American Golf and Callaway welcomed Europe’s strongest Long Drive field to Chester Racecourse on Thursday to do battle for the 2018 American Golf U.K. Long Drive Championships.
American Golf and Callaway welcomed Europe’s strongest Long Drive field to Chester Racecourse on Thursday to do battle for the 2018 American Golf U.K. Long Drive Championships.
Now in its fourth year, the American Golf U.K. Long Drive Championship has established itself as the premier Long Drive Championship in Europe, and this year was hotly contested with a field comprising Europe’s elite long drivers and returning American Golf championship favourites, as well as plenty of new long drive stars in the making. In this year's final at Chester Racecourse, it was Sweden's Emil Rosberg (Under 45), Ireland’s William Hunt Tyrell Over 45), and Scotland’s Ilona Stubley (Ladies) who took the titles in their respective categories.
In the Ladies category, 2015 & 2016 winner, Rebecca McGinley, and 2017 Champion, Ilona Stubley, were met with strong competition from youngsters Olivia Rael Brook and Abbi Gallagher Rowlands. As the four lined up in the semi-finals, Ilona hit an enormous drive of 290 yards to beat 16-year-old Abbi, who was competing for her 4th consecutive year, whilst Rebecca eliminated Olivia from the competition with a similar drive 290 yards.
The final was a tense affair, to say the least with Ilona looking to match Rebecca’s record of back to back U.K. titles- a feat she managed after drives of 296-283 in 2015 and 300-292 in 2016. Ilona showed remarkable consistency all day but waited until the final to really shine, pulling out her longest drive of the day into a slight headwind to take the win. After leaving the stage, Ilona was delighted with her achievement, commenting "I’m very pleased. I think it means more to me winning this one than last year."
"Last year was such a whirlwind between qualifying and getting to the final but this year I’ve put a lot more work into it and with the help of my trainer, Alex at Golf Fit, I’ve come in so well prepared."
On her prospects for the World Championships, Ilona continued, “I’m going to keep on working in the next month leading up to the World Championships, in the gym and hitting balls. I can’t wait to get there though. Last year I didn’t know what to expect, but now I know what the competition is about and I’m definitely a lot better and stronger.“
In their first year of sponsorship of the event, Callaway were integral to the success of the championships, with so many players using Callaway Jailbreak technology to unlock their distance potential and even two of the three titles being claimed using Callaway clubs by Emil and Ilona.
Keep an eye out for the championship final when it's shown on Sky Sports in October this year. The American Golf U.K. Long Drive Championship is part of American Golf’s drive to get more people hitting more balls, more often. And this year, those Callaway balls have been going a very long way!
Read more reactions to the tournament’s results which you can find here.
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