besides the professional long drive tournaments, Surratt keeps busy getting his Masters of Business Administration degree at Pfeiffer, and doing outings and clinics. Zubak calls him a "great entertainer."

An outing usually includes a number of trick shots. These include hitting from a three-foot long tee (being a former baseball player helps), driving a ball through two 3/8" sheets of plywood placed back-to-back, using a 1 1/2 foot club and also hitting balls with a "whippy club," one whose shaft is like rubber.

Last summer, he did an outing for a charity fund-raiser at the Old North State Club. Teams could buy his drive on the par-5 18th hole, a tough dogleg left with Badin Lake bordering the fairway. Brent simply drove over the lake, a 330-yard carry, and turned one of the state's great par-5s into a wedge second shot.